The call to join Faith and Light's International Assembly in Lebanon stirred provincial coordinators from September onward. We needed to discern with our councils and communities what mattered most for 2018–2023, prepare documents, choose a delegation to represent our Province, and ready our hearts for a journey many kept asking: "Lebanon? Really, you're going to Lebanon?"
I even took up English again—resurrecting what I'd learned in school—so I wouldn't arrive completely unprepared.
From the Province of Un Fiume di Pace, Sister Camelia of Galilee traveled with us—Lebanese by birth—along with Father Mauro. Marcella from Mari and Vulcani joined our group as well, though she now lives in Un Fiume di Pace, in Arona.
Our first real encounter was at the airport, where we met the Spanish and French delegations. We spoke different languages, but our hearts were already beating together, helped along by singing and gestures.
The Lebanese team that guided us through the Assembly was exceptional. After two years of preparation, many of them young, their efforts paid off completely. Everything had been arranged with care: the venues, the travel, the work sessions, the celebrations, a terrace for informal conversation, small gifts marking each stage and place of prayer. All of it infused with joy and the warmth of genuine welcome. That warmth burst open on Sunday when we gathered with Lebanon's Faith and Light communities in Beirut—more than 1,500 people. We prayed together, celebrated Mass with the Bishop, heard from Lebanon's President, and danced.
Our delegation included Sister Camelia, who understood Arabic and Lebanese dialect. She explained small nuances we would otherwise have missed.
More than 250 delegates came from around the world. The first evening, when we placed all the provinces on a map, we truly saw that Faith and Light is universal. And immediately came the awareness that none of this could be our doing—it had to be the work of Someone else.
The daily structure made that clear. Each morning at 7:15, we had four different prayer options: Mass, Taizé prayer, and two meditations. After breakfast came work on the documents, the President's report and Ghislain du Chene's address (the outgoing international coordinator), and the discernment of candidates to be elected—all punctuated by songs and prayers in many languages.
The Spirit was invoked, and grew ever more present. Language barriers fell away through the translations of Pietro, Lucia, and Camelia, but also through a spirit of fraternal communion that let us truly know one another. The process of discerning the candidates, which the Italian delegates led together, was particularly beautiful. We listened, asked ourselves hard questions, sought clarification from Maria Silvia and Joseph—and from Raul—to understand whom we should vote for.
The voting was exhausting and deeply intense. Coordinators placed each name one at a time on the ballot and deposited it. The atmosphere was prayerful. In Lebanon I encountered something that goes to the heart of responsibility in Faith and Light: the gratuity that is inherent in that responsibility is bound tightly to Christ's cross. It's also what animates the international team.
I'm carrying that mystery with me through the summer, unpacking it, savoring it. We lived it intensely after the elections, during the foot-washing ritual. I washed Raul's feet, and he blessed me. It was a concrete sign of the bond between those who carry responsibility—that we truly serve one another. Where our actions cannot reach, prayer sustains the brother or sister. And now those are not just names to me; they are people I have prayed with, eaten with, danced with.
Naturally, after the elections came the celebration—pure joy. In the days that followed, the work continued: dialogue with Lutherans, Anglicans, and the Maronite Catholic Church, and visits to the Shrine of Saint Charbel and the city of Byblos.
Through these activities, bonds strengthened between provinces in the same region—Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, and Switzerland—and beyond. I had the chance to connect with the French community Notre-Dame des Neiges from Briançon; we've organized a meeting in Turin for October 14.
But the encounter with the Syrian delegation held a special place. Before traveling to Lebanon, Un Fiume di Pace had raised funds to support Syria's people. Through the international council, those funds will help restart Faith and Light camps in that land. I chose to join our gifts with others so they would have greater impact. We took photographs with the Syrian delegation, who kept telling us: it's not how the media reports it, the information is distorted, it's not a religious war. But we couldn't go deeper—the language barrier between Syrian and Italian was too steep. Their looks and smiles remain in my heart.
I owe particular thanks to my travel companions. To the entire Italian delegation: Pietro, Francesco, Maria of Cyprus, Mauro, Larissa and Igor, Marcella and Enzo—and to Sister Camelia, with whom I shared a room and daily life. But a special thank you goes to Lucia Casella, who in Lebanon completed her ten years as vice international coordinator (Angela Grassi will take her place). She was invaluable in Lebanon and invaluable to my own journey as a leader in Faith and Light. Without her attentive eye, I would never have lived such a powerful experience as Lebanon 2018. For that I can testify: the Holy Spirit is alive in Faith and Light, and he blows where he will.
Liliana Ghiringhelli, 2018
