Our Mother Mary’s Bouquet Community

“Yet God has chosen what is foolish, to shame the wise. He has chosen what the world considers weak to shame the strong. God has chosen common and unimportant people, making use of what is nothing to nullify the things that are” 1 Corinthians 1:27-28

At the heart of this community movement born of a desire to help people with intellectual disability and their families find their place within the church and society,

What We Understand and Put into Plan

At the heart of this community are people with more or less intellectual disabilities. We give persons with such conditions the possibility of recognizing and using their own unique gifts and discovering the simple joys of friendship!

To the parents who have children with an intellectual disability, Faith and Light provides support in their trials and helps them to better appreciate the inner beauty of such their children. A number, in turn, become a source of strength and an assistance to other parents who are crushed by their suffering their daily difficulties.

Meanwhile, the brothers and sisters of the people with intellectual disability are called to appreciate the simple fact that a person with a disability can be a source of life and unity; if this person disrupts their life, he or she can also transform and transfigure it, and thus turn it into a positive experience.

Thanks to the person with intellectual disability, friends also come to understand that there is another world, a world other than that of competition, money and material pleasures. Those who are weak and poor invite them into a world of tenderness and fidelity, of listening and of faith.

Faith and Light believes that each person with a mental handicap no matter how severe that handicap:

• Is loved by God and that Jesus lives in them even if they are scarcely able to express themselves
• Through union with Jesus, can truly become a source of peace and renewal for the whole community for the church and for all humanity
• Is fully a person with all the rights of a human being and is not limited in their capacity to love and to be loved!
  

What We Did in 2006

2006 ahs been an eventful year for our community, we have made announcements and conducted sharing in the church by sponsoring the Mass on during the Feast of the presentation of the Lord (2 Feb 2006) which is also our Feast Day. As a follow-up to this, we have also organised a session on Faith & Light. This has produced an increase in the number of both friends and special friends and their families among our community.

In addition, we have had our very first over-night pilgrimage in Port Dickson in celebration of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

We continue to be struck by the deep longing of those in the community who express a need for belonging together in deeper friendship and relationship with God and fellow friends. And we certainly welcome you as individuals, parents, guardians, families and friends to be a part of this humble family.