Learning to Receive: Mutual Care as Spiritual Formation in L’Arche Communities

Publication information:

Kuczynski, Paul. 2026. “Learning to Receive: Mutual Care As Spiritual Formation in L’Arche Communities.” in Belonging: Practices of Inclusion in Spiritual Communities, the Academy, and Society. Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA: Harvard Divinity School: Program for the Evolution of Spirituality.

Abstract

How does caring for another person shape you? What about allowing yourself to be cared for? Care work is an ancient human practice, and yet care work remains underexplored as a site of spiritual formation. Rooted in an intersubjective model of care work as practiced in interdependent communities such as L’Arche, this presentation will use personal stories and insights from phenomenology and disability theology to explore how the mutual relationships that are formed through caring for one another can become a place of both personal and communal spiritual growth and transformation.

Presenter Biography

Paul Kuczynski is a PhD student in Formative Education at Boston College, whose research focuses on the intersection of spiritual and moral formation, community-based education, and disability. Prior to studying at Boston College, he shared life with the L’Arche community in Chicago for several years.