Sweet regards
Dear Editors,
I had no way of knowing that this year's first issue of Ombre e Luci would be dedicated to grandparents, or I would have rushed to send you this brief account, which centers on my son Francesco's grandmother.
The bond of affection that united them in life was extraordinarily strong: I say "was" because she passed away last January, at the age of 104.
To honor her memory, I expressed to our spiritual father, Don Marco Bove, the wish to celebrate a memorial Mass.
The service was scheduled for a January evening of record-breaking cold—thirty years of records, no less.
I worried deeply about inviting my friends from Faith and Light (and others who had known my mother), worried I was putting them through impossible weather.
While the "other people" made their excuses and stayed home, every single friend from Faith and Light showed up. Their warm presence made up for the below-zero temperatures.
I never expected such heartfelt, genuine participation. I felt that warmth in the air, and as I thanked our friends through tears for coming, I thought about the extraordinary thing Francesco had managed to create—once again making his friends our friends.
With warm regards,
Elisa Sturlese
Over a bench
I am Elisa Vizzino, mother of Luca, Donatella, and Marco. We have been in the community "La Vigna" for over twenty-five years.
On February 1, 2011, Luca became a little angel. He was cheerful, joyful, lively, engaged.
The community has been, and I hope will continue to be, "our extended family" for our family.
I felt the need to share with you how our daily life has changed—a life shaped for nearly forty-eight years by my husband, my two other children, and me, much of it organized around Luca.
So you can picture Luca, I am sending a photo from a gathering where someone is being celebrated and we are eating—something he always loved.
Elisa Vizzino, Naples
A color for the future
I discovered "Ombre e Luci" only recently, through a dear friend who works with the magazine. I appreciate its straightforward, forceful style.
I am the mother of a young woman with certain motor difficulties that affect her emotional well-being as well.
She has had to overcome obstacles of every kind to reach good physical function, and her educational path led her to graduate—she felt victorious against those who insisted it was impossible.
The unresolved problem is work.
In Italy today, jobs for young people are scarce, nearly nonexistent. Hope vanishes. That light for the future that should guide every young man and woman to build a life—a right, not an afterthought—that light goes out.
If this is true for someone without disabilities, it becomes a duty to grant dignity as a person to anyone with physical or psychological limitations that do not compromise their ability to work.
When objective difficulties already distort or damage how these people see life, how they relate to others, their emotional connections—when these difficulties are present—the absence of work becomes an unbearable, obsessive weight. Beyond feeling already marginalized by their disability, they feel a growing sense of uselessness that leads to depression and the collapse of self-confidence.
I am not asking the authorities to intervene in this specific way (I want to avoid adding bureaucratic burdens), but only to recognize the struggles these people and their families face—people already left alone on a difficult, often treacherous path.
Helping disabled people integrate into the world of the so-called "normal" must be the difficult but exalting task of anyone who wants to improve this society in their small way.
Let us not lose sight of human dignity. Let us bring color to the lives of all our young people, and especially to those in hardship.
Sara
"Diving" into the sea of the world
(...) The experience of resurrection is the story of today, it is our story! Within God's creative power, we come to see that faith is always the same, yet it must answer the questions the world asks today—and in answering, it takes new forms. We cannot be fish out of water, but we must "dive" into the sea of the world as it is, swim in it, and face the risks of its new and unknown depths. If we try to live outside the water, outside the world, our faith will surely die! We missionaries are the people most at risk in this world because we go where the challenges are strongest, but where grace also shines most brightly! As you know, I have been living in China for over twenty years now…
I love telling you about the joy and harmony that faith and charity produce. Every Wednesday, the large central office of Huiling, where I spend much of my time, becomes a distribution center for a few hours. Then a truck arrives from our farm, loaded with bags and boxes overflowing with colorful, fragrant vegetables. All at once, you hear the cheerful, exuberant voices of free and carefree people arriving… Help! They are our young people with intellectual disabilities. Like an army of proud figures, they grab bags, packages, cartons of eggs, and everything around them. They loudly assure our staff members they will behave well, won't lose anything on the way, will have recipients sign receipts, and will collect and safeguard the money. Through faith we believed. Through works, we are creating a sign of love (...).
In faith,
Father Fernando, China