The school year is nearly over. Summer is in the air. Some of us are making plans with family, and it hurts a little to say goodbye to our Fede e Luce family for a while.
Others are planning Fede e Luce vacations — small drops in the vast ocean of need that we know so well and long to answer. Marymount. Mountain camps. Days by the lake and sea.
To everyone, to each of you: may your rest be good. May your summers by the water or in the mountains be blessed.
Our hearts go out especially to those who cannot take holidays — those held back by illness, by work, by lack of money.
For all of us, whether we leave or stay, this issue of "Insieme" is dedicated to our friends who carry the heaviest burdens. We hope it becomes once more a sign of our fraternal bond. The articles and letters arriving from every corner of the world, the full accounts of what we've done these past months, our reflections and greetings, our hopes and our sorrows — may they help us believe that Fede e Luce is, for all who trust in it, a bond of friendship that deepens with time.
It is a friendship that grows and multiplies. On the map alongside this text, we have tried to show the four places where Fede e Luce lives in Italy or is taking root — and will continue to grow, God willing.
Each of us — young and old — has a task during these summer months: to keep the bonds alive. Send postcards. Send memories, letters, ideas. If you find yourself passing through and know someone in our community, you will find friends ready to welcome you and help you if you need it.
May Communion — the theme of our reflection and commitment for 1979 — be lived by all of us, in union with one another, in rest and in work, in prayer of thanksgiving for the great things God does for each of us, no matter what.
Mariangela Bertolini, 1979