  "A community is never there for itself. It belongs to something greater: to the poor, to humanity, to the church, to the universe. It is a gift, a witness to offer to all. The community, those with whom we live, is only a starting point, to enable our hearts to open to this universal dimension.
Community has no sense unless it is seen with its roots, its branches and its fruit. Community can appear to be a marvelously welcoming and sharing place. But in another way, community is a terrible place. It is the place where our limitations and our egoism's are revealed to us. While we were alone, we could believe we loved everyone. Now that we are with others, we realize how incapable we are of loving, how much we deny life to others. " Jean Vanier "Solitude is essential to community life because in solitude we grow closer to each other.
In solitude we discover each other in a way which physical presence makes difficult, if not impossible. There we recognize a bond with each other that does not depend on words, gestures or actions and that is deeper and stronger than our own efforts can create. Solitude and community belong together; each requires the other as do the center and circumference of a circle. Solitude without community hurls us into a void of words and feelings. " Henri Nowen 
