Birth and Developments
On July 16, 1983, the day the Church remembers Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Sister Elvira Petrozzi, known today as Mother Elvira, started the Community It was an abandoned house given by the Municipality on a hill in Saluzzo, a town in the province of Cuneo (Piedmont). It was a response of God’s tenderness to the cry of desperation of so many young people who were lost, deceived and disappointed. They were seeking the true meaning of like in the false light of the world.
A place was born that welcomes life in loving service. Over the years this loving service has become a source of hope and resurrection for many people lost in the world of darkness, who are sad, marginalized, desperate, drugged.
Mother Elvira started off thinking she would open one house, but like always the plans of God’s heart are reveal themselves to be bigger than human plans: young people come from everywhere asking to be welcomed so they can rise to new life. This is how the houses, fraternities, in Community Cenacolo have multiplied over the years. First in Italy, then in Europe and other countries.
Currently there are 71 houses present in 20 countries of the world.
(Italy: 25 fraternities; Austria: 1; Bosnia & Herzegovina: 2; Croatia: 7; France: 5; England: 1; Ireland: 1; Poland: 4; Portugal: 1; Slovakia: 1; Spain: 2; United States: 4; Argentina: 4; Costa Rica: 1; Brazil: 5; Mexico: 1; Peru: 3; Paraguay: 1; Liberia: 1; Philippines: 1).Thousands have been welcomed into fraternities throughout Europe and North America. Many young people discover true life thought their journey in Community.
In Latin America’s Community, in addition to some underprivileged young people, several missions were created to welcome the orphans and abandoned street children. Our first African mission for orphaned children was born a few years ago.No matter where the hand of Divine Providence guides us, we wish to be a small but significant light in the world of darkness, a hope that is reborn, a living testimony that death does not have the final word.
Over the years, the community lifestyle of faith, sharing, and service drew many young volunteers, lay people, families, brothers (including some priests) and consecrated sisters.These individuals live and dedicate themselves full-time, in total gratuitousness, to the service of Mother Elvira’s work and vision. They share their lives with the people they welcome, embarking on a fraternal journey “from darkness to light” that leads to the rediscovery of the joy of faith, the beauty of life and of true freedom.
The Cenacolo Community has been recognized by the Church, at the Pontifical Council for the Laity, as the International Private Association of the Faithful.
Mother Elvira often says that …”we are the first witnesses of God’s miracle that was never thought of or planned at a table. It surpasses us and surprises us for which we are partakers by grace.”
The Community not only wants to be a place of recovery and social assistance, but a “school of life,” we are a “big family” where the person who is welcomed can feel at home recovering their dignity, healing their wounds, finding peace in their hearts, the joy of living, and the desire to love.
For those who knock on our door we propose a simple, communal family lifestyle. Sincere friendship and a welcoming spirit are the foundation of loving human relationships. They rediscover work as a gift and commitment to mature in the responsibilities of life. Prayer is faith in Jesus Christ, who died and rose for us in response to the need for infinite love that inhabits the human heart.
We believe that the Christian life in its fullness is the true answer to every anxiety of the heart. Only He, the One who created man, can rebuild his heart that is lost and wounded by the experiences that have deluded, deceived, and disappointed them.
The true strength of the Community is love that becomes joyful service, welcoming freely, sincere sharing, and demanding education. This love is born from Christ’s Cross which “gives life to the dead, freedom to prisoners, sight to the blind.”
From the very beginning we have lived in blindly trusting in Divine Providence. It manifests itself through our daily commitment and through small and great gestures of goodness and generosity of the many people who believe in our proposal of life and faith.
We give thanks to the Lord, as we are the first to be amazed by what His love is doing before our own eyes. We thank Him because He makes us daily participants in His Resurrection. Every day we see life returning into lifeless people and we see smiles on the faces of those who had lost all hope.
“I wanted there to be something in the name that had to do with Our Lady. We asked ourselves; where is Mary in the Bible? One place was the Cenacle: Mary was there with the apostles, closed and full of fear after the death of Jesus. They were just like today’s shy, mute, and scared youth. Her maternal presence gathers them together and helps them to pray. The Holy Spirit comes down with the strength of God and they become courageous witnesses. We called it the Comunità Cenacolo (Community of the Cenacle), because we want this same transformation to take place in the hearts of the young people whom we welcome.
