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Our Expectations
Parents expect a lot of their children. Spouses expect a lot of one another. At L’Arche the house leader expects a lot of a new assistant. If we create an image of somebody, and if they do not live up to that image, we feel deceived and tend to reject them. Is that not what happens when a mother gives birth to a little baby with a disability? He is not the baby she dreamed of, so she has difficulty accepting him. Communion is rooted in reality, not in dreams or illusions. We cannot enter into communion with somebody unless we accept them as they really are.
- Jean Vanier, Our Journey Home, p.79