Dear Friends
Over these past four years together, each of us has contributed, within the limits of our ability, to a more solid organization. It has allowed us to achieve the goals set by the Faith and Light movement: "friendship, growth, and outreach"—with the help of longtime and new friends alike (something we witnessed firsthand during our pilgrimage to Assisi).
I mention friendship first because, in my view, it is the heart of what we do. It is how we build bonds that matter.
These bonds help us carry our worries, knowing we are no longer alone.
They grow from honest, open conversation—becoming a shared commitment to grow together, to combine our hopes and dreams. Our hopes and dreams rest on trust in you, on faith in God. We know that trust and hope are not easy to give, yet the Lord has said, "Ask and it shall be given to you." Obedient and faithful to His word (as in the Our Father), we ask for your friendship—so that we may bear our cross with humility and peace. Each time we meet, it will be an encounter filled with love, faith, and light.
Fausta Guglielmi
Thank You…
Thank you for all you have done and continue to do for us.
Thank you for welcoming us to the retreat. We spent three unforgettable days—not only in the carefree joy and laughter that Faith and Light brings, but for something far more important. Each time we are together, we find a peace within ourselves that only your group (I feel I can now call it ours) can give us.
All our anxieties and worries fade away. We find ourselves at rest in our hearts.
Our first profound experience was Assisi. But I think we did not fully belong there, not as we did at Alfedena. At first, we felt like guests. At Alfedena, we finally felt truly part of the group.
When we arrived at Alfedena, I wanted to ask if we could help with chores like everyone else. But as often happens, I kept my thoughts to myself. Then I saw we had been chosen for a task, and we were genuinely happy. At last, we too could give something back and be useful.
Every moment with you has been beautiful. The people themselves are so dear, so warm, so full of genuine human kindness—it is exceptional.
We will never forget the songs around the fire, Valeria's moving reflection, Marie Hélène's words of encouragement, Patrick's expressions of joy and sorrow. And the Casazza family—especially Toni, who thanked me for a long conversation about how much Faith and Light has meant to me. But it is I who should thank him and Emi for the love and care they have shown my daughter.
I wish I could name everyone who made the retreat so beautiful: Pierangelo with his accordion, don Francesco with his serene face, Louis, Vito, the seminarians, M. Grazia, Italia, Guenda, Francesca M., Claudio, Lucia, and all the others. Each one deserves our love and our gratitude in equal measure.
(excerpt from a father's letter)
God Is Here
A year has passed since I met you. A year so brief, yet so full—so full of joy and love—that it has warmed my heart and shown me the meaning of life again.
I had stopped living and loving when my heart broke with sorrow. I thought that if God existed, He did not love me. I felt abandoned, alone, left to face the world because I had a child who was different.
But I did not know that through this child, God would reveal Himself to me. Who knows how many times He tried, how many times He thought this was the only way—through the deepest suffering, the hardest to bear—to bring me to Him. And then He sent you, and you taught me in the simplest and most true way to love Him, to recognize Him, to reach Him through prayer.
At first, when we gathered and you spoke of Him with such ease, as if He were an intimate friend, I felt awkward, like someone in the presence of a stranger. Now, day by day, I feel His presence. I recognize Him in the things around me. I am finding, at last, the peace of knowing myself loved with a love that cannot be questioned.
Meeting you has given me and my family the certainty of a more comprehensible world—one made not only of things, but of human beings, of brothers and sisters.
Rita Ozzimo