Editorials

Editorial · Education

Nourishing Dreams

For a fraternity and social friendship that goes beyond words, according to Pope Francis

Editorial · Faith and Light

My son has friends

The words of a father of a young man with autism explain why it’s worth celebrating 50 years of Faith and Light in Italy.

Editorial · Faith and Light

Fifty Years of Pilgrimage

What meaning is there in taking to the road again?

Editorial · Family

Small but Decisive

Consecrated women walking alongside people with disabilities: small lights that close gaps that matter

Editorial · Health

The Centenarian's Still-Unfinished Work

Franco Basaglia's revolutionary act: ending the segregation of the mad from the sight of the sane.

Editorial · Family

A Good Start

A story of "ordinary humanity"

Editorial · Family

Is Leisure Time Really Free?

A revolution also means a different evening—whether it's pizza, theater, or coffee

Editorial · Projects

Why Health Really Matters

Not special treatment—just attention and accommodations that work

Editorial · Culture

Where Are We?

A journey across Europe, a film festival window, and the story of migration

Editorial · Family

Beyond the Marketplace

In this issue, we trace the journey of "an ambitious, daring project that answers the spoken and unspoken hopes of many people still living in isolation"

Editorial · Education

Have You Ever Tried...

Without hope, life has no meaning

Editorial · Education

Hope in Many Keys

With hope, we can trust, live in communion and peace, walk—and pedal—together.

Editorial · Family

Blank Pages

We still wonder how to fill our pages, what Faith & Light still means, what presence—or absence—of a friend can do in a life.

Editorial · Family

Why?

Editorial · Faith and Light

A Cry for Peace

Editorial · Faith and Light

Amazed and Grateful

Editorial · Family

Philippine

Christmas is waiting, welcoming, giving. These three words echoed in me as I read the small book "The Strength of a Fragile Life."

Editorial · Family

Nine Dots

Editorial · Family

A Different Story Altogether

Editorial · Culture

Tickets and Drawings

Editorial · Culture

Nurturing Talent

Editorial · Faith and Light

We've Reached 150

Editorial · Spirituality

Bells in Celebration

Editorial · Spirituality

Happy New Year from Ombre e Luci!

Editorial · Faith and Light

Christmas in Light and Shadow

Editorial · Spirituality

Christmas Around the World

Editorial · Spirituality

Pope Francis's Revolutionary Words

Editorial · Family

Shaken and Transformed

Editorial · Culture

Precious Points of View

Editorial · Faith and Light

In Motion

Editorial · Faith and Light

Windows of Hope

Editorial · Culture

Signs of Wonder

Editorial · Faith and Light

The Road Behind Us

Editorial · Education

Real Connection

Editorial · Projects

Building Welcome

There is no doubt: if a path to safety exists, every human being will try to take it. Let us not tire of asking questions—and let us build a culture of welcome.

Editorial · Family

Inclusion: Everyday Solidarity

Editorial · Spirituality

Has Anything Really Changed?

What progress still remains urgent in support services, social inclusion, and the rights of handicapped people?

Editorial · Faith and Light

You Called Us. Here We Are.

Editorial · Spirituality

The Challenge of Loving More

When the Jubilee for people with disabilities and the sick was announced last June, I found myself unsettled by the way disability and illness were grouped together...

Editorial · Family

Called to the Finish Line: All of Us

Editorial · Leisure

Let No One Be Alone

Editorial · Spirituality

Five Acts

Editorial · Faith and Light

Precious Gifts

Beniamino's mother speaks: I have learned, and every day I must learn again, to recognize the value of what I have been given and I ask that it be given back to me each day

Editorial · Family

Places of Relationship

Editorial · Spirituality

One Heart at a Time

Editorial · Family

Keepers of Hope

It has never been easy for anyone to speak openly about living with disability. For fathers, especially, it was harder still—and perhaps even more so in the past.

Editorial · Family

Get to Work!

Every time Ombre e Luci takes up the question of "work" for our young people, I'm torn between two opposite feelings

Editorial · Spirituality

Year After Year, Christmas Still Moves Us

Three reasons why this Christmas feels worth celebrating

Editorial · Spirituality

Enough Now!

We have asked ourselves many times why it was so hard to open our hearts to those who need to be welcomed most of all

Editorial · Spirituality

How He Stepped Down from the Throne

Benedict XVI resigned, and it is difficult indeed for us to interpret his decision, to understand it, to stand with him in it. Yet he left us an example.

