Empty chairs on the stage, colorful cardboard shapes, slightly unruly headpieces, a pristine white backdrop… scattered clues of those dramatizations that in Fede e Luce we call mimes, which over the three days spent in Pompei proved once again to be wonderful opportunities to see how a community moves in order to meet each one of its precious members.
In the Campanian town, several Italian communities created beautiful moments of alternative storytelling. Germoglio di Speranza, from Mazara del Vallo, brought to life the characters and gestures described in the Magnificat, where the person portraying Mary showed herself fully capable of conveying—through her joyful dance—that idea of a gentle breeze through which God revealed Himself to Elijah (despite that capricious headpiece—or perhaps precisely thanks to it?—that stubbornly sought an unexpected position). Come un pittore, a song by Modà, became the canvas evoked by the text, in all its colors and emotions. With simple movements and colorful cardboard pieces in the hands of the performers, the Condivisione group from Fidenza made the stage bloom by setting rays of sunlight in motion. From Messina, the members of Edelweiss composed every element of that painting by Meb that later became the association’s logo: a rough sea, a boat and its lost yet united passengers, gray and white clouds, and the sun emerging behind them. Each element was used to describe, in simple words, many emotional states that everyone can recognize as their own, giving voice to all the parts involved in Fede e Luce communities—parents, people with disabilities, and friends.
Finally, the vigil at the sanctuary: here the words of the Gospel illuminated the praying assembly not only through the candles that, held in our hands, accompanied our entrance into the church, but also through shadows cast upon a white screen. The group from San Pietro di Avenza took care of the animated part, while the meditations and gestures proposed to the assembly were prepared by a friend from Cuneo. Five images of Mary were witnessed here as well, through the voices of mothers, fathers, spiritual assistants, friends, and people with disabilities, in a multisensory chorus where voices and bodies expressed the distinctive variety of means and unity of purpose within the communities.
Each of these moments was a precious filigree, shaped by that attention and care that Mary has taught us ever since Camille and Gérard, with their fragile sons Thaddée and Loïc (and also Mariangela and Paolo with their Maria Francesca), sought her out in Lourdes more than fifty years ago. So that we may continue to sing together the words of the hymn: “A thousand colors in a painting of friends that I call community!”
