News from L’Arche Chicago Spring 2014

OH BOY, what can I say? I don’t remember how many times I’ve gone, to tell you the truth. The first time I went was right after I moved in. Steve was there. That time we drove a long way, all the way down to Mobile. Now we spend a night in St. Louis. I went once with Phil, another time with Justin, Anne, and Catie. This January, Colleen, Elisha, Tim, and Catie all went. First we drove to L’Arche St. Louis. Justin, Andy, Maria, Pauline, Chip and Jim hosted us overnight. We left the next morning on our way to Mobile. I don’t want to jump into what happened to the van…it broke down in Mississippi, so we got help, and our L’Arche friends stayed with us until it was fixed. Since it was already after 10pm when we arrived in Mobile, and we left St. Louis at 5 in the morning, we went straight to bed. Boy, that was a long drive! On Saturday, we dropped in to visit our friends from L’Arche Mobile. I remember Peggy, she and I both like Johnny Cash. I really liked walking through their neigh-borhood between each of the houses. We had lunch with many friends from around the Central Region (Jack-sonville, Clinton, Atlanta, Heartland and St. Louis) at the Seton Center. That afternoon, I rested some more, but some people went to Dauphin Island. One year, we

Encounter • Celebrate • Belong

got to go to a Mardi Gras parade! Colleen, Tim, and I walked around downtown Mobile before supper. We got to spend more time with friends from Mobile at the pre-race meal. They served spaghetti, and I took a picture with the Azalea Trail maids, who dress like

Southern Belles. Sunday was the marathon. Elisha, Catie, Tim, and Colleen were part of the Central Region relay teams. I joined them at the finish line and had a lot of fun cheering on the runners. We all got handmade medals from the core members in Mobile and took a picture by the finish line. That evening we went to dinner at the ‘fish place’, Felix’s Fish Camp. The last few years we’ve gone there to celebrate after the mara-thon. Elisha and I really like that the waiters come in and serve everyone together. We had to leave early on Monday to drive back. Our friend Nick joined us. We had lunch at a nice deli in Memphis before driving to St. Louis. They had a great soup supper for us and we

got to sing songs and talk about the trip. After a relaxed breakfast, we drove back home to Interfaith and Angel Houses, and had to get ready to go back to work. It was a great trip and I can’t wait to start training for next year!

My Trip to Mobileby Mike Marino, Core Member at Interfaith House

Many of us in L’Arche just finished celebrating Easter. It’s the day in

which we remember Christ’s triumph over death–the grave is empty,

Christ is risen, love has won! There is new life (a tangible reality for my

wife Shinae and me in the birth of our first child this Easter!). Many

Christians also live Easter as a season. A season of darkness, doubt,

light, and faith. Don’t these seemingly conflicting realities mirror our

experiences so well? In my own experience, it’s often in

moments of darkness that I most clearly see the light.

It’s a part of what we’re doing in our community–

revealing the gifts of people who have been wounded

and rejected. And what gifts they are! Elbert and I

recently went out shopping for a new smoke detector.

We rode together in quiet contentment. At the store,

when I balked at the price of a smoke detector ($50!),

Elbert simply said, you gotta do it, and laughed.

On our way home, we stopped for some french fries

and soda when Elbert began sharing his journey to

L’Arche with me, being sure to credit the man above

for bringing him to where he is now. I’ll do whatever

he asks, the man above, I’ll do it, he said with conviction

you can’t fake.

What a gift of faith. A faith that knows–whether in

the monotonous tasks of buying a smoke detector, or

in the existential tasks of making life’s decisions–you

gotta do it.

This is where the season of Easter ends–at

Pentecost where Christ’s spirit is poured out upon us.

We are filled with a deep knowing, of Christ in each

of us. In this conviction, of the deep worth and value

of each person, we ground our shared life in L’Arche. Let’s live this call

together. Come visit our homes, get to know our community members,

and consider partnering with us financially to help us continue to be a

sign of new life in Chicago.

