Jean Vanier heard the `silent cry' of two men with mental handicaps and found himself living in the first of the L'Arche communities. He talks to Christiane Mallet-Watteville.

Am I a product of genetics? Circumstances? Upbringing? Or of my own decisions? Probably all four play a part, but I can control my decisions.

A burly cleric in full regalia, who can be seen moving from group to group across the vast field, is approached by a TV technician. Major technical troubles, he says. The national telecast is threatened: will Canon pray?

As I skied, I suddenly became aware of a big hare hopping along in the light snow: It stopped, sat back on its hind legs, pricked up its ears, looked at me, and then hopped on again.

Every time the shelling began we had to take all the patients to the ground floor, lining their beds up along a dark corridor. On top of this, the wounded kept arriving in ambulances. Nearly all were young men under 30.

A short story by Alan Thornhill

Taken hostage? How would you cope?The knock on the door, the knife or bullet, the disappearance,the interrogation - it might happen anywhere, from Irelandto Argentina, in London or Paris as well as Beirut.For Jean Waddell it happened in Tehran. Seven years later she talks about her experiences to 'For A Change'.by Mary Lean

Since he left school and home as a 14-year-old, Reg Blow has tried most things: railway construction, truck driving, boxing, fruit picking, share farming, to name a few.

When I visit our son Dickie, he doesn't say, `Hello, Mother, I'm glad to see you. I wondered if you might come today.' Sometimes I wonder if he thinks these words, even if he is not able to express them.