Editorial · Faith and Light

Never Alone Again

Three simple words at the heart of Faith and Light. But how did a handful of people grow into a global movement?

Editorial · Spirituality

Beauty and Disability

Why speak of beauty while we speak of physical, mental, and psychological disability? Why place two such distant realities side by side?

Editorial · Family

Grandparents: An Extra Measure of Tenderness

The editorial introducing our special issue on grandparents

Editorial · Family

Dear Mothers

We need to hear from you—to understand where you stand in your long and difficult journey alongside a disabled child.

Editorial · Spirituality

Young Heroes

Today more than ever, pregnancy leaves us bewildered, confused, and often helpless—facing the profound mystery of a child forming in the womb.

Editorial · School

I Hardly Knew Them

I was invited to a special performance. The actors were either older women (who carried their years well), carefree little girls, or young adults of both sexes—all made fragile by a handicap more or less visible.

Editorial · Education

Snapshot

The stories in this issue are stories of volunteering

Editorial · Faith and Light

Gaia, Puccio, Emanuela—and So Many Others

Three young people show us how to face life's hardships with grace. Their stories can light our way.

Editorial · Faith and Light

A Special Wish

Autumn arrives with its distinctive colors—colors that suit perfectly the people to whom this issue is dedicated: those in their later years, my dearest traveling companions on this journey.

Editorial · Faith and Light

"We Had No Idea"

For most people, summer means carefree days. But for many, it is a season of profound loneliness—a summer without vacation.

Editorial · Spirituality

Her First Cry Was Joy

Four small stories to remind us all of the magic and wonder that nature holds for anyone—child or adult—who knows how to behold it

Editorial · Family

Being a Mother...

I couldn't have done it alone. We did it. All of us together.

Editorial · Faith and Light

At the Cradle of Jesus

What does that Child's gaze—full of boundless love—seem to tell us as He looks upon us?

Editorial · Family

Light in the Shadows

A Romanian mother's journey to Rome with her gravely disabled son, seeking the care his country could not provide

Editorial · Faith and Light

An Open Letter to a Teacher

Editorial · Family

The Courage to Dare

Eight small stories offered here to bring you some light after this year's heavy rains, the earthquake's devastation, and the many sorrows that weigh on our lives.

Editorial · Family

A Brother Helped by a Brother Is Like a Fortified City

Twenty years ago, siblings of people with disabilities suffered in silence. That is changing.

Editorial · Family

You Cannot Do It Alone

Open your eyes, open your heart, and listen to those living in unbearable circumstances

Editorial · Spirituality

From Birth

There is an injustice woven into human life that should make us think—and do more than think.

Editorial · Family

Reaching Out to Parents of Children with Disabilities

I have learned, through my faltering attempts and my mistakes, that it is not easy work — and that good intentions and a kind heart are not enough.

Editorial · Faith and Light

Journey of Unchanged Affection: Celebrating 24 Years of Faith and Light

Hundredth issue of Faith and Light! Twenty four years together with you and our little great masters have transformed us into “one big Family”

Editorial · Family

With All My Heart

A letter to Mariangela on the occasion of Ombre e Luci's 100th issue, reflecting on decades spent alongside people with disabilities and their families.

Editorial · Faith and Light

Read Without Rushing

For this issue, we've gathered several articles—all deeply meaningful and rich with significance

Editorial · Family

Mothers of Courage and Beyond

Long live the telephone! How could I have survived these thirty years without hearing the voices of the brave mothers who have kept Ombre e Luci alive?

Editorial · Faith and Light

Bells of Celebration

When I was a child—which was many years ago now—we drew Easter on our school notebooks: ringing bells, flowering peach branches, swallows diving through the sky.

Editorial · Faith and Light

Dear Nicole

"Dip your pen in your heart," you would say when you saw me anxious before writing an editorial. Never has your advice seemed more fitting, more heartening, more necessary than now—as I find the courage to write about you.

Editorial · Family

Peace Bearers: Learning from Those with Down Syndrome

This issue is dedicated to people with Down syndrome, in the hope that we might learn from them the balance and trust they bring to those who suffer.

