The Second Calling

This beautifully-written novel is based on the life and work of Jean Vanier as the founder and leader of the communities of L'Arche. The fictional story it tells seeks to show the distinctiveness of L'Arche as a spiritual community grounded in the recognition of a shared vulnerability of human beings. The novel tells the interwoven stories of the residents of the House of Bethany, a small community in a little village near Seville. They live together as people with and without disabilities in order to celebrate the life that God has given them.The story begins with the arrival of Jonathan, a young American who has left home to escape the life his father had designed for him.
Through Jonathan we meet other members of the community, all 'battered souls' in different ways: Lucie, a 'flittering bird', without speech and with only very little understanding; Fernando, a young man whose abandonment by his father left him speechless; Joaquin Morales, a blind boy who was found living alone in the streets of Seville; Sofia, wheelchair-bound yet living her life in agony to make her mother proud; and the community's founder Ramon, whose understanding of what the House of Bethany really means only becomes apparent when he is forced to re-evaluate his own life.