L’Arche communities around the U.S. are part of 5-year faith storytelling initiative
Bradley Young was excited to feel like he was on TV.
Young sat under the bright lights, clad in a scarlet Cardinals T-shirt with Albert Pujols’ number 5 on the back. As the cameras rolled, director Michael McDonald guided a conversation about faith. How do you define prayer? How would you describe Christianity? Where do you find God’s presence?
God is everywhere, Young answered.
Young is one of several residents of L’Arche St. Louis who shared their thoughts and experiences as part of a national Sacred Stories project with L’Arche USA. L’Arche is an international organization in which people who have intellectual and developmental disabilities — “core members” — live alongside people who don’t, sharing life, friendship and prayer in residential homes.
In December, L’Arche USA received a $4.97 million grant from the Lilly Endowment’s National Storytelling Initiative on Christian Faith and Life. That grant is funding Sacred Stories, a five-year project that plans to produce eight short films, a feature-length compilation, four interview-based videos, 40 original audio prayers and a fully accessible curriculum, as well as host retreats around the country.
L’Arche St. Louis was founded in 2011, and its first home was established in the former convent at Immaculate Conception Parish in Maplewood. The community now has four homes: two in Maplewood, one in Brentwood and one in Webster Groves. While the community is interreligious, it has ties to several parishes, including St. Francis Xavier (College) Church and Seven Holy Founders in Affton, where one core member is a regular altar server.
On the weekend of April 25-26, the film crew was in St. Louis to capture stories from core members, live-in assistants and other members of the wider L’Arche St. Louis community. Kurt Pfeiffer, a core member at Sunrise House in Maplewood, recounted memories of his childhood growing up in a family with eight adopted siblings, his nightly prayer routine and how his faith in God has taught him the value of simply being himself.
Pfeiffer hopes telling his story will help others see their similarities instead of differences, he said.
“I hope they see that we all share — whatever back story we all have — we all share the same goal in a way, and we’re all on earth for a reason,” he said. “We all have a future we’re trying to go toward. My goal is just for people to see we’re all human.”
Paula Kilcoyne, executive director of L’Arche St. Louis, shared about her 30-plus year journey with L’Arche, from living alongside well-known Catholic author Father Henri Nouwen in Toronto to being attentive to the spiritual, physical and mental health of each person in the St. Louis homes.
Catholic social teaching principles are at the heart of L’Arche, she said, which is why she sees so many Catholics — including seminarians and religious — who want to be involved in the community in some way.
“It’s such an expression of valuing the voiceless, the poor, living with those who are most vulnerable and ensuring that their lives have dignity and worth,” she said.
People with intellectual disabilities often have their stories told for them instead of by them, Kilcoyne said. The experiences of people who live alongside them also rarely make the news.
“It’s not glamorous, it’s not front page, but it’s so important,” she said. “When you tell the story, it does touch on other people’s lives. People can relate to it, even if it’s not a L’Arche story. Somewhere, they’ve lived that in their own lives, because it’s just about human suffering and human joy, really, and being together through those times.”
National project
The Sacred Stories project is done in collaboration with L’Arche Greater Washington D.C., the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate and the film company Everable.
By the end of 2026, film director Michael McDonald and the Everable crew will visit nearly all of the 24 local L’Arche communities across the United States. McDonald spent many years with L’Arche before founding Everable, which documents stories of disability and dignity across the world.
The crew takes an inductive approach to the filming, asking honest and hard questions and seeing where the conversation goes, McDonald said.
Our wider culture often doesn’t have a full understanding of the spiritual depth of people with disabilities, he said. “A lot of times it can be oversimplified: either, ‘you can’t be religious, you can’t be an adult in your faith,’ or kind of over-spiritualizing people and not exactly allowing them their own spiritual journey.”
“We really try to throw real hard balls, and we often get just phenomenal answers,” he said.
About one in four people nationwide have a disability, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but church communities typically do not reflect that, Sacred Stories project manager Sarah Moore said. Because of L’Arche’s long history of connection with the Catholic Church and other faith groups, L’Arche can serve as a respected leader in education and exposure on the topic, she said.
As Sacred Stories’ films, curriculum and retreats are launched over the next five years, Moore hopes that faith communities will use the materials to examine how they welcome people of varying abilities.
“Our hope is that we can move the needle a little bit on how churches engage with people with disabilities. Oftentimes, there might be a ministry for people with disabilities, but we’d really love to bring the stories and the gifts and the leadership of people with disabilities into the churches,” Moore said. “…They’re more than people to serve, but they have gifts and leadership to give to their churches and their communities, which is what L’Arche is all about.”
Sacred Stories
Follow L’Arche USA on social media for updates and behind-the-scenes of the Sacred Stories project. Facebook and Instagram: @larcheusa
L’Arche St. Louis
L’Arche St. Louis welcomes all to experience its mission through community nights, educational outreach opportunities or other visits. For more information, visit larchestlouis.org.
