There are no words to express how beautiful the Festival of Life in Florida was. First of all, we were blessed with such great weather—a bright sun and gentle breeze. It was just perfect! We already had about 360 people on Friday for the Parents and Families Retreat, and we were blessed to have Father Stefano with us. He had just arrived the day before from a visit to the Peru mission! The Parents and Families Retreat was a time of catechesis, rosary, adoration, and testimonies. Pretty much everyone really actively participated in all of it!  Friday night the girls of Santa Maria Goretti did their little show of dances and beautiful testimonies. It was great! On Saturday, even more people came, including many of our former members who had to work on Friday. Again, most of the day we had catechesis, Mass, adoration, rosary, and testimonies. Like the day before, our Father Stefano gave powerful talks about the heart of Cenacolo, which is a life of faith and genuine conversion. He spoke about the difference in a life lived in real faith vs. the emptiness of a life without faith but that manages to look good in outward appearance. He led us in prayer in the Eucharistic healing service, accompanied by the beautiful, prayerful music from our Kim and Kara that opened our hearts even more to Jesus’ forgiveness and love. Fr. Stefano brought our Eucharistic Lord among us for over an hour with almost all our families on their knees for the entire time. The whole day was super peaceful, just like Friday was, and flowed very smoothly.  That evening the guys did their show, “ A Hope Reborn,” the story of our life before Community and a little bit of our life when we enter. It shows the struggle between parents and a son who is in the darkness, plus miracles of Jesus that really reflect our lives! It was pretty good and pretty real, and I am sure that all the families that were there really related to the story. A lot of people were at the Community for the show. For so many parents, it was the first time they were seeing their son or daughter since they entered, so there were a lot of hugs and tears!!  Sunday was another beautiful day, even breezier, but great, and we began with some enthusiastic Community songs to warm up for the day. Then we had a brief introduction of the story of Cenacolo America, and we prepared for the adoration and healing service! It was incredible, such a powerful prayer from our Father Stefano. His words were just beautiful words of healing for the families and sons and daughters. He prayed, asking all the husbands and wives to embrace each other, and then all together for the parents and their sons and daughters to all hug each other. A lot of healing was happening and emotions were sky high, but we could really feel the power of prayer embracing each one of us!  Later we had a classic American lunch with hamburgers, hot dogs, barbecue pork sandwiches, sodas, and a lot of fellowship! It was also time to visit our booths, where all kinds of good items were for sale! The day continued with some nice dances by our girls and some good testimonies from our guys and girls, until we prepared for Mass to close the day and the Festival! Then it was time to say goodbye with hugs, kisses, and tears—this time of joy!  I want to express many thanks to all those who made this retreat and festival a success, for all the hard work cooking, serving, preparing for the raffle, selling at the booths, cleaning, keeping the place in order, cleaning the bathrooms, and providing music to lead us in prayer. The guys and girls put a lot of commitment and time into preparation, also. Most of all, I want to thank Father Stefano because he was an inspiration for us and for so many people!! Photo album...

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