The International Pilgrimage
Faith and Light's international pilgrimage to Lourdes in 1981 will not be a repeat of the one in 1971.
The Spirit will be the same, but this time it will be a gathering of Faith and Light communities.
I was not present at Lourdes in 1971, nor in Rome in 1975. I came to know Faith and Light through a different kind of pilgrimage: the one that small communities undertake all over the world, in contact with the daily reality of their own countries, cities, and neighborhoods.
It is this everyday pilgrimage that I want to talk with you about today, because it is this journey that will lead us to Lourdes in 1981.
1981 will not be the year OF the pilgrimage, but a year OF pilgrimage. It will be so to the extent that, from now on, it allows our communities to take root in their own places, to find new momentum, and to discover more fully what the Lord asks of them for the Church and the world of today.
Before being (and in order to be) a meeting between nations, Lourdes 1981 will be a pilgrimage through everyday reality, for each community, in every country. 1971 marked Faith and Light's birth; 1981 will mark an important milestone in its growth.
If we are here today, representing the dozens of communities now present in France, it is because we feel the urgency of continuing the path we began together. And because at the heart of this urgency lies the cry of our wounded and rejected brothers and sisters. We must ask the Holy Spirit and them to make us ready to listen to Faith and Light's message. Day by day, they will open our communities to renewal and hope.
The reflections I will share with you come from experiences I have lived in recent years within some Faith and Light communities (mainly in Italy and France).
What I will tell you I have learned from the silence of brothers and sisters who live Faith and Light without speeches. If we want to know Faith and Light better as a community of encounter, let us sit at their feet and learn from them how to meet the other as he or she truly is, not as they might appear to be.
Community of Encounter
What does this mean? Is there not a contradiction in terms? Community implies something stable, while encounter does not necessarily mean staying together.
Yet there is no community without encounter...
What kind of encounter happens at Faith and Light? And why does this encounter authorize us to speak of Faith and Light as a community of encounter?
- Read the next article in this special series: 2. The Art of Encounter: Overcoming Fear of Difference
Luis Sankalé, 1980
Articles in the Faith and Light Special Series
- Introduction - Faith and Light: Anatomy of a Community of Encounter
- The Art of Encounter: Overcoming Fear of Difference
- The Protagonists - The Faces of Faith and Light: Disabled People, Parents, Friends, and Priests
- Community Life - Building "Community": The Three Pillars of Faith and Light
- Growing Together - Leading a Faith and Light Community: Principles and Practice