When summer arrives, we're tempted to say goodbye to Faith and Light. It's true that our group meetings, our Masses together, our little retreats, our prayer vigils, our evenings reflecting on the Gospel—all of these close for a while. But that's no reason to think the spirit of Faith and Light, the friendship that binds us ever more tightly, has to take a vacation too.
Instead, as we said last year, we can keep that spirit alive during the summer months—just through different means and in a different way:
There is the mail—and even if it works a bit slowly, it can carry letters and postcards to the friends in your own group and to those from other groups you met in Assisi. How happy it makes certain young people, certain parents, to receive a postcard from Carla, from Roberta, from Pinino...
There is the special bulletin about Assisi, which we hope will arrive in July. It will let us relive those days we spent together at Easter: the photographs, the testimonies, the articles will give us something to talk about under the beach umbrella with new friends, with parents, with priests...
There are those who never take a vacation: how can we ignore the urgent pull we feel to do something practical for a friend's family, to take a younger brother or sister to the beach for two weeks, to offer our seaside apartment to a family in need?
There is time to read a book recommended by our magazine, or to write an article about something close to our hearts, to offer criticism, suggestions, advice.
There is the chance to be present to someone who, in summer or perhaps always, is alone: elderly people come to mind, those who are sick, those in the hospital.
There is above all—and this we wish for everyone—the precious time to meditate and pray a little more.
Faith and Light is first and foremost a "spirit" that pushes us toward encounter with our brothers and sisters, especially those closest to us, those we did not choose—and it calls us to break through every obstacle that stands in the way: shyness, insecurity, dislike, fatigue, lack of time...
How many excuses we know how to make! Hiding behind them, we don't notice how quickly the summer days slip away, and we're left with a terrible emptiness...
But if we pay attention—if we refuse to waste the good moments, the opportunities, the inspirations, the impulses to reach out to "others"—then by summer's end we'll see that Faith and Light never went away. On the contrary, it will have helped us live those months with more joy and more fully. And when we gather again for our meetings and retreats and group sessions, we'll come back with renewed energy and a greater love.
Mariangela Bertolini, 1978