Savoring Assisi Again
That beautiful issue of Ombre e Luci, full of photographs and reflections and commentary on Assisi, let me relive the joy and emotion of those few but intense days spent with all of you.
I can only thank from my heart those who worked so hard to make this pilgrimage possible. What will stay with me are only moments of peace, serenity, and genuinely moving happiness.
It was a real breath of fresh air for us mothers of disabled children, who often live in very different circumstances—even within our own Faith and Light communities, where misunderstanding and rivalry come so easily.
I also hope this pilgrimage has encouraged all those people who have recently joined Faith and Light but are still hesitant and uncertain.
Ombre e Luci also surprised me. I was astonished to read about a book that a father, Redendore Ordan, wrote for his disabled son Francesco, titled: "Francesco, Bearer of Handicap, Smiles at Life." I know this young man and his family well, because they live in my native village: Villatora di Saonara (Padova), where I spent my youth until I was twenty-five.
For a few years we also spent our summer vacations in the same seaside area. Almost every day we would find him waiting for us, crouched down with his hands on his knees and a pack of cards on the road to the beach. When he saw us coming, he would join us to go to the beach.
We would spend some hours with him, enjoying his sincere and gracious smile.
Adriana Masiero - San Lorenzo Community, Albano Terme
Thank You, Mara and Danilo
On Saturday, June 24, 1995, Mara and Danilo united themselves before the Lord.
Mara and Danilo know well that only by making room for God and for our neighbor (and what a neighbor!) do we truly love and truly love one another.
Yes, Mara and Danilo, you chose to be simple—in the way of the Gospel—to go down low in order to reach God. You were great in our eyes when, tired from the day and wanting to be alone, you chose instead to share your joy with your young people from Faith and Light.
This is the greatest beatitude: to share! Thank you for doing it.
Your young people stand beside you with their simplicity, but also with their greatness: they, too, will be the measure of your love.
Thank you for choosing to love.
Giovanna Ghirelli - Gratasoglio Community, Milan
Staying in Touch
Thank you for publishing that article about our ASAD cooperative in Bastia Umbra in Ombre e Luci. We read it right away and it made us very happy, because it showed others that we are friends to everyone.
We were delighted to see how many pages you dedicated to us at the ASAD cooperative.
Personally, I loved that phrase on the back of the magazine: "Emotional peace comes from a whole way of living, from the energy of the whole community, from the quality of the care workers and from spiritual life."
For us, it's very important to make new friendships and then stay in touch. One day when we decide to go on an outing, we'll come down to Rome to visit you, see your work, and spend some time together.
We're putting on an exhibition in Assisi and there will be others in Tordandrea, Bastia, and Perugia. In Assisi we made and sold a lot. We invite all of you to come see our exhibitions.
Warm greetings and good work from us, the young people of the ASAD Cooperative.
A Friendship
For Ombre e Luci's Assisi issue, I sent you my testimony about my friendship with Vito, along with a photograph. It's a shame you didn't publish the photograph.
Antonella (Bari)
The photo arrived late. We're publishing it now because it shows the beautiful friendship between Antonella and Vito.
Don't Stay Silent
Last summer, a friend of ours read a long article about the city of Lourdes published in a French newspaper. The article focused entirely on the external side of that city—the commerce, the confusion, the disorganization, the rudeness of so many who go to Lourdes only for tourism. The author criticized all this, but he said nothing about the other side of Lourdes that draws so many of us, the truest part—the part we remember and love. Our friend wrote to the author of that article and received a response full of solidarity and agreement. We're publishing our friend's letter as an example of how we can defend what we hold dear and how we can be understood, even for a brief and precious moment, when we speak about what truly matters to our hearts.
Dear Sir,
I read your article about Lourdes yesterday. It is intelligent, true, and it moves one to indignation. We should talk more about this side of Lourdes. Those who govern the city should be more responsible, more clear-sighted. We should...
We should... True. But you forgot an entire dimension of this city—one too important to pass over in silence, too important not to weep and sing "Alleluia!" all the same. One should not go to Lourdes and observe it like this, from the outside. I went there twice, and I truly *entered* into it. I accompanied a group of people with mental disabilities, their parents, and their friends. I didn't even notice the city's confusion. I placed my hand on the cold, wet stone of the Grotto. The people with me lived in close union with suffering and with inner peace. I dare not speak of it, for I could not do it justice. But Lourdes is this too! To become mature, as you say, means learning to understand. That's true. Understanding means understanding contradictions. Lourdes is one of them. You who grasped this (I know you did, and forgive me) did not say it loudly enough. But the power and the glory of love and inner peace sing, cry out, roar through Lourdes far above all the city's noise and all its vulgarity.
For even one person who found peace of heart there, Lourdes is worth all its negative side. And there are thousands of such people. I beg you, think of those people! That alone is what has value!