Dear Mariangela, as we say our final goodbye, so many images come to mind—so many experiences, so many faces. We choose to greet you in the way we think you would have wanted: with the simple words we say to each other at Faith and Light, words we hear again and again, especially from the young people: THANK YOU and WE LOVE YOU!
Thank you for your enthusiasm, which inspired so many to discover the beauty of living the Faith and Light experience.
Thank you for your smile, which often said more than any words could.
Thank you for your gaze—always present, always attentive to the smallest and most fragile among us, and always turned away from what was trivial or false.
Thank you for your honest, open nature, even in anger, which taught us the importance of being real and tearing down walls and pretense.
Thank you for always saying yes when we asked you to join us, and for diving back in each time, listening closely to what was being asked of you.
Thank you for your simplicity, which won hearts—especially in that unique way you had with the young people—and which helped create the strong bonds we feel today.
Thank you for your faith. For so long (at least for Saint Sylvia), you were our spiritual guide, helping all of us find our own way to pray.
Thank you for your faithfulness—your faithfulness and that of people like you who began Faith and Light and remain witnesses to that story, never having left it behind.
Thank you for teaching us what truly matters and what is merely superfluous, to be left behind.
WE LOVE YOU because you made us laugh, helped us pray and play together, because even when you grew angry, you made peace quickly, and above all because you loved each one of us—especially the simplest among us.
Now your LIGHT—so bright, so warm, so radiant, which we have used to help us find our way—has become a star. Perhaps fainter now, but a fixed point of reference, always present and visible to all.
We ask Jesus, you, and all our friends from Faith and Light with whom you are now reunited, for the strength, enthusiasm, and faith to continue on the path you taught us to walk, and for the courage you showed in giving of yourselves, transcending the limits of time.
Angelo Colacino, 2014