In Easter knowing,

Mic

From the Director’s Deskby Mic Altena, Executive Director/Community Leader L’ARCHE INAUGURAL

A N N O U N C I N G T H E

Please join us on June 2, 2014 for the Inaugural L’Arche Golf Classic to be held at Ivanhoe Country Club in Ivanhoe, IL. This is a great opportunity to increase the awareness of L’Arche in a great setting for networking between members of our community in Chicago who will attend the event and the generous supporters of our inaugural event. If you haven’t signed up to play please contact John Smith, our development director at 708-660-1600 or john@larchechicago.org, You will very much enjoy the golf and be inspired by the community. We’ve been extremely fortunate to have two of Wintrust Corporations banks: Libertyville Bank and Trust and Lake Forest Bank as our title sponsors. The relationship between L’Arche and Wintrust hails back to the founding of L’Arche Chicago with our original financial support being put in place for our first home at Lake Forest Bank. Ed Wehmer, the founder of Lake Forest Bank and now CEO of Wintrust, will be honored at the dinner with the Spirit of L’Arche award. His co-honoree will be Bishop Raymond Goedert who blessed our first home in Chicago. This is a wonderful example strategic partnership which can occur at the intersection of business, religious and non-profit coming together to meet a growing social need across Chicago and the rest of the United States. This is the catalyst for bringing more people into the spirit of L’Arche which has the ability to affect those who live and visit our communities to create a unique opportunity to “become more human” as described in our founder’s, Jean Vanier, book of the same name. Jean was just honored by Pope Francis at the Vatican on March 21, 2014 on the 50th anniversary of the founding of L’Arche International. Jean’s life’s work has culminated in what is now an ever-increasing International Federation of 145 communities in 40 countries providing communities for those with and without disabilities to live together in harmony for their mutual benefit and for the benefit of the rest of the world to see how relationships like theirs is a sign to the rest of us to transform a better world at large.Come experience for yourself the Spirit of L’Arche and contact John Smith. Thanks so much. by John Biggs, L’Arche Chicago Golf Committee Chairperson

WRITING ON THIS HOLY THURSDAY, the day of our community’s celebration of the Jewish Passover and of the New Passover of the Lord’s Sup-per, I find myself particularly aware of God’s abundant mercy. For us, God is the living Hope (a well-spring of Mercy) in which our community believes, be it through the Law and the Prophets, veiled in the Promise of the Old Covenant or, as we Christians proclaim, revealed in Jesus, the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, Jesus the Son, Himself, the Promise. Perhaps, by way of introduction, I will begin in sharing my own journey to L’Arche which begins, really, in the mystery of a Promise (Phil 1:6). This work of God, to which Paul makes reference in this verse from his letter to the Philippians and in which I especially identify, is for me, ultimately, a call to servant-hood, to Sonship, always remembering that this work is not my own, but in humility and truth, I am called to docility, transpar-ency, and trust. I first look back more than 15 years, when I was working in a couple of group homes for people with developmental disabilities in Indianapolis. In this resi-dential setting, I began to hear a calling: “education.” Simultaneously, I would also begin listen to an even deeper calling and, in the midst of my spiritual seeking, receive a special grace of Faith, beginning to recognize and follow my Light and my Love, Jesus. Following Jesus “wherever He goes” (Rev. 14:4), right away, was a challenge. Are you a follower of Jesus? One of my first ecclesial fathers was a young man named Chris. He began to teach me about Sacred Scripture and folks like Augustine, Bonhoeffer, and Jean Vanier. He oriented me well in the beginning of my new journey of Faith.

I further reflected on my own philosophy of educa-tion, listening to Paulo Freire, Frantz Fanon, Parker Palmer, Stanley Hauerwas, Victor Frankl, and so many others. I would then first begin to realize through aca-demics, private studies, and meditation that a calling in “education” would become much more contemplative as I sought to understand my perception of this deeper reality (Truth). I met some of the Focolare in India-napolis in 2003, a world-wide unity movement. As I was finishing a term of AmeriCorps service at the Peace Learning Center and finishing my M.A. in Philanthropic Studies through the IU Center on Philanthropy studying the history and significance of Catholic charity, an even more extraordinary gift of understanding would be revealed: the unity & universality of the Church which, of course, originates in the Heart of Jesus, appeared to manifest herself (the Church) in a very unusual way for me. I had a few simple questions on the ‘where’ of the Church, and had been meditating on the idea of the Communion of Saints, and only having heard of this concept in the “Catholic Church” (I really had no idea what this was), I picked up the Catechism of the Catholic Church and…wait, I’m a Christian. I love Jesus. I see unity in our fellowship here and above. Oh, boy. I was Catholic! I, of course, had to struggle with some par-ticular aspects of the Faith (we all do no matter what we believe!) but, yes, I am Catholic (which simply means, ‘universal’). So, that’s me. I believe God, who is Love, is a universal calling for man. Wrestling with this calling, I have certainly come to recognize a need for balance between the spiritual and the practical. I’m learning this especially in marriage! You’ll often hear me talk about Jessica, my wife. She and I live a happy unity which God saw before way be-fore we did! We met in the Fall of 2005, which ended up to become quite a year: Confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church in March, graduated in May, finished serving the Peace Learning Center through AmeriCorps in July, and started to discern a vocation (to remain celibate or to marry) and, finally, accepted my first big position as Development & Communications Director at Wisconsin Badger Camp, a summer-camp for people with develop-mental disabilities. Power-packed! After about 18 months serving WBC, I really felt a deep calling to make a more intentional gift of my Faith and was asked to restructure an entire PreK – 12th grade program of Catholic religious education. And, further, encouraging my deep love of servant-hood, in 2009, after prayerfully discerning a vocation to the

