Thank You Again
Yesterday, coming home, I couldn't believe my eyes: the latest issue of Ombre e Luci on my table. How beautiful! What a joy to leaf through it. Immediately I felt the desire to express my gratitude to all of you for what you have done for so many years—truly with passion, with love, and often with sacrifice (even financial sacrifice!). Take courage. It is worth it.
I am convinced that this issue of Ombre e Luci, beyond being an excellent gift for holy Christmas, can be an occasion for exchange within communities, for deeper reflection. It can help us discover, and better still rediscover, what Fede e Luce is, its calling, its ecumenical value.
The testimonies are beautiful—an encouragement for anyone facing difficulty, an outstretched hand to help each person understand that Love conquers all the ills of our time.
In short, without diminishing any other issue, I will guard this one very jealously. And I am certain that in moments when I need a breath of air, reading a few pages of your magazine, I will hear echoing inside me: "Do not be afraid, you are not alone." Thank you again. A big hurrah for all of you.
With affection
Marina Serino
Gratitude That Had to Be Spoken
Last summer Agnese was in a care home for a month; for two weeks she had to stay in bed and developed bedsores. We thank the Lord: after a month she was better and came home.
Now she is undergoing therapy.
After Agnese came home, I did not do well. I suffered exhaustion: from September to January I could not eat, could not sleep, I had lost a great deal of weight, and I had even withdrawn from the Church. I thank my sister-in-law Vanda, who stood by me with love and called Mariangela, who immediately took interest in sending me to Villa Giuseppina, where I stayed for a month. I left in perfect health, fully recovered. Heartfelt thanks to Cecilia and Stefano, my children, who showed Agnese such patience and such love. Cecilia stayed at my house for a month with her baby, so I could rest easy. The day of my discharge came, and I can say I was healed—truly reborn. Thanking with deep love the Lord, Cecilia, Vanda, and Mariangela. I am certain that Ettore from heaven prayed for all the people who stood by me.
Angela
With Affection
(from the back of a postal bank transfer form, in the notes field)
I wish with all my heart a happy Christmas and a blessed New Year to the tireless workers of Fede e Luce and to their dear clients, cared for with such humanity.
A kiss with affection
Annina Paradiso
A Cry from the Heart
I am the oldest. My younger sister is handicapped. I was seven years old when I first sensed my parents' suffering—suffering they probably expressed too little in words. That is when we entered the world of awareness. I find that your magazine is a bit too optimistic. The suffering of brothers and sisters exists. It is deep. Sometimes I think that love was lacking for me too. I have the impression that my parents, too preoccupied with caring for my sister, were not always available to me. I want to say to all parents: "Love your handicapped child, but not more than your other children. They feel your anguish and your suffering. They too need to be loved. They are not there to compensate for the shortcomings you lament in the one who seems to you more fragile. Others are fragile too, even if it is less visible." Forgive me for saying these things, but it is truly a cry from the heart.
D. V.
Those Who Love You
On September 25th, for the first time, I lost someone dear to me, and I am suffering greatly. Even though I am eighteen, I had never seen death as a natural part of the life cycle. Since I was born, I had always seen people being born. I had always seen my relatives happy. I had no reason to worry that someday someone would have to leave us.
Unfortunately, that moment came, and for me it was a cruel blow that I did not accept.
For a short while I preferred to spend that time alone, because I wanted to understand what had happened and above all why. October 20th was my eighteenth birthday—one of the most important days of life. I had started the day with one fixed thought: "Today is the day I become an adult, but it is also my first birthday without someone I love." Then that evening, thanks to friends from FL whom I had invited, I was able to escape for a few hours from the thought that had pursued me since morning. From this I understood that people who love you, with words spoken from the heart, not only give you strength but help you understand and, little by little, accept life's difficulties. Now time must simply pass—that time which heals wounds.
Alessandra (S. Anna Roma)
A Letter from Cardinal Martini
Yours affectionately in the Lord, Carlo Maria Card. Martini
Dearest parents of Fede e Luce, as holy Christmas approaches, I send you a brief reflection as a sign of my gratitude and affection.
I still recall with joy my encounter with many of you at Assisi in 1986; but I had known you before through the life of your communities. In the area of welcoming and inclusion, the overall situation has certainly improved, and yet it presents serious difficulties even today. To this must be added the personal situation of each family, burdened by many weights, by pressing problems of daily life, by anguishing existential questions, and by grave worries for the future.
And I think that the mystery of Christmas, which indeed calls us to recognize the dignity of every person, on one hand exalts the joy and beauty of the "normal" family, but on the other hand can intensify the pain of families that are "different."
This is why I felt the need to write to you—with the desire to enter into the homes of Fede e Luce, so that, despite the exhaustion of daily life, you may continue to be bearers of significant gestures of love and hope that, reaching beyond the walls of a home, become a cause of conversion for society as a whole. For such testimony I thank you, expressing my heartfelt gratitude, and as I encourage you on your journey, I ask you to ever more carefully tend that "treasure in earthen vessels" which is Fede e Luce.
With affection I wish you a blessed Christmas!
Yours most devotedly in the Lord
Carlo Maria Martini
Archbishop of Milan, to Fede e Luce