"Thank you, Lord, for letting me meet Marco. Since then, Faith and Light has become part of my life, and I feel part of it."
These words echoed through the vigil on Friday evening, when participants at this year's National Assembly—held in Bari from September 22-25—gathered in prayer to remember their calling to Faith and Light, a call extended to them by the Lord himself.
I want to start there, at the very origin, at God's free and loving initiative, to tell the story of the Assembly's beauty, richness, and the feelings it stirred. This is also why this year's handbook, that precious tool every community is invited to use in the coming months, centers on the theme of "calling."
Beginning with calling is essential. It reminds us that Faith and Light, as Cardinal Martini wrote, "is the work of the Holy Spirit, not a human work—not our work." We, finding fresh inspiration, are called to place ourselves at the service of this work, bearing fruit that is, as Marie Helene Matthieu reminds us, "friendship with the person who is handicapped; it is the community that becomes a school of love."
With this profound and vital insight, we lived through our days. Friday was devoted to formation and focused on the role of the provincial vice-coordinator. The coordinators posed a challenge to us: in small groups, we were asked to identify the priorities a vice-coordinator must watch over, which attitudes deserve cultivation, and how the vice-coordinator who accompanies communities can himself be accompanied in this delicate and precious task.
Saturday was marked by the outgoing Board of Directors saying farewell, led by President Paolo Tantaro. We have expressed, and wish to express again, our deepest gratitude for these four years—years in which Faith and Light lived through extraordinary events. The main ones: the International Meeting with Lay Movements and Associations in St. Peter's Square (2013); Recognition from the Italian Bishops' Conference (2014); the National Pilgrimage for Faith and Light's 40th anniversary (2015); the Pilgrimage for the Jubilee of People with Disabilities and the Sick, during which—for the first time ever, at the Sunday Mass celebration in St. Peter's Square—people with disabilities performed a mime version of the Gospel (2016).
Our task in these days was therefore to elect a new president and identify the members of the new Board. While the latter were nominated by the three provinces (two per province), the new president was elected after a long afternoon of discernment. We welcome with joy Angela Gattulli, from the San Gregorio community, who has been elected president. We assure her and the entire Board of our prayers, affection, and support, that these four years may truly be fruitful for the good of the association and the movement.
Sunday morning, the provinces did some basic planning for the year, but above all we celebrated—because celebration is fundamental to Faith and Light—with the communities of Bari who came to be with us. We shared the final Eucharistic celebration, presided over by our national spiritual assistant, Don Marco.
These were days of intensity and discovery—first of all, of faces and people, and then of how the movement functions. I was grateful to be there. And it seemed to me I caught in many eyes the reflection of what Cardinal Martini calls the "incandescence" of Faith and Light. A reality so fragile, because it makes fragility—not only that of the young people, but of everyone—its heart and its breath, and for this reason, according to Gospel wisdom (absurd to the wise of this world), the degree of incandescence is greater. May we wish for ourselves that this year will still be…incandescent. Capperina!
Don Mauro Santoro, 2016