How to Build a Faith and Light Community

When I was a parish curate in the Valais region of Switzerland, I received the unmerited grace and great joy of responding to the first "call" to found a Faith and Light community for Lourdes 1981. Four others followed, all French-speaking.
After my transfer to the Simplon Pass in the German-speaking part of the Valais, I spent two years finding parents and friends before establishing the first German-speaking Swiss community in 1985.
At Lourdes 1991, we blessed the flag of the fifth community. When I moved to the Aosta Valley, I again lived through two years of "desert" before launching the "Saint Bernard d'Aoste" community in preparation for Lourdes 2001.
Despite these very different experiences, I have no "recipe" to offer. I can only share some aspects that seem important to me about how communities grow.

Before I go out to call parents, their disabled children, and friends, I must first have three "essential pillars"—deeply rooted, always needing to be nourished.

1. Be convinced that Faith and Light is a gift—a precious talent entrusted to us by the Father for the good of poor and wounded hearts, sent to announce to the world the "logic of the Gospel": that the small are the great in the heart of Jesus, and that we all need each other.
2. Know that a gift not shared does not multiply; it is lost. This is why we need the "sacred fire" burning in our hearts, pushing us outward to knock on the doors of people of good will who want to be "enriched" by others and to experience "whoever gives receives"—even from our disabled brothers and sisters, who can be our teachers.
3. It is not enough to organize a "plan of attack". Before we leave home, we prepare our hearts through prayer. We begin with "my own heart" so it can welcome God's will, so I might speak the right words and listen well to others. Then we pray for the hearts of the people we will visit, so they might recognize in our proposal both the gift and the call from God.

Then we must entrust our "seed" to prayer—to a religious community or to other people who pray deeply.

Steps to Take

1. Learn about the existence of brothers and sisters with intellectual disabilities. Seek out their parents. Make contact with different organizations, schools, workshops, group homes, and other groups that work directly with people with intellectual disabilities. There you will meet not just names, but people who await your smile, your desire to touch their hearts, and your willingness to set out on the path of free friendship with them.
2. Speak with a priest of the parish to avoid being mistaken for a representative of a "sect" and to help him understand that Faith and Light wants to be a living part of his parish. If he cannot become the spiritual assistant himself, he can recommend a brother priest.
   The pastor can help greatly by spreading word about us, by allowing us to gather in the church, by having us lead a Mass, by making a room available, or by suggesting future friends and supporters.
3. Spread the word through parish channels, regional newspapers, Catholic radio, interviews.
   Hold an informational meeting in the parish—if possible with members of a Faith and Light community, bringing photographs and other materials that "show" the significant events and the "everyday" gatherings of a community or region.
   Do not forget to reach out to families, parents' associations, and cooperatives in the disability world.
4. Take up the pilgrim's staff like the apostles sent to bring the Good News to our brothers and sisters. In some families, a single visitor may be best; in others, or in institutions or parish groups, it is better to go together: a person with a disability, parents, friends, and a priest.
   I myself was called and prepared by a catechist, but it was a second meeting with "delegates" from a community that kindled this "sacred fire" that has burned in me even after twenty-four years!
   Before visiting families, announce your visit first. Otherwise you risk imposing yourselves or being confused with Jehovah's Witnesses.
5. Whet their appetite. When you find interested people eager to get involved, connect them directly with a nearby community. Or invite them to a Faith and Light gathering or pilgrimage. Or ask a community or some of its members to come witness at an informational meeting about Faith and Light, or to lead a Mass in the parish. Once you have found the "core" of a new community, begin meeting monthly right away, even if in the first months you cannot yet fully live the normal life of F.L. Communities.

Try to name a "coordinator"—at least provisionally, and not the priest!—someone who takes the initiative to call meetings and maintain contact both with the parish and with the regional Faith and Light leader.

You will also learn quickly how to live the "fourth time"—the exchange of friendship beyond monthly meetings. A simple way is to take turns visiting different homes to prepare the next gathering, even including people who are not part of the coordinating team.

— Fr. Klaus Sarbach, CRB, 2003