Jean Vanier is the founder of l'Arche, an international network of more than 100 communities in 30 countries for people with intellectual disabilities. He is the author of Community and Growth and From Brokenness to Community. This paperback consists of talks given on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) radio series "Ideas." The focus is upon "the liberation of the human heart from the tentacles of chaos and loneliness, and from those fears that provoke us to exclude and reject others."

Vanier has learned how to be and to share with others in his association with those who have been marginalized from the normal life of society. People with disabilities have taught him about the deep ache of loneliness that is "a taste of death." They have enabled him to appreciate the marvels of belonging where one can grow to love others while discovering their strengths and weaknesses.

"Jesus led people into a vision of our common humanity," writes Vanier. He identified with the lost and the lonely; today, Jesus challenges us "to ally ourselves with the excluded." This path of the heart is the gateway to true freedom. Vanier concludes this simple but profound meditation on the process of becoming human with a three-gun salute to the healing powers of forgiveness.