I Like Big Cups and I Cannot Lie

Greetings, dear friends!

Our L'Arche journey continued this fine Tuesday with a lovely trip to visit the community of Toronto (and coffee of course)!

We were privileged to spend the day with the Sol Express, a day program offered to Core Members both living in and outside of the L'Arche homes. Sol Express is a program that cultivates creative expression as a means to interact with the world and build community, and the groups on Mondays and Tuesdays focuses on acting. We were impressed with their collective accomplishments, and they told us about how they perform at the Toronto Fringe Festival every July, and were beginning preparations for the upcoming play season. Our time at Sol Express was filled with a variety of activities, including an introduction activity in which we introduced a new friend to the group after briefly interviewing each other and some improv games. Overall, we greatly enjoyed getting to know the participants at Sol Express, and encountering them in such a unique way through their creativity and artistry. 


Sr. Carmen even met a fellow Austrian!

To conclude our day program experience, we were joined by none other than the famous Fr. George, who lead us in a beautiful recap and reflection of our day, along with some of our community partners from Toronto. We then split off into groups and ate dinner in three of the different L'Arche Toronto homes. Though it should no longer surprise us, we continue to be incredibly moved by the profound welcoming and hospitality we receive from the Core Members and Assistants. Many of us were greeted by welcoming signs created by the CMs before even walking through the door! When we finally had to depart for Hamilton, we left knowing we were leaving friends.

One theme we entered into a bit more deeply today than before was that of the hardships and wounds that persons with disabilities often have from mistreatment by society, both previous and current, and especially through institutions. This topic came up first at Sol Express, as they are researching for their play about the institutions, and also came up in conversations throughout the evening. We reflected on how, though the Core Members we encounter are often so joyful and bring so much life to those around them, many of them carry a lot of suffering as well. This realization, rather than putting a damper on our experiences, helped us to more fully appreciate the depths of L'Arche and the complexity of humanity.

Tune in tomorrow to hear about our Hamiltonian friends at the day program! :)

~Mary Margaret