Jean Vanier’s Five Principles of Humanity

Principle 1 – All humans are sacred, whatever their culture, race, religion, whatever their capacities and incapacities, whatever their strengths and weaknesses may be. All of us need help in order to become all that we may be. For example, if we are going through a hard time in our life, we need all the help we can get in order to find ourselves. We are all sacred and shouldn’t be treated differently for anything about us.

Principle 2 – Our world and our individual lives are in the process of evolving – how we think about the way we looked at things in the past, and learning about how those things in the past live in the future. Things like peace, love, unity, and especially the necessity of forgiveness.

Principle 3 – Maturity comes through working with others – we have to belong and find each other.

Principle 4 – Humans need to be encouraged to make choices – we need to become responsible for ourselves and for the lives of others as well.

Principle 5 – In order to make choices, we need to reflect and to seek truth and meaning – We need to stay connected to our reality and what’s going on in our world. We need to accept ourselves and others as we and they are.