Letter from Moscow: we in Assisi
Dearest friends, we have had difficulty meeting to try to write our memories of Assisi. The story of our pilgrimage began much earlier than our arrival in Assisi on April 21, 1995. It began with the period of preparation when we gathered to thank the Lord for the friends of Faith and Light who had invited us and who had helped us come to ask for Divine Blessing and to prepare ourselves for the journey. Perhaps some time before we were simply happy to have the possibility of making such a great journey and of meeting friends so far away, but afterwards, when we understood the responsibility of presenting our country and of attending such a great event, we became a little afraid. Then with all the difficulties we had in receiving our visas we united ourselves very much among ourselves and with those who were helping us from Italy. While we were preparing the pilgrimage, and then during the journey, we had so much fear of losing someone in Italy. The result was that a week before leaving a boy who was supposed to come was lost in Moscow, and three days after the pilgrimage, in Rome, two friends were lost. But during our stay in Assisi we always remained all together and it seems to us that in your memory we should remain as a little group that counts itself at every moment. For us it was like a shock that Faith and Light in Italy is so numerous. For us it is not possible to meet someone from Faith and Light on the streets, instead not only in Assisi, but also in Rome and even in the Vatican it happened. Faith and Light in Moscow is still very young and very small (we have 4 communities that have formed in 5 years) and to see how the family of Faith and Light that is already 20 years old is flourishing has been for us the sign of great hope.
It was truly a pilgrimage for us, both because we came to the land of Saint Francis, and because we lived these days in the midst of the Saint Silvia and Don Bosco communities of Rome. It was one of the most beautiful Easter celebrations of our lives. Thank you, brothers and sisters, our dear friends, we always think of you and remember you all!
Here are some testimonies:
Kirill: "I have known them all for a long time already, they are my friends." Sascia during prayer always adds that he wants to pray for the health of Carlo Martini. For us it was a truly beautiful moment when Sascia, who likes to clap his hands on people's shoulders or embrace the people he loves, suddenly in Assisi took the hands of the Cardinal and placed them on his head to ask for a blessing. He also remembers Paolo with his accordion. Ludmilla said that this pilgrimage changed her entire life because all of a sudden she saw her son with different eyes as if he were another person: from then on being with him has become for her, from a burdensome duty, a true joy. She is infinitely grateful to all those who invited us and welcomed us.
Community "Faith and Light" of Moscow
Our friend from Lourdes
On June 10, 1995 Maria Grazia Pennisi, a long-time friend of Faith and Light in Rome, made her profession thus definitively becoming part of the family of the Daughters of the Church. Perhaps not by chance she has now been assigned to the community of Lourdes, a place that precisely with Faith and Light — in 1976 with the groups from Belgium and in 1981 with the world pilgrimage — had discovered and begun to love. Here the Daughters of the Church, who by their own charism unite contemplative life with works, take care of maintaining Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in the Crypt of the Basilica and have a place of welcome near the Sanctuary. If anyone going to Lourdes wanted to look for Maria Grazia or if anyone wants to write to her the address is as follows:
Sister Maria Grazia of the Holy Innocents
Filles de l'Eglise - 1, Rue Bernadette - 65100 Lourdes (France)
From Lourdes Maria Grazia is close to our communities and in Lourdes she will continue to live the spirit of Faith and Light and to transmit it to many.