Permanent Diaconate, my wife and I took a leap of faith and moved out to Denver as I sought to enter the seminary. Though God had other plans! As part of our ‘Wild West’ surprise, I ended up working in the oilfield for 18 months. 115 hour weeks working outside carrying heavy iron piping and thousands of pounds of pressure, sun up to sun down or sun down to sun up, my world became so different and so unlike anything I had ever experienced before. Coming back to the Madison in 2012 and hoping to reunite with many missed friends and family, I started by working at an international nonprofit serving orphanages in Peru, Honduras, India, and West Africa. It was a very special role in development given the breadth of the mission. I was also happily re-united with

my dear friends of the Community of St. John. There’s a monastery just north of Peoria, here in Illinois. The first community was founded in France in 1975 by Fr. Marie-Domin-ique Philippe, O.P. (yes, the brother of Fr. Thomas Philippe, O.P.!) and has been at the core of my Christian voca-tion. We receive St. John as our father with Mary as our Mother (see photo

of the golden mosaic from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception which is down-stairs at Our Lady of Ephesus, where St. John lived in a little home with Mary after the Resurrection) and hope to live an even more evangelical life (in the spirit of the Evangelical Counsels) in the heart of Mary through Faith, Hope, and Charity. Now back in the Midwest, Jessica, who’s both a writer and comedienne, started a comedy writing program, commuting every week, at the Second City. And so, after many months of commuting down to Chicago in 2012, we concluded: we’ve just gotta move!

Living in Lincoln Square (a very charming neighbor-hood), I began searching and searching for work while my wife managed several free-lance projects and taking classes. Last year, I quickly discovered the fact that there’s a L’Arche community (this being the first time I’ve ever lived in a city with a L’Arche community!) and I continued to pray and discern how I ought to be involved, remaining open. Then, on January 1st 2014, the feast of Mary, Mother of God (whose icon you will see at my office desk), I began my servant-hood as Development & Outreach Coordinator at L’Arche Chicago. I tell anyone who asks, “This is my dream job!” I don’t know how to put it any other way! I’m so thankful and pray daily for everyone in and among our community. Rejoice! Alleluia! May the Lord lead you to joyfully live His mystery of Peace in the world today (Phil 4:4).

Following the LambwhereverHe goes

by John Smith Development & Outreach Coordinator

“Last year, I quickly discovered the fact that there’s a L’Arche community (this being the first time I’ve ever lived in a city with a L’Arche community!) and I continued to pray and discern how I ought to be involved...”

This past February, some members of L’Arche Chicago drove over 119 miles to visit friends and re-visit a long-standing tradition. This annual trip to the River House, a retreat cottage near Clinton, IA, started as a week-end getaway when the community was much younger and all its members could go. Now, it has become a much-anticipated event for some of the community’s founders. This year, Christianne, Elbert, and Jean, along with Catie and Olivia, made the trek at the invitation of our friend, Maria Zeimen, OSF. As Elbert states: “It wasn’t my first time being there; I’ve gone there so many years.” The cottage provided a beautiful view of the Mississippi and of the bald eagles overwin-tering there. Equipped with binoculars and her bear hat, Jean expertly spotted these birds as they circled the gray skies. And while bird watching was the favorite, Elbert and Jean also fondly recalled walking down the gravel road along the Mississippi, telling stories about the past, and enjoying the brisk February air. It was indeed a beautiful setting, and a welcome break from the daily grind in Chicago. This was perhaps one of the biggest gifts: a moment to slow down. With this time came the opportunity to reconnect with friends and build new relationships. Saturday evening, we were so kindly hosted by Arch I and Arch II, and invited to share in a meal and prayer. And for Sunday brunch, we enjoyed the hospitality of the Clinton Franciscans at the Canticle! Then it was time to hit the road and re-join our Chicago community, while singing along to Dolly Parton and Michael Jackson on the ride back! We look forward to re-connecting with our good friends in Iowa again next year.

