Again this year some of us had the opportunity to participate in Mother Elvira’s birthday organised in Envie from the 19th to 21st of January. The first day welcomed boys, girls and the original friends of our Community; Fr Stefano started the day by remembering the personality of Elvira and showed some old videos and some images of her today; he wanted to transmit her ongoing charisma in this period of sufferance.

The Community proposed three key words for this event: three “musts” which we have to put into practice when we return to our own fraternities:
– Fidati / Trust: following the example of Elvira who from the beginning always trusted and believed in the infinite goodness of God the Father who provided for the needs of the Community. “Fidati” needs to become really an act of trust in Cenacolo, to accept what the Community proposes to us, to follow a walk that, especially at the beginning, can be too difficult and so very different from the world outside.
– Liberati / Free yourself: Elvira has been a free woman, free from false values, free from the mask of the world of today. So we need to live without any mask, to live in the truth, free from sin and compromises, remembering every day that the truth sets us free.
– Scomodati / Choose the uncomfortable: Elvira “consumed” herself by the work, she sacrificed all her life, initially serving her family, then serving the Community, the youth, all of us. So choose the uncomfortable must become our rule of life, to put ourselves aside, to be ready to love our neighbour and to serve our brothers every day.

We lived a lot of moments of prayer, Eucharistic adoration, holy Mass and listened to some testimonies of the original friends of our Community. Everybody was in agreement in recognising the charisma, the faith, the fighting spirit of this great woman.

Monday and Tuesday were dedicated just for the boys. We watched some mimes to do with the three key words, videos from the missions, sang some songs, and also we gave our small help to our Irish brothers singing “Our Lady of Knock”.

We spent the rest of the week in the fraternity “Little Shepherds of Fatima” in Pagno and we participated in the meeting with the parents on Saturday. During it there was a very moving catechism from Fr Stefano about the importance also for the families to “enter” into the Community, to follow a walk of conversion, and to understand that often the problems of addition are born in the original upbringing.

Thank you for the gift to spend some time in the heart of our Community; thank you Mary for the life of Mother Elvira and for all those who have believed in her, in the divine providence and so made possible the project of Cenacolo. We want to put into your hands all the future projects of our Community.