An idea sprang up, inspired by the Virgin Mary

Marie-Hélène Mathieu, founder of the Christian Foundation for Disabled People (Office Chrétien des personnes handicapées, OCH) remembers Jean Vanier (Canadian, founder of the Catholic Community of L'Arche), who passed away on May 7, 2019, and was co-founder with her of the international movement Faith and Light:

"Faith and Light is the great work we were both called together to undertake. We hadn’t planned it. It was truly a work of God that still amazes us today. It all started in 1968 with a conversation we had about a married couple, Camille and Gerard, who couldn’t participate in any pilgrimages to Lourdes because they had severely handicapped children. They ended up going separately. Only one hotel accepted to have them, as long as they remained discreet. Even inside the shrine, looks of pity or rejection had deeply wounded them. Their story shocked us. We both had the same idea, no doubt inspired by the Virgin Mary... Hadn’t she chosen little Bernadette, the most despised girl in Lourdes, to announce her message to the whole world? So we thought: Why not organize a pilgrimage for the weakest, who are also the dearest to her heart? They would go with their parents and their friends, and other young people.

After three years of intense preparation, we finally arrived in Lourdes on Good Friday 1971. There were 12,000 pilgrims from 15 countries, including 4,000 with mental disabilities, on the esplanade of Lourdes Shrine! Love had permitted this miracle. You could see joy and suffering walking side by side. We experienced four days of alleluias! We witnessed so many visible and invisible miracles in people’s hearts, in that normally reluctant city.

On Easter Monday, the Faith and Light movement was born! A cry rose among our pilgrims: "We want Faith and Light to live on!" Jean Vanier and I answered them: "Continue to gather in communities to share friendship, prayer, and festive celebrations. Let the Holy Spirit inspire you!" In front of the Virgin’s and Bernadette’s Grotto our pilgrimage ended, but the Faith and Light movement was born. Today it has 1,400 communities established in 85 countries." 

Aleteia