River HouseTripby Catie Norcott & Olivia Myers

L’Arche’s International Reflection CouncilTim Stone & John Cook InterviewBy Ellen Eischen, L’Arche USA Development and Communications

Tim Stone, Core Member at L’Arche Chicago, and John Cook, Community Leader at L’Arche Greater Washington, DC, traveled to Switzerland together last November as members of the

L’Arche International Reflection Council. The main theme of the meeting was Servant Leadership, a priority in L’Arche International’s current mandate. Ellen Eischen had the opportunity recently to interview both John and Tim about their experience.Ellen: What is the purpose and role of the International Reflection Council?John: The International Reflection Council is made up of people from different parts of the International Federation of L’Arche and includes persons with and without intellectual disabilities who are actively engaged in community life. The council provides recommendations and advice to the International Leader and Vice International Leader on certain topics. The role of the council is important, as it draws in people who ordinarily might not be involved with international leadership, into seeing that they have something important to offer. Ellen: What were important themes of discussion at the meeting?John: The international leaders presented the topic of Servant Leadership. There were introductory talks, and to elicit our reflections they also asked our responses to questions, and even certain words. We could answer verbally, through acting it out, or drawing. The feedback from the core people had a striking impact on the group. They talked about the importance of being included in decision-making that directly affects them. They shared examples from their own experience, from their daily life. Tim: I talked about how in America, we really recognize and encourage the core members to share with others what they need and want. In my home, core members

take turns cooking dinner every day with an assistant. Today Anne asked me what I would like to make for dinner on Wednesday. She said it was up to me. I will make a vegetarian lasagna. On Friday, I am easy-going, and I leave it open to Anne. Another example is that my community asked me what I thought when they were considering buying a new home for L’Arche Chicago.Ellen: What do you think emerged from this meeting of the International Reflection Council?John: It re-emphasized the importance of listening in every aspect of community life and leadership.Servant Leadership is: leadership that increases unity, is willing to listen, go slow, build from the bottom up; take steps without being able to see very far ahead; be open to the unexpected, even to create conditions that look for the unexpected; discern how call and direction emerge through the unexpected; and welcome weakness within the leader, the community body, and the society and culture. A committee will be continuing to work on the topic of Servant Leadership and the implementation of its practice in L’Arche. I hope that this takes us (L’Arche USA) more towards seeing ourselves as a unified body and being willing to subordinate our individual and individual community perspectives, to be humble, and to look to the common good. Tim: Solidarity is very important. It is a part of L’Arche and a part of human life. It is important to have it, and it is really nice that it is inter-faith. I am not Jewish myself, but a few people in our community are Jewish. We talk about solidarity, community life, and living as a family. I wish that America could have more L’Arche com-munities all over like in Canada and all over Europe. There are a lot of people who would like to have this type of life. It is life together, more like a family. Yeah, there are disagreements, but I get along with almost everybody in my community. Many are my best friends. I would drop anything to help them. I love the life.

CommunityHighlightsSpring Spruce-up!

Volunteers joined together on April 12th for a wonderful day of fellowship during our first-ever Spring Spruce-Up at Angel and Interfaith Houses

Marist High School – Disability Awareness Week Panel Discussion featuring Tim Stone & John Smith

Participants included Nora Lipetzky, (5th from left) who organized the week-long event and was a guest at L’Arche during the summer of 2013 through the Peacebuilders Initiative

Welcome!

L’Arche Chicago welcomes newest board member Fr. Greg Helminksi, who wasted no time by pitching in our Spring Spruce-up

Happy Anniversary!

Alison, Christianne, & John at Christianne’s joyous anniversary celebration

PRSRT STDU.S.Postage

PAIDOak Park, IL

Permit No. 124

L’Arche Chicago1011 Lake Street, Suite 403Oak Park, Illinois 60301www.larchechicago.org

L’Arche Board of DirectorsAnthony Suarez-Abraham, PresidentJoe Koller, TreasurerHelen Mendoza, SecretaryDonn RaabeBill SullivanJim RichardsDennis McGuireFr. Greg HelminskiTim AndrianoJoni Mason

Our identityWe are people with and without developmental

disabilities sharing life in communities of faith.

Mutual relationships and trust in God are at the

heart of our life together.

We seek to build a world that recognizes the

unique value of every person and our need for

one another.

For more information contact:

Michael Altena

1011 Lake Street, Suite 403

Oak Park, Illinois 60301

www.larchechicago.org

(708) 660-1600

communityleader@larchechicago.org

www.larchechicago.org

L’ARCHE INAUGURAL

Monday, June 2, 2014 Ivanhoe Country Club

SPONSORED BY

Join us!