We love to call ourselves a Community of public sinners. Sinners loved and saved by the Lord who today want to show the world the infinite and grand mercy of God. This is our message: we want to be the living hope of an ever-present mercy, that is always active, always new for me, for them, for everyone!”
-Mother Elvira
One Big Family
Mother Elvira likes to call our Community “a family of public sinners,” made up of people who in their past have “publicly” failed, showing themselves to be weak and poor. Today, thanks to the Lord’s infinite mercy they have been resurrected and are “rich” people inside who are called to witness everywhere the living hope that is born and reborn in the heart when man meets the Risen Lord.
Over the years the young people, after being “resurrected”, have joined Mother Elvira in their desire to “stay.” They volunteer freely in giving what they have received to other young people in need: families that are open to live, eager to live a wider horizon of love; men and women who have felt the “call of God” to give their whole life in the work.
It came to be like this, one “son” after another, the ones we can call the “great family” of the Cenacolo Community. Compiled of many different members of the People of God who was together “from darkness to light,” each participating in the mission of the Community according to the gifts and the possibilities of one’s state of life.
The Lord wanted the first “workers” who joined Mother Elvira in this “vineyard” in the history of the Community to be the young people themselves: guys and girls who after rising to life in their community journey have chosen to “remain” as volunteers. They freely give back what they have received, reaching out to the needs of the poor that the Community welcomes.
The Lord wanted from the beginning that the people welcomed in the Community were not only here to “receive.” Once resurrecting to new life, they themselves would be protagonists and instruments in God’s hands to “give”, to multiply goodness, to give love. “You have received freely and freely you are to give”: After having traveled seriously for years on their journey of their personal resurrection, those who feel this “vocation” to this missionary volunteer service are called “Servants of Love.”
Some live this “time of giving and service” for some years and others for life. It is thanks to their generosity that the fraternities in carious lands have multiplied. The heart of the Community has been able to broaden its horizons in love. The embrace of the community has reached the missions of Latin America, Africa, serving the young people and children who were left on the streets.
We are grateful to the Lord for the way He is “unfolding” our story, allowing the mission of our service to emerge: to make those we welcome protagonists through the gift of themselves, in service and charity. Our goodness must “ignite” the desire and joy of loving and serving in those who receive it. As Mother Elvira teaches us “We must make charity walk with the feet of all.”
Among the resurrected youth there are some who discover the call to have a Christian family. They wish to live in community as families who are open to life. Their hearts and homes are open wide to receive not only their natural children, but also the wounded brothers and sisters who need human and spiritual warmth that only a Christian family can give. These families live life in Community full-time, in total gratuitousness, for a few years or for life. They live freely in harmony while having various responsibilities and participating in the various moments of prayer, work and service. The Community supports their personal and Christian journey but does not replace the fundamental educational role that parents play with their children.
The presence of the spouses together with their children is an important sign of trust and hope for all whom we welcome. It’s especially important for the young people and children who often have been deeply hurt by their family relationships. It’s a visible sign of the beauty and the fruitfulness that Christian love gives to life.
In recent years, several young people have strongly felt God’s call to follow Him and serve Him in His work; to “give their lives for their friends” in the charism of Comunità Cenacolo. They live a more radical choice to follow Jesus Christ, embracing the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, obedience and service and love for the poor according to the lifestyle of the Community.
Their life as brothers, dedicated to prayer, fraternal sharing and service to the poor, is a living sign of God’s merciful love for the marginalized and the excluded above all else.
Their service aims to accompany each person mortally and spiritually in joyfully sharing their lives through service. They educate people in different fraternities both morally and spiritually so that they themselves become witnesses, missionary announcers of the liberating salvation of the Gospel.
