What is Faith & Light?
The Ministry with the Disabled takes its expression primarily through the Faith & Light community here in Penang.
Communities that meet, centred around the person with an intellectual disability
A Faith and Light Community, is a group of 15 to 40 persons (children, teenagers or adults with an intellectual disability, their family, friends) who meet together at least once per month for a gathering of friendship, sharing, prayer and celebration. Between gatherings the members of a community forge personal ties : "where there is a friend there is a way". Communities are usually rooted in their parish and take part in the life of their Church.Faith and Light gathers together Christians of different confessions and aspires to answer Jesus’s prayer “Father make us ONE”. In addition to the regular gatherings, the communities organise various other activities according to the needs, creativity of the members and inspiration of God. They organise holiday camps, retreats, pilgrimages, times of welcome and animation for persons with an intellectual disability in order to allow
their parents to have a rest etc.
Hope to be given and to be received
To the person with a disability, Faith and Light reveals that he is called upon to give all the treasures of his heart, his affection, his faithfulness.
To families, Faith and Light brings them essential support in their difficulties, helps them to better perceive the inner beauty of their child and to discover that he can be a source of life and unity. To friends, particularly young friends, Faith and Light opens up the way to a friendships with the person with an intellectual disability and to a commitment to that person, each person discovering in the other the living presence of Jesus, a new sense to their life. An extraordinary human adventure.
A message
At a time when many children with an intellectual disability are being eliminated before or even after their birth, or are being abandoned, Faith and Light believes that the life of each person is unique and sacred. Even the most diminished person is called upon to be a source of joy and peace in the Church and in the world. Faith and Light Communities want to bear witness to the affection of God for them and their family.
"Faith and Light is founded on the belief that each person with an intellectual disability is fully a person with all the rights of a human being : above all the right to be loved, recognized and respected for himself or herself and in the choices he/she makes. Faith and Light also believes that every person, able-bodied or disabled, is equally loved by God and that Jesus lives in them. Faith and Light believes that every person, even the most disabled, is called to deepen his or her life in Jesus through his/her Church. He/she is called to be a source of grace and peace for the world." (F&L Charter)
F&L Logo
