Our practice aims to free our hearts from the fears that provoke us to exclude and reject others. It is based on an understanding that everyone, fundamentally,  wishes to be happy,  and at the same time everyone’s heart is wounded. So we all hope for peace and connection,  but are at the same time frightened of love:

We human beings are all fundamentally the same. We all belong to a common broken humanity. We all have wounded, broken hearts. Each one of us needs to feel appreciated and understood; we all need help. Every child, every person needs to know that they are a source of joy; every child, every person, needs to be celebrated. Only when all of our weaknesses are accepted as part of our humanity can our negative, broken self-images be transformed.  Fear closes us down; Love opens us up.

Jean Vanier, Becoming Human

The fear of showing our vulnerability leads us to hide because we do not want others to see our interior poverty: To have our ‘poverty’ seen by others and ‘our profound vulnerability’ touched by them, makes us fear that we will be abandoned….We must be honest with ourselves and acknowledge an important truth: I am not superior to you, I am not better than you, I am like you. I have frailty, my limitations which, perhaps, I have often hidden; you have limitations, perhaps more visible, but behind your limitations you are a person, your heart is.

Jean Vanier, Speech, Rome 2006