Writing doesn't come naturally to me, but I feel both a need and a duty to share with you what Lebanon taught me—an experience that was intense and surprising in equal measure.
As I write, I think of many of your faces, dear friends with whom I've shared beautiful moments in Faith and Light, but I also think of communities I've never met (though hardly strangers!) new realities where I can only glimpse the joy and ferment that lives there.
Five years ago, I left Puglia to teach first in Rome, then in Piedmont. I left as so many do: with dreams, emotions, homesickness, and the stubbornness of remaining Apulian everywhere, a Friend of Faith and Light everywhere. And that's what happened.
I had the chance to experience Faith and Light in several regions while keeping my bonds with my home communities strong. I began to see, quite naturally, that Faith and Light is one—always the same—everywhere.
This awareness made it simple to keep my role as community coordinator more than a thousand kilometers away, and it made it possible to take part in the international assembly in Lebanon as a delegate from the Mari and Vulcani province. Geography doesn't break the ties that bind us!
Along with Alberto, Larysa, and Igor, we attended every meeting, debating and finding common ground, even when we started from different perspectives. In casting our votes, we carried the concrete presence of all of you.
They were extraordinary days—full of emotion, exhaustion, countless stimuli, and so much laughter. I saw how, beyond geography, language, and habit, the same basic truths unite all of us in this large family: the attention of friends, the wounds of parents, the infinite tenderness of our young people. It's always the same! Yet what may be ordinary in some communities becomes merely an ideal aspiration in others—in places where email barely reaches, or worse, where there is war. We discovered the remarkable normality of dialogue in countries where different faiths live side by side. Dialogue is a choice, and it begins with us, in our small communities, then becomes a way of life and thinking.
I saw how, beyond geography and language, the attention of friends, the wounds of parents, the tenderness of our young people... are always the same.
I saw how, beyond geography and language, the attention of friends, the wounds of parents, the tenderness of our young people... are always the same.I won't burden you with the specific content of the assembly—you can easily find that on the Faith and Light website (fedeeluce.it). But I do want to share two images with you.
The first is the human warmth and the competence of Faith and Light in Lebanon. Large communities with a strong presence of young people who organized this assembly with what I'd call near perfection, showing great skill across many areas: theology, prayer, dialogue, workshops, hospitality, celebration. A powerful lesson in what an effective team can be.
The second is an Egyptian girl during a workshop. We'd been asked to draw a biblical passage about Jesus meeting with his friends. Through a maze of language barriers—improbable translations from Arabic to Polish to English—we finally understood each other. She began to draw a human figure representing Jesus. But his friends were missing.
"This is easy," I thought. "With friends!"—and to my horror, I watched her quickly erase a half-hour's worth of careful translation work!
...Oh no! What did I say? I'm signing up for English lessons tonight!!
A moment later, I understood. From her pencil emerged a sky and a boat, making clear to me that Jesus with his friends is only the one in the boat—he is the one in Faith and Light, and his closest friends are us. It was one of countless moments that enriched my heart in those days.
So I'll close with this image, thinking of all of us in our little boat, and wishing for each of you that at every port there are other Friends of Faith and Light ready to welcome you, scattering flower petals on the path as our Lebanese friends did for us in Byblos.
Marcella Potenza, 2018