The text "His Mercy Endures Forever" (ed. Paoline, 2016) by Benedictine monk Brother Michael Davide guided our vigil.
The way Brother Michael Davide interrogates God's Word stirs personal reflection, invites us to take ownership of Scripture, and builds awareness.
But his text alone was not enough. At Fede e Luce, we place great weight on gesture, on the exchange of relationship, and on fruitful silence. That sensibility pushed us to blend languages so that the vigil—which would draw many people—would be a moment not only of listening but also of doing.
The word "laboratory" contains two meanings: labor in the sense of activity, work, action, and orare in the sense of contemplating, gazing in wonder, praying.
Working in a group opens us to new discovery, to questioning, to speaking about ourselves so that we may find new meanings in ourselves and in our surroundings.
When we put our bodies into play—not just our minds—and discover their vital strength and possible movements, movements often denied or repressed, we arrive at new perspectives. Through "laboring" we can give voice to mental energy that often lies dormant and buried.
The Structure of the Vigil
The vigil opened with an introduction and unfolded across eight points of reflection.
The sequence itself became a stimulus for an "inner laboratory journey" in which we questioned the personal path each of us must walk.
Each moment drew from God's Word in the Old or New Testament.
After the Scripture reading came a reflection drawn from Brother Davide's book, then the moment of sign.
In this phase we acted through nonverbal means to make present and transpose the message we had heard.
The moment of sign was followed by a final listening centered on how to live and embody "Mercy."
Music, song, and inner sound accompanied the deepening within, shaped our "participation," and taught us not to be mere "repeaters" but to hold the silence of ourselves.
The Care of Listening
The vigil-workshop was a way to express ourselves, to weave relationships, to learn, to have experiences, to channel emotion. The "laboratory" dimension, grounded in concrete actions, awakened ways of thinking that reveal new vision, helping us recognize the habits we cling to.
Participants began to experience genuine emotion, tied to their own bodies and voices.
Space and time filled with meanings that our current rhythms of life rarely let us explore. Far from becoming a stage for exaggerated individualism, the vigil's moment of prayer was an occasion to reread God's Word in the shadow of personal experience stirred by the signs and gestures offered.
It became clear that it is possible to be heard, but that we need a "care" for listening to ourselves and a "care" for listening to others—to people and to texts.
All could recognize themselves as part of a larger process, and we could taste the fragrance of the Gospel at work.
A fundamental insight took shape: we cannot educate people to listen to God's Word unless we educate them to emotion. This opens a different attention to the "faith" and "trust" that already live in "latency" within each of us because God has placed them there.
(For the full text of the vigil, email ombreeluci@fedeeluce.it) OL
Introduction: "Jesus walked ahead of them, going up to Jerusalem" (Luke 19:28). You cannot stand by and watch without taking a stand
Sign: Rise from your seat, take a small candle, place it at the feet of the Adoration altar.
- "Lord, is it I?" (Matthew 26:14–25)
To hold your own life in your hands
Sign: Unwind a ball of coarse thread in silence—a symbol of your own life—and ask yourself about your inner knots. - Like Mary of Bethany (John 12:1–11)
Do not deny gestures of love
Sign: Smell the nard, brought from Jerusalem, and choose whether or not to let yourself be anointed. - Choose without sadness (Deuteronomy 30:19–20)
To love and to be loved
Sign: Breathing, the prayer of the poor: "Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me" - A sign to stay on the right road (Luke 19:18)
To find Jesus in the poorest brother
Sign: Form a pair with the person sitting next to you. Make a gesture of welcome, look into each other's eyes, touch each other's shoulders. - To pray (Matthew 6:14):
To pray in asking and in commitment
Sign: Sing the Lord's Prayer together - Do not be intimidated by failure—the vineyard owner and the gardener/Jesus (Luke 13:1–9)
Sign: Fruitful silence: ask yourself about your own mercy. - "Do you want to be healed?" (John 5:1–16)
Jesus questions the desires that "paralyze" us
Sign: Sing together "Gracias a la Vida" - To be children (John 8:31–32)
We are not born children but become them
Sign: Form a circle holding hands—with one hand you hold your neighbor's, with the other you receive theirs. Listen to music and look into each other's eyes.
by Gemma Caputo Giuliani and Bruno Galante, 2017