What is Faith and Light? It wants to be a "journey that helps people discover Jesus." But embedding this idea in local communities isn't straightforward. The work is hard, the questions persistent. We must always invest time to clarify who we are.
At the international level, beyond the team led by coordinator Ghislain Du Chené, it is the council of coordinators from every province in the world that meets periodically to take stock. Last July 5–10, I represented Un Fiume di Pace, Pietro Vetro represented Kimata, and Carlo Gazzano represented Mari e Vulcani. Together with Lucia Casella, our international vice-coordinator, we attended a remarkably rich gathering in Konstancin, Poland, just outside Warsaw.
It isn't easy to spend several days speaking English or French with people from the farthest corners of the world. Yet the miracle of Faith and Light lies in this too: we understand each other because we share the same journey. We discover ourselves to be the same, even as we differ in culture and tradition. These meetings always nourish the heart. You arrive thinking you're undertaking an obligation; you return charged by countless conversations, encounters, and shared moments. The young people and friends from the Polish communities gave us tremendous help. They welcomed us with bread and salt, making simple what we shared taste of something richer. They gave us a mime of Noah's ark from scripture, ending with the arrival of the dove of peace. They helped with translation and made us feel at home every moment.
As last year's Carnet urged us to do, we lived "four days hand in hand." "The goal," Ghislain told us, "is to cut the diamond, polish each facet so we arrive at the 2018 general assembly able to answer the question 'What is Faith and Light?' We want to offer something that can shine, to strengthen a movement that radiates." To that end, we also worked on revising our Constitution, which will be voted on in 2018.
Each day focused on a theme: suffering, joy, friendship, and mission. In our exchange groups, we compared our experiences as coordinators, confided our struggles and concerns while reflecting on Matthew's passage about the yoke and rest. In sharing, we found occasion for hope: the bond between us helps us bear the yoke and escape loneliness.
Faith and Light is a gift. We are called to invite new friends and new families. We should not seek only the enthusiastic, but also those who are sad, for elsewhere they could not shine. Looking at our role, we should spend more time attending to people's needs and less time perfecting our organization. We should think not of doing many things but of doing them with love. We must recover in community the taste of praying together, not assume that those who wish to live the spirituality of Faith and Light do not long to celebrate.
Together, we also recalled the small great miracles of personal rebirth we witness in our communities. Faith and Light brings to light the deepest fragilities in each person. Pope Francis taught us at the Jubilee that gestures of tenderness are enough to reach people. It is an encouragement to open our eyes and make room for this possibility of new life. Father Xavier, a Belgian, reminded us of this motto: in community, prepare as if everything depended on you, and live as if nothing depended on you.
In our working groups we addressed many concerns: the lack of assistants and bishop contacts; the need for an association to support the movement (the Italian experience was held up as a positive model); the importance of investing in formation; attention to aging communities that hold wisdom and prayer; our ties with L'Arche; scarce funding and the crucial contribution of our Days of Proclamation and Sharing; the ecumenical path. While ecumenism still seems heresy in some countries, we experienced moments that transcended this. Especially at the closing Mass, when assistants from different traditions each blessed us in their own way. At the end, they blessed one another. A sign of deep peace that remains impressed on our hearts. A hope for the future.
Angela Grassi, 2016