Empty chairs on stage, colored cardboard, a few whimsical hats, a stark white backdrop—scattered clues of the dramatizations that Fede e Luce calls mimes, and which, over three days in Pompeii, proved to be splendid opportunities to witness how a community moves to meet each of its precious members.
In the Campania citadel, several Italian communities created beautiful moments of alternative storytelling. Germoglio di Speranza, from Mazara del Vallo, brought to life the characters and gestures in the Magnificat, where the woman playing Mary showed she was fully capable of conveying, through her joyful dance, that sense of gentle wind through which God revealed himself to Elijah (even as that whimsical hat kept insisting on finding positions nobody had planned—or perhaps because of it?). Come un pittore, a Modà song, became the canvas evoked by that text in all its colors and emotions. With simple movements and colored cardboard in the hands of the performers, the group Condivisione from Fidenza made the stage bloom, moving rays of sunlight. From Messina, members of Edelweiss recreated each element of Meb's painting, which later became the association's logo: a churning sea, a boat and its lost but united passengers, gray and white clouds, and the sun breaking through. Every element was used to describe in simple words the many states of heart that each person can recognize as their own, giving voice to each part at play within Fede e Luce communities—parents, people with disabilities, friends.
Finally came the vigil at the shrine. Here the Gospel words lit up the assembly at prayer not only in the candles that, held in our hands, accompanied our entrance into the church, but also through shadows cast on a white cloth. The group from San Pietro di Avenza prepared the animated portion, while the meditations and gestures offered to the assembly were crafted by a friend from Cuneo. Five images of Mary were witnessed, again, through the voices of mothers, fathers, spiritual assistants, friends, and people with disabilities—a multisensory chorus in which voices and bodies expressed the particular variety of gifts and unity of purpose within these communities.
Precious jewels, each of these moments. They embody the attention and care that Mary has taught us since Camille and Gérard sought her at Lourdes with their fragile sons Thaddée and Loïc—more than fifty years ago now—and since Mariangela and Paolo brought their Maria Francesca. The care continues so we can keep singing together in the words of the hymn: "A thousand colors in the canvas of friends that I call community!"