Editorial · Family

When Everything Changes

The expectation of a child is one of life's most delicate moments for a couple, especially when they have welcomed this child with love and dreamed of him or her as the fulfillment of their love for each other.

Editorial · Family

We Are Fathers of Disabled Children: A Different Way of Loving

Fathers speak openly and honestly about their vital role in welcoming and raising a disabled child—a role far deeper than most people recognize.

Editorial · Family

In the Name of the Father

This Christmas issue of Ombre e Luci (or shortly after!) we want to talk about fathers of children with disabilities—today, in 2005

Editorial · Faith and Light

In Assisi's Waters

To pursue hearts as we do at Faith and Light is beautiful and dangerous because among the 1,300 pilgrims in Assisi, we will never know whether there are more wounded or healed.

Editorial · Family

Easter Means Passage

How do we respond without surrendering to empty resignation? How do we take up the path again, "casting our nets anew," trusting not in our own plans but in God's purpose?

Editorial · Spirituality

Massimo's Christmas

In his family, Massimo has proclaimed that Love which his devoted grandparents lived fully with him and for him

Editorial · Spirituality

The Uscobufpt Injection

Summer is over and we're back on the road, but most of us carry a shadow—a sense of depression, a loss of confidence, the fear that we simply won't make it.

Editorial · Culture

The Italy We Don't See

We urgently need to learn to listen—for ourselves, for our children and grandchildren—to hear that another Italy exists: one that makes no headlines, yet is healthy, engaged, and filled with solidarity.

Editorial · Faith and Light

Living Together, Not Just Side by Side

How to take the right steps forward when fatalism sets in—when it feels like nothing can be done anymore.

Editorial · Family

Trembling Wait

Blue eyes veiled by held-back tears. A bright smile with lips trembling slightly. Hands folded in her lap, waiting. But something is wrong.

Editorial · Faith and Light

I Decided Not to Love My Brother

Editorial · Education

When Silence Speaks

Love is not easy to find or give: the harder you search for someone who matches your desires, the more you seem to be chasing the wind.

Editorial · Faith and Light

What Is Faith and Light?

Why we devoted an entire issue to Faith and Light

Editorial · Spirituality

"A Son Has Been Given to Us"

We too have signs. We too have a star that can lead us where we struggle to go.

Editorial · Education

Living in Hope

I don't mean to preach about this virtue—others have done it better and long before me. I only want to discover the precious gifts that flow from it.

Editorial · Faith and Light

Vacation: A Time to Rest, Restore, and Come Alive Again

How to rethink your summer break and discover what you actually need

Editorial · Family

Moving Forward

Your responses—fewer than we'd hoped for, but all the more meaningful—have quieted our doubts and fears. Don't give up! Thank you for the encouragement. We needed it.

Editorial · Faith and Light

And a Star Lights Up: from Fear to Hope, Navigating a Changed World Since September 11

Editorial · Culture

Do We Have a Future?

Why do contributions to our magazine decline each year, despite the generosity of faithful friends?

Editorial · Faith and Light

The Children Were There

Never before had so many children gathered—some disabled, with their parents—and their presence opened hearts to a hope that had seemed impossible only years before

Editorial · Spirituality

Small Justice

What are our petty daily grievances, measured against those who have borne the "misfortune" of living with profound suffering from childhood onward?

Editorial · Spirituality

A Christmas Apart

How I wish I could sit with each of you on Christmas evening and listen to your heart—so tested, yet so brave

Editorial · Faith and Light

Drawing Near to Truth

We can only bow our heads before the mystery of every human life—each person, every age, every condition. A mystery we are given to recognize, not to penetrate.

Editorial · Faith and Light

When Nature Brings Us Back to Life

Summer is here. Don't let laziness or fear keep your children and grandchildren from the healing power of nature. Let us sing with Saint Francis: "Praised be you, my Lord, through all your creatures."

Editorial · Family

Rosamaria

Davide taught you silence. It is hard to get you to speak. I will do it for you: for the respect and affection I bear you, but above all to tell you, Franco, and parents like you, that we feel we owe you a debt.

Editorial · Projects

If Someone Knocks

Editorial · Family

Something New Is Happening

Editorial · Spirituality

Saint Joseph's Little Loaves

Editorial · Faith and Light

Fausta

Editorial · Faith and Light

The Art of Wonder

Editorial · Faith and Light

Wait for Me, I'm Coming!

