Cenacolo UK

Despite the restrictions of lockdown, we have been enjoying the amazingly good weather we have had recently and everything is growing well.  Here is a look at what’s going on..

Looking much further ahead, our wood stores are nice and full for the winter with wood from the fallen tree which we have now finished cutting up

And a day off from our normal work – enjoying some relaxed time in the sunshine on Ascension Day

We celebrated James’s birthday….

… and congratulated Giancarlo on completing a full year at Cenacolo.

“Now we see only reflections in a mirror …”  (1 Corinthians 13:12)

Dear Friends

We lived the time of Lent reflecting and with the right spirit waiting for the resurrection as Mother Elvira taught us.

We celebrated a good, if unconventional, Easter but with love and in friendship among us, also we had a special Holy Mass via live streaming from the House of Mother Elvira in Saluzzo celebrated by Father Marco, Father Stefano and the Sisters.

Despite the corona virus situation, we trust ourselves to the protection of Our Lady and everything is going fine.

We tried to get everything ready for the Open Day because we like to think of all of you – even if you are far from us in distance you are very close in our thoughts and prayers.

* We painted all the main house and also the animal barn, the sheds and the fences.
* We cut all the grass and prepared all the flower beds ready for the celebration.
* The good weather has been helping us with the garden and everything is sprouting.
* We started to build a prayer centre for our open-air Holy Mass for the future.
* The animals are good and we have new chicks and hopefully we are going to introduce piglets in our family.

We would have so enjoyed showing you around! However, we are doing the next best thing we can and have taken lots of photographs so you can see how it looks… 

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All the lads have prepared a video to say hello to you and all our loved ones.

Damian

Edward

Giancarlo

James

Paolo

Looking forward to seeing you soon and to spend time together in the near future. We wish you Happy Easter, God Bless and the peace of the Lord be with you.

Cenacolo Boys.

(if you would like a printable, though not identical, version of this post click below)
May 2020 Open Day – printable version

The Cenacolo Prayer Groups dotted all around the country are the very backbone of the Community.

We all know that the guys in the Houses rely on Divine Providence and that is not just food and other material necessities. It is primarily prayer – your prayer, the prayer of their parents and family. Without prayer, the struggle is lost. This spiritual providence is the life-blood of the Community. The guys in ‘our’ House at present are a small number but they have not stopped praying and nor must we.

Even though Prayer Groups cannot meet together at this difficult time, it is still important to offer the Cenacolo prayers as individual members of the group. Indeed, it is more important than ever at this dark time to offer prayer for the lads in our House. Also for those suffering from addiction and those whom God is calling into the Community. The voice of the world is very loud and can often drown out the merciful call of God to the disaffected boy or girl to enter the Community. Our fervent and faithful prayer has to succeed in overcoming the noise of the world so as to enter into the consciousness of the struggling person.

It cannot be overstated how important it is to pray at this time. So I ask leaders of prayer groups to contact their members to encourage them to keep the prayer going and even ask others to pray. The rosary is a good prayer to offer for this intention.

Pray, Pray, Pray.

God bless & thank you,

Fr Chris Loughran

We would like to thank the Community in Saluzzo for the gift of the livestream of Easter Sunday Mass in English from the House of Formation of the Community.

At this time when we are not able to physically attend mass or to be together, it was very special to be able to share the Easter mass together in this way.

Wishing you every blessing for this Easter week and the rest of the Easter season from the Cenacolo Community.

The lads continue their daily routine in the midst of all the Covid 19 restrictions.

They maintain their daily round of work, prayer and sharing. They pray especially for those troubled by the virus.

They thank you for your prayers and for those who have been able to supply them with providence. They still rely on providence.

Because of social distancing, if you wish to take providence for the lads, please simply take it to the inner gate (the one beyond the lane) and leave it there, where it will be found and collected.  Thank you.

On a very stormy day, in front of a beautiful view across Morcambe Bay, we gathered for a peaceful day together. We had a moment of welcoming followed by the introduction of the parents of the Guys in Community, or who have been in Community, and Bruno told everyone that he was going to leave and Paolo introduced himself as the new Responsible.

Fr Michael celebrated a beautiful Holy Mass during which he spoke about St Peter and the twelve apostles showing how they represent all the different kinds of people, each with their own poverties, that we can find in the world.  He explained that although St Peter’s denied Jesus he nevertheless repented and came back to him and this is the case with the Guys here in Cenacolo.

During lunch we had the opportunity to listen to Bryan Ingleby’s incredible story about the beginning of the UK Cenacolo, and then after praying the glorious mysteries of the rosary we watched a video of Mother Elvira speaking to the Guys back stage of the Recital. We were all impressed by her powerful words.

On Saturday 7th March we said goodbye to Bruno. It was an emotional moment as he had been with us here in Kendal for four years, the last nearly two of those as Responsible.

We gathered together for a beautiful celebration of Holy Mass with Fr Michael, Fr Hugh and Fr Philip celebrating. At the end of the mass Bruno received a blessing from the priests to help him in the next steps of his walk.  After that a lovely plate of lasagne was enjoyed by the many friends of the House who had come to wish Bruno well in his ongoing walk.

Chris said a few words about Bruno’s time here, remembering about his arrival in the floods during Storm Desmond, and thanked him for his friendship and for his contribution to the House.  Bruno then greeted everyone with heartfelt words and thanked the Community and Mother Eliva for having given him back his life.

We were honoured to be invited to Lancaster to carry the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham into the cathedral when it arrived there as part of the Dowry Exhibition tour of the county which started in 2018 and finishes around the Annunciation this year. This exhibition is to help prepare for the re-dedication of England as the dowry of Mary.

We went on Thursday and Saturday and listened to the homilies of  Mgr Armitage about the importance of entrusting our lives to Our Lady and asking for her intercession and her prayers especially in the world of today.

We want to thank the diocese of Lancaster and especially Bishop Paul for this opportunity to be so involved in this special occasion.

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.