Celebrating L’Arche and Sr. Sue Mosteller, CSJ, OC
Introduction by Joe Egan
This year 2024 marks the 55th anniversary of L’Arche Daybreak in Richmond Hill, Ontario and L’Arche in Canada, and the 60th anniversary of the founding of L’Arche in Trosly, France. Over this time L’Arche has changed for the better the lives of thousands of people, with and without an intellectual disability around the world, providing for them new opportunities for growth, enrichment and support. Today, there are nearly 160 L’Arche communities in thirty-seven countries. There is much to celebrate and be grateful for.
This commemorative online exhibition, organized by the staff of the Special Collections Department of the John M. Kelly Library, highlights the impact and significance of the specific contribution and leadership of Sr. Sue Mosteller to the growth and development of L’Arche Daybreak, L’Arche across Canada and around the world for over 50 years.
Sue, now retired at 91, has been a teacher, writer, retreat giver, storyteller, leader, spiritual guide, speaker, mentor, and friend. She has touched the lives of many and has been warmly received by countless audiences and individuals who recognize her as a companion on the same human and spiritual search for meaning and truth in a very messy world. This has certainly been true for me personally. Sue welcomed me to L’Arche Daybreak over fifty years ago. Our lives have been interwoven ever since in friendship and in our common mission in L’Arche.
The L’Arche Audiovisual Collection at the Kelly Library contains, in part, 1,800 audio tapes and reels, including many talks by Sue. A small, vintage selection of these talks from the 1980s and 1990s has been digitized and are available through this exhibit for you to enjoy. As you listen to any one of Sue’s talks, given to various L’Arche groups, please keep in mind that our world and L’Arche have changed over these past many years. Although some of her language or thought may seem dated given today’s reality, Sue’s clarity of vision, her passion for the mission of L’Arche and her wisdom of heart still shine brightly and have the power to inspire us.
Since my retirement seven years ago, I have been volunteering weekly at the Kelly Library, working with the L’Arche Collections. I am convinced that these audio tapes are a hidden treasure. Most of the talks, given by a wide variety of people, still need to be digitized, which I hope will happen in the coming months. This will allow more people to be nourished by the gift of many others who, like Sue, have also contributed so much to building L’Arche together and a more just and welcoming world for all over these past 60 years.
May Sue’s talks and example encourage and challenge us to be faithful to our own calling in life, whatever that may be.
Joe Egan,
L’Arche Toronto
Welcome by James Roussain
The John M. Kelly Library wishes to congratulate the L’Arche communities on the occasion of their 60th anniversary, and the 55th anniversary of the L’Arche Daybreak community and on behalf of the library and the wider University of St. Michael’s College community, I would like to welcome you to the exhibition site prepared to mark these important anniversaries.
The L’Arche communities maintain an extraordinary legacy of caring and compassion. It is our hope with this exhibition to tell some of the story of small triumphs and lived experience that has enriched the lives of those affiliated with the L’Arche movement over the course of the organization’s history, in what we might now call the post-founder era. There are many stories to tell about an organization with the worldwide impact that L’Arche has had.
The special collections at the John M. Kelly Library contain important archival records for the L’Arche Daybreak community, extensive audiovisual records that document L’Arche internationally, and the administrative archives of L’Arche Canada, among other records. I hope you will enjoy our commemorative exhibition that focuses on the important contributions of Sister Sue Mosteller and a selection of her talks, but this is one story among many that could be and will be told in the years to come. I would like to thank members of L’Arche Daybreak and L’Arche Toronto communities for reviewing the content of this exhibition and especially acknowledge the contributions of our cherished longtime volunteer Joe Egan in spearheading this initiative. Finally, I offer sincere thanks to Sheila Eaton, Digital and Graphic Design Manager, for her web design work, and Teresa Wong, Digital Archivist, and Simon Rogers, Archivist, for organizing and preparing this exhibition. We welcome your feedback and invite future researchers to explore these collections beyond the small sample we have presented on these pages.
Welcome.
James Roussain
William D. Sharpe Chief Librarian and Director of Special Collections