Editorial · Family

The Invisible Disability

Editorial · Culture

Their Lives on Screen

Editorial · Faith and Light

How to Take a Real Vacation

Editorial · Faith and Light

When They Leave Before Us

Editorial · Faith and Light

So Many Are Waiting

Editorial · Family

To Parents and Friends

Editorial · Spirituality

The Most Like Him

Editorial · Faith and Light

Five Loaves and Two Fish

Editorial · Faith and Light

A Word of Thanks

A people on pilgrimage gives thanks: memory, hope, and shared responsibility

Editorial · Spirituality

A Difficult and Delicate Question

Editorial · Family

Dinner with the Ozzimos

Editorial · Faith and Light

August in the City

Editorial · Spirituality

Let's Play

Editorial · Faith and Light

When Evening Falls

Courage, hope, trust. These three dispositions of the heart are what we must seek always, everywhere, in every circumstance—to prepare ourselves calmly for life's night.

Editorial · Family

Hidden Gifts: Discovering What People with Disabilities Can Do

Editorial · Spirituality

"Let Them Come to Me"

Editorial · Faith and Light

Understanding More Deeply

Editorial · Family

After We're Gone

Editorial · Education

The Time to Understand

Editorial · Work

Working Alongside Others

Editorial · Faith and Light

With Your Help

Editorial · Faith and Light

A Dance Lesson, Together

Editorial · Faith and Light

What Is Faith and Light?

Editorial · Family

Merry Christmas to You Too

Editorial · Family

Where to Begin?

Editorial · Culture

"Even Without Hearing, Even Without a Voice..."

Editorial · Leisure

And They Pay for It!

Editorial · Faith and Light

More Than Something to Read

Editorial · Culture

The Right to Celebrate

Editorial · Spirituality

It Takes So Little to Keep Us from Feeling Alone

Editorial · Faith and Light

A Letter to You

Editorial · Family

Keep the Door Open

Editorial · Family

If They Don't Act

Editorial · Family

Blind, Deaf, Unable to Walk or Speak

Editorial · Faith and Light

Christmas in Ljubljana

Editorial · Projects

Group Homes: Dream or Reality?

Editorial · Faith and Light

Why Ombre e Luci Matters

A precious document from 1985 to rediscover the roots of Ombre e Luci: a promise born to break the isolation of families and learn to see the person beyond the disability

Editorial · School

School Integration: A Hard Truth to Tell

Editorial · Health

The Mystery of the Psychotic Child

Editorial · Family

Why the Doors Remain Closed

Editorial · Spirituality

No One Excluded

Editorial · Health

My Child with Down Syndrome

Editorial · Faith and Light

The Others

Editorial · Faith and Light

Shadows and Light

Editorial · Family

Editorial: Issue 1

Editorial · Spirituality

Jean Vanier's Message to Young People

Editorial · Faith and Light

Why This Issue Is About Animation

Editorial · Faith and Light

Wherever You Lead Us, Every Day

Editorial · Faith and Light

"Your Will Be Done"

Editorial · Faith and Light

One... Two... Three... Freeze!

Editorial · Family

The Siblings

Editorial · Faith and Light

On the Road Again

Editorial · Faith and Light

Why We Call Ourselves Faith and Light

The spirit of Faith and Light: believing in the dignity of every person, beyond appearances; discovering through the "little ones" the true essence of love and the values of the Gospel

Editorial · Faith and Light

Summer's Here

A message of hope and unity for the Fede e Luce community: reflections on summer holidays, the value of friendship, and the importance of staying connected across distances.

Editorial · Family

Love Is Not Enough

Editorial · Family

Profoundly Handicapped Children

Editorial · Faith and Light

Editorial: The Fears We Carry

"Do not be afraid!" I have lost count of how many times Jesus spoke these words to those he met. The trouble is, we do not believe them.

Editorial · Faith and Light

Friends or Brothers?

It's easy to say you're a friend to handicapped young people. Harder to truly be one.

Editorial · Spirituality

Editorial: On Vacation

Have you ever met Brother Sun? Have you ever spoken with him? Have you ever sat in silence with him, the way you do with someone you love?

Editorial · Spirituality

Best Wishes for All

A wish for everyone and from everyone—full of things beyond words, a hope that it might transform into reality for all, not remain mere language