November 2008 The Road to Daybreak A Spiritual Journey by Henri J M Nouwen

Continue from ...... Meeting Michael The Daybreak community is much larger than I had imagined. At the farm, about a thirty-minute drive from downtown Toronto, there are three homes for handicapped people and their assistants. The same land holds the homes of the assistant director, the farm manager, and their families. There is also a large, newly built meeting house, a carpenter's shop, and a large barn. The Daybreak community also includes three homes in the town of Richmond Hill and two in Toronto. The whole community - handicapped people, assistants, and staff - adds up to about eighty persons. I am living at the "Green House" on the farm, a spacious house for six handicapped people and their assistants. It feels very good to be part of their daily life. Although all the handicapped people do some form of work during the day, they can never be left alone. This became dramatically clear with Michael, a very beautiful young man who suffers from frequent epileptic seizures. Even though he has regular medical care and takes all the necessary medication, he is often overcome by spasmodic attacks that can cause him serious injury. Tonight at the swimming pool in town, when he was left for a minute, he had a seizure, fell and hit his head on the concrete floor, and had to be taken to the hospital. Happily enough, his wound was not very serious and he could come home again soon. In his slow, stuttering voice, he asked me to pray for him. After we had prayed for a while together, he gave me a big hug , and a wonderful smile. Then he told me that he would like to help me say Mass and wear a red stole as I do. Michael may well be much closer to God than I am, and I will surely give him something to wear that makes him aware of how special he is. Praying for Rose After dinner tonight a few of the community went to the chapel to pray for Rose. Rose is a twenty-two-year-old woman but looks like a fourteen-year-old girl, very thin, fragile, very wounded, but exceedingly beautiful. She cannot speak and can hardly walk, but she is a source of joy for all those who are close to her, especially for Mary, who assists her during the day. Rose has suddenly become very ill and will soon need an operation. So we gathered around a candle and a red rose. Mary showed us some lovely slides of Rose, and then we all prayed for her. When handicapped people pray for handicapped people, God comes very near. The simplicity, directness, and intimacy of their prayer often make me feel like a skeptical bystander. I even feel a certain jealousy of their special gift of prayer. But they do not want me to be jealous. They hugged and kissed me after the prayer, and Michael took me by the hand to the sacristy to show me the red stole he wants to wear. Lord, give me a heart like these people have so that I may understand more fully the depth of your love. Slow Together Is Better Than Fast Alone! During the meeting of the long-term assistants, Nick, who works with four handicapped men in the wood shop, spoke about his joys and frustrations. He explained how hard it is to do a job well and at the same time keep the needs of the handicapped men uppermost in mind. He wants to become a skillful and efficient carpenter, but realizes that the products of his work are less important than the growing self-esteem of the men he works with. This requires a lot of patience and a willingness to let others do slowly what you yourself can do rapidly. It means always choosing work in which people much less capable than yourself can participate. It asks for a deep inner conviction that a slow job done together is better than a fast job done alone. Nick told us how long it had taken him to come to this insight. At first he had been primarily concerned about learning the skills of carpentry from Joe, the director of the wood shop. He was very excited about learning a new trade. But then he came to see that his skills were meant not just to make blackboards, play blocks, and coat hangers for kindergartens, but also and above all to help four handicapped people grow in human dignity and self-reliance.

- To Be Continued - © Copyright Shalom 2008. All rights reserved.