Consecrated Life
A Public Association of the Faithful
On the Feast of the Assumption, August 15, 1999, Comunità Cenacolo
opened its Formation House for religious men and women. This
grace-filled event, precious in the eyes of God, had been a deep
yearning in the heart of Sister Elvira for many years.
His Excellency Bona Diego, retired Bishop of Saluzzo, Italy, where Comunità Cenacolo's Mother House is located, began the canonical process whereby Comunità Cenacolo has become a Public Association of the Faithful in the diocese of Saluzzo. All the men, women, and children of Comunità Cenacolo are part of this Public Association of the Faithful, whose heart is the religious Brothers and Sisters.
To receive official universal recognition of the Holy See as a religious congregation, there must be 40 fully consecrated Brothers and Sisters. Currently, four men of the Community have been ordained as priests of the diocese of Saluzzo. They have been granted permission by the Bishop to serve their ministerial priesthood in Comunità Cenacolo. These men took the three religious vows, poverty, chastity, and obedience. They also took a fourth vow: service and love of the poor.
All the men and women who desire to enter the Formation House of Comunità Cenacolo must first live in one of the regular houses of Comunità Cenacolo, in order to know the Community and its members from their own lived experience in Cenacolo, as well as to validate their own desire to give their lives specifically in the service of the Comunità Cenacolo. Here I am! Send Me!
Sister Elvira says, "A call as luminous as this can even become mysterious, because it seems like you can see nothing! These youth say 'yes'. They have the courage to say 'yes', even with all their sins. The first rule to enter in our community is to realize that you are a sinner. Human qualities do not interest us: if you have good health, if you are young, if you are old. We are not interested if you are rich, if you are poor, if you are intelligent, if you have studied theology. From today onward, they begin to live together, to understand one another, to forgive one another, to live in holiness. When we are good, we make the world good. When we are humble, we help confuse the proud, to actually save themselves! When we are able to love, then others become healed! It is our kindness and not our professionalism that illuminates the world, that saves the world,that helps people!"
Referring to the time lived in one of the regular houses of Comunità Cenacolo in hopes of entering the House of Formation, Sister Elvira says, "The path of preparation that they have done is not a time of empty waiting. With the Lord, you cannot just 'wait'. Waiting is purification. It is a passage from sorrow to a love that convinces you more, that matures you more, that makes you truer in the response that you want to give to God." For more Information
For more information about the consecrated life in the Comunità Cenacolo, E-mail info@hopereborn.org, or call 904 471-8453