The religious family of the Missionary Sisters of the Resurrection was born within the charism and apostolic service of Comunità Cenacolo. It was formed by the women who have risen thanks to their encounter with Christ during their journey in Community. They rediscovered the precious beauty of Christian life, feeling Jesus’ call to consecrated life. They are called to “give their lives” to Him and to their brothers and sisters, living a fruitful spousal relationship with Christ. They are called to a maternal charity for the wounded humanity of our time.
They come from different countries and currently reside in Italy, Brazil, Peru, Mexico and Liberia.
Sisters…
Even though they live as a part of the great family of Comunità Cenacolo, they live the charisma of consecrated life. They live the radical choice of following the Lord and a personal sanctification through professing religious vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, service and love for the poor, witnessed also through the sign of the religious habit and the veil.
They are called to live and witness to the importance of prayer, contemplation, time given to God to implore insistently the gift of His mercy. It is the source of the Resurrection, of joy and hope for our wounded humanity.
Missionary…
They live their missionary spirit by expanding their hearts to loving universally. This embraces the world in a total willingness to go and live their apostolate in the missionary works of Comunità Cenacolo. They give themselves generously and without reserve to the places where God’s Providence calls them to work, eager to bring “the joy and hope of the Gospel” to all.
…of the Resurrection
They are resurrected women who, in their hearts, desire to “run” past the ways of the world to announce the joy of the Risen Lord to all. Living and witnessing the enthusiasm of having met Him and the beauty of having married Him. They live Community life and the apostolate in a joyful and gratuitous service, a concrete sign of the Father’s Love who tenderly reaches out to those who are lost, healing the wounds in their hearts through love and restoring dignity, value, hope and trust to every human life.
We have many friends, lay people and families who engage with and support Comunità Cenacolo wherever we are present. They share in our spirituality, service and mission while maintaining their ordinary family and work life.
Thanks to their encounter with Community, many of them discover or rediscover a living faith that becomes intense prayer, sincere conversion and active charity.
They offer their multi-faceted capabilities with great generosity and enthusiasm. They search to be evangelical witness among their own friends and families, looking with mercy on those who are in need. Some of them like to spend some time in our fraternities or our missions, sharing in the Community and missionary lifestyle. They are with the guys, girls and the children to nourish themselves within our charism and to strengthen themselves in the faith. Their friendship and their availability is providence; providing service, advice, help, and life…
“How could I invent a story like this? Everything happened without me even realizing it. I dove into God’s Mercy and I rolled up my sleeves to love, love, love…and serve! I am the first to surprise myself with what has happened and what is happening in the life of the Cenacolo Community. It’s a work of God, the Holy Spirit, and of Mary.”
-Mother Elvira
“How could I invent a story like this? Everything happened without me even realizing it. I dove into God’s Mercy and I rolled up my sleeves to love, love, love…and serve! I am the first to surprise myself with what has happened and what is happening in the life of the Cenacolo Community. It’s a work of God, the Holy Spirit, and of Mary.”
-Mother Elvira
Birth and Developments
On July 16, 1983, the day the Church remembers Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Sister Elvira Petrozzi, known today as Mother Elvira, started the Community It was an abandoned house given by the Municipality on a hill in Saluzzo, a town in the province of Cuneo (Piedmont). It was a response of God’s tenderness to the cry of desperation of so many young people who were lost, deceived and disappointed. They were seeking the true meaning of like in the false light of the world.
A place was born that welcomes life in loving service. Over the years this loving service has become a source of hope and resurrection for many people lost in the world of darkness, who are sad, marginalized, desperate, drugged.
Mother Elvira started off thinking she would open one house, but like always the plans of God’s heart are reveal themselves to be bigger than human plans: young people come from everywhere asking to be welcomed so they can rise to new life. This is how the houses, fraternities, in Community Cenacolo have multiplied over the years. First in Italy, then in Europe and other countries.
Currently there are 71 houses present in 20 countries of the world.
(Italy: 25 fraternities; Austria: 1; Bosnia & Herzegovina: 2; Croatia: 7; France: 5; England: 1; Ireland: 1; Poland: 4; Portugal: 1; Slovakia: 1; Spain: 2; United States: 4; Argentina: 4; Costa Rica: 1; Brazil: 5; Mexico: 1; Peru: 3; Paraguay: 1; Liberia: 1; Philippines: 1).Thousands have been welcomed into fraternities throughout Europe and North America. Many young people discover true life thought their journey in Community.
