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Our Way of Life

The beauty of Christian life

To those we welcome, we propose a way of life that is simple, familial, disciplined, based on rediscovering the essential gifts of prayer and work (“ora et labora”), of true friendship, of sacrifice, and of the living faith in Jesus.
The spirituality of Community is profoundly Eucharistic and Marian. We alternate moments of prayer (Rosary, Eucharistic Adoration, and Liturgy of the Hours), of work, and of deep sharing of our own life in front of the Word of God and the brothers, of fun and celebration. We believe that a Christian life in its simplicity and fullness is the real answer to every restless heart, and that the meeting with God gives a rebirth to hope.

Our day
The rules that Community proposes are fruit of many years of walking close to the poor. The steps that the Community proposes as a path of rebirth were conceived at the concrete school of life. It’s a simple but demanding school of life, one that requests sacrifice because we want this time to be an important one in the life of those we welcome, and one that will signal a new walk. For it to be so, it has to be demanding.

Schedule. Our day is articulated by moments of prayer, work, sharing, and friendship in the truth.

Our day begins at 6:00 AM when we rise and pray the Joyful Mysteries, then breakfast, and we are off to work; the jobs are varied and everyone has a duty for a certain period of time, then we switch off. This is because we believe that work is a chance of confrontation and growth, and then, as Sister Elvira often says, the most important work that Community teaches us is the work of living.

After lunch, we spend some time together, and around 2:00 PM, we start the work that will keep us busy in the afternoon. We pray the Sorrowful Mysteries at work to learn that while working, one can also pray. At 6:30 we pray the Glorious Mysteries, we share the Word of God and our life.

Then after dinner, we have moments of fun and friendship, and at 10:00 PM, we wish each other good night.

Sacrifice. In Community, we neither smoke nor drink. We don’t watch television (unless we watch a nice movie, or a sporting game together) or listen to music (with the exception of what we ourselves sing, or some clean music). There’s no free time for us to manage ourselves, we cannot receive phone calls for a while unless it’s an absolute necessity.

All this so that one can concentrate totally on himself without running away and without external distractions, to allow this time to be fruitful for life. The sacrifice that the Community asks of us allows us to get to know and value one another, that we may see that we are able to overcome many limits, many comforts, and many fears. Through this, we experience that real joy does not come from things we have, does not depend on things around us, but on who we are inside. Each and every one of us before had everything, but we were unhappy: today, in a simple, clean, and true life, we have joy in the heart and the will to live!

Relationships. We live daily moments of facing ourselves in friendship and prayer that we call “sharing” or “condivision,” and weekly the revision of life where we all share our lives in an atmosphere of profound truth and frankness. Through the correction and fraternal help we discover the gift of true friendship that helps us to grow, to change our faults, and to overcome our fears.

Expecting nothing in return. All those that live in the Community do not expect anything back from it and no one gets paid.

The schedule that Community proposes is the same for everyone, and that is because the goal to attain is the same for everyone, to learn how to live our life with serenity in the light of the Word of God and of a true relationship with the brothers and sisters of the Community.

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