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We share together a
consecrated life of simplicity, of prayer, of work, and of study. We are
consecrated to the Lord through Mary with vows of poverty, chastity,
obedience, and above all with the vow “to be peace” and to intercede for
peace in the Church and of mankind, which for us is our primary vow,
peculiar to our community.
Our history as an Ecclesial Family of Consecrated Life began
in 1985 when the original members, having encountered Our Lady with the
gift of conversion and of Peace, then felt a deep desire to continue the
new life begun, committing themselves together to a consecrated life
with vows made through Mary, with the aim of cooperating with Her so as
to extend and to share in humility this same path of peace and of
healing with many other brothers and sisters, who, wounded by the
sadness of the world, are earnestly in search of peace.
Juridically the Community was constituted on March 25th 1987
and the first house was opened at Priabona (Vicenza) on May 18th of the
same year. The first ecclesial recognition was on December 25th 1990 in
the Diocese of Sabina-Poggio Mirteto and since December 25th 1995,
juridically, we are a “public association of the faithful” in view of
being erected as an Institute of Consecrated Life of diocesan right
within a short period of time. The process has already been begun by the
competent ministry of the Holy See.
At present (2003) there are approximately 110 internal
members - Brothers, Sisters and priests. The Lord has already granted us
the gift of the eleven ordinations to the priesthood within our
Community, while other Brothers in the meantime are preparing for the
priesthood with the necessary studies and formation at Rome and Quixadá
(Brazil). Various Sisters also attend the faculties of Theology,
Philosophy, and other Sciences in university, so as to be able to
cooperate in the formation of the members of our Ecclesial Family.
In addition to the married couples already aggregated to our
Ecclesial Family, living our charism within the family life, many other
families are asking to be part of our Community in view of sanctifying
their matrimony and family. Already they have committed themselves to
the necessary formation.
Likewise the number of Consecrated Secular members is also
increasing, with the aim of sanctifying the christian presence in the
world, in the light of their charism of “Being Peace”.
The Community, from its very beginning, revealed itself as
being international: truly catholic. Most of the members of the
Community are Italians but there are also members from: Germany,
Belgium, France, Austria, Slovenia, Switzerland, Spain, Ireland, U.S.A.,
Canada, Panama, New Zealand, Mauritius, South Korea, Brazil, Croatia,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cameroons, the Czechoslovakian Republic, Rumania,
Poland and Lebanon.
The official languages of the Community are Italian and
English.
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HOW WE LIVE
The
celibate internal Brothers and Sisters share the experience of
community life, while the Consecrated Secular members live our
spirituality while remaining in their daily environment of life
and work. Similarly, the married couples live our spirituality
in their families with a rhythm of life adapted to the marital
state.
The rhythm of our daily life is cadenced by
community prayer - the Holy Mass, the chanting of the Divine
Office, the Holy Rosary in its entirety, spontaneous prayer of
praise, adoration of the Cross - and personal prayer, in
adoration before the Most Blessed Sacrament continuously
exposed, both day and night, in our houses.
In our Communities, it is important to conserve the
climate of silence and of recollection in order to favor the
spirit of continual prayer, and also as an act of perpetual
adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament. Indeed, we consider our
Oasis of Peace to be an expanded Eucharistic Tabernacle. Every
day there are also periods of time for community recreation and
for relaxation.
As Mary asks us, and as practised by the first
Christians, we too have a special love for fasting on bread and
water on Wednesdays and Fridays of every week, except on
particular feast days.
We do not carry out paid work activities external to
the Community, but, rather living according to the Gospel in
total faith and trust in Divine Providence, we have a special
love for work in our Community, both material and intellectual,
seeing it as an extension of prayer and of the climate of
contemplation.
In addtion to the ordinary work of the household, of
agriculture, and of artistry (music, iconography, etc.), the
principal task asked of us by the charism of our vocation is
that of Hospitality: accompanying in a walk of peace and of
healing all those who come to us afflicted by spiritual poverty
of various kinds.
WHAT WE
PROPOSE
As at the
beginning of the Church, the Apostles and other disciples
gathered together in prayer with Mary in the Cenacle and with
Her awaited the gift of the Holy Spirit, similarly we desire to
serve the Ecclesial Community reliving the experience of the
Cenacle guided by Mary, awaiting a new outpouring of the Holy
Spirit for the renewed Pentecost.
We desire to collaborate with Mary in the battle
against the evil one and with Her to implore the gift of Peace
from the Lord, that is the spiritual renewal of the Church for
the conversion and reconciliation with God of many hearts which
are without peace. Indeed, peace is a gift from God which is to
be implored, suffered, and humbly shared.
Therefore, the ministries of our Community are :
Intercession : the continual supplicating of God through prayer
and the offering of one’s own life to beseech from Him the gift
of peace.
Expiation : desiring to live a responsibility
towards the world to be saved, we wish to carry one another’s
burdens, taking upon ourselves the load of sins and illnesses,
both our own and those of others, thus associating ourselves to
Jesus and to His Mother, through a life of simplicity, penitence
and offering.
Hospitality : we desire to offer the same path of
peace which Mary invites us to take to all those who sincerely
seek to live the Gospel of peace and who suffer due to
oppression by many wounds and by the pain of being far from God.
Therefore, our Community, is not cloistered, but open to
accepting others with the heart and to letting them share fully
in our family life. We also engage in gestures of acceptance “ad
extra”, such as moments of personal testimony, of
evangelization, giving special preference to popular missions.
Our Ecclesial Family also feels called to an ever-increasing
involvement in the ecumenical movement; in prayer and in action.
Our ecumenical outlook is directed especially towards the
venerable Churches of the Orient.
Indeed, we desire to participate not only in the
spiritual renewal of the Church, but also in the cultural
renewal of society itself, offering environments of personal and
community life in which the organic revival of the supernatural
may lead to a recovery of the natural rhythms and values -
social relationships, work, sexuality - befitting to a society
in which faith becomes life and becomes culture. We desire to
live and to propose a healthier modality and style of life,
fitting to man, in which the global dimension of a person can be
recuperated according to his true origin, restoring his harmony
and peace with God, with mankind, and with all creation.
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