In Latin America’s Community, in addition to some underprivileged young people, several missions were created to welcome the orphans and abandoned street children. Our first African mission for orphaned children was born a few years ago.No matter where the hand of Divine Providence guides us, we wish to be a small but significant light in the world of darkness, a hope that is reborn, a living testimony that death does not have the final word.
Over the years, the community lifestyle of faith, sharing, and service drew many young volunteers, lay people, families, brothers (including some priests) and consecrated sisters.These individuals live and dedicate themselves full-time, in total gratuitousness, to the service of Mother Elvira’s work and vision. They share their lives with the people they welcome, embarking on a fraternal journey “from darkness to light” that leads to the rediscovery of the joy of faith, the beauty of life and of true freedom.
The Cenacolo Community has been recognized by the Church, at the Pontifical Council for the Laity, as the International Private Association of the Faithful.
Mother Elvira often says that …”we are the first witnesses of God’s miracle that was never thought of or planned at a table. It surpasses us and surprises us for which we are partakers by grace.”
The Community not only wants to be a place of recovery and social assistance, but a “school of life,” we are a “big family” where the person who is welcomed can feel at home recovering their dignity, healing their wounds, finding peace in their hearts, the joy of living, and the desire to love.
For those who knock on our door we propose a simple, communal family lifestyle. Sincere friendship and a welcoming spirit are the foundation of loving human relationships. They rediscover work as a gift and commitment to mature in the responsibilities of life. Prayer is faith in Jesus Christ, who died and rose for us in response to the need for infinite love that inhabits the human heart.
We believe that the Christian life in its fullness is the true answer to every anxiety of the heart. Only He, the One who created man, can rebuild his heart that is lost and wounded by the experiences that have deluded, deceived, and disappointed them.
The true strength of the Community is love that becomes joyful service, welcoming freely, sincere sharing, and demanding education. This love is born from Christ’s Cross which “gives life to the dead, freedom to prisoners, sight to the blind.”
From the very beginning we have lived in blindly trusting in Divine Providence. It manifests itself through our daily commitment and through small and great gestures of goodness and generosity of the many people who believe in our proposal of life and faith.
We give thanks to the Lord, as we are the first to be amazed by what His love is doing before our own eyes. We thank Him because He makes us daily participants in His Resurrection. Every day we see life returning into lifeless people and we see smiles on the faces of those who had lost all hope.
“I wanted there to be something in the name that had to do with Our Lady. We asked ourselves; where is Mary in the Bible? One place was the Cenacle: Mary was there with the apostles, closed and full of fear after the death of Jesus. They were just like today’s shy, mute, and scared youth. Her maternal presence gathers them together and helps them to pray. The Holy Spirit comes down with the strength of God and they become courageous witnesses. We called it the Comunità Cenacolo (Community of the Cenacle), because we want this same transformation to take place in the hearts of the young people whom we welcome.
We love to call ourselves a Community of public sinners. Sinners loved and saved by the Lord who today want to show the world the infinite and grand mercy of God. This is our message: we want to be the living hope of an ever-present mercy, that is always active, always new for me, for them, for everyone!”
-Mother Elvira
One Big Family
Mother Elvira likes to call our Community “a family of public sinners,” made up of people who in their past have “publicly” failed, showing themselves to be weak and poor. Today, thanks to the Lord’s infinite mercy they have been resurrected and are “rich” people inside who are called to witness everywhere the living hope that is born and reborn in the heart when man meets the Risen Lord.
Over the years the young people, after being “resurrected”, have joined Mother Elvira in their desire to “stay.” They volunteer freely in giving what they have received to other young people in need: families that are open to live, eager to live a wider horizon of love; men and women who have felt the “call of God” to give their whole life in the work.
It came to be like this, one “son” after another, the ones we can call the “great family” of the Cenacolo Community. Compiled of many different members of the People of God who was together “from darkness to light,” each participating in the mission of the Community according to the gifts and the possibilities of one’s state of life.