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 There are no words to express what everyone has lived over our weekend of the Retreat for the Parents and Families and the Festival of Life. It was a great weekend, and I am sure that all those people that came got a lot from it. Let's start with our family retreat that was great of beautiful messages to the families from Father Stefano, who was really inspired by the Holy Spirit. His words were direct to our hearts. I hope and pray that they will stay inside for a long time and also that we will apply them in our real life every day. I was very impressed with the attendance we had over 300 people for our retreat. We really thank you for coming to the retreat because we know how important it is for you and for your kids that are in Community.
Many parents really talked from their heart, too, and we know that is not easy for you to do. It all shows how we are all growing and changing because of these times of prayer and sharing at the retreats and 1st Saturday. We are getting more free to say the truth to each other and to show all our difficulties and hurts and also our joys. Cenacolo is a family, and many of your really feel the how strong the love of this family is.
Our Adoration on Saturday was the start of the Festival for us! Our Community way of prayer and worship, that is always very unique and beautiful, was so strong and tender with Stefano praying about our wounds and struggles. His prayer for the families and children and made it v ery special.
Then was the day of the Festival of Life. After finishing our retreat in the morning, everybody went to Our Lady of Hope and the festival began. Our forno was working at full capacity, putting out delicious pizzas made by our expert Italian Giacinto. Then the parents were grilling burgers and hot dogs for lunch. It was great feeling! The guys were ready, and so were the parents, for this celebration. The weather was just perfect, with sunny sky and a little breeze. The guys were serving the food and the moms were at the booths with the stuff that they had prepared during the whole year for the Festival.
The music started at 1p.m., and the people from the outside began to arrive...many, many people. Our tent was well decorated and was impressive because it is so big and wide and open. The guys work very hard to build it, but it paid off big time. Fr. Stefano greeted the guests with powerful stories and insights of Sister Elvira, and then we had songs and actions to create a nice atmosphere of joy to celebrate our life, a new life reborn in Community. Then Bishop Baker came, and we had him say a few words. He expressed his great support and trust in Comunita Cenacolo for the last 13 years that it has been in Saint Augustine.
After we prayed a Rosary, we had a beautiful time of Adoration with Fr. Stefano leading us all in prayer. Then he carried Jesus through the crowds, praying for healing, and blessing everybody. It was very powerful. Before the end of the Adoration Fr. Stefano had all the moms and little kids go up on the stage to send to bless them, and then they all gave a big kiss to Jesus. It was just so special.
Mass started right after, and we had the honor of having three bishops celebrating with other 5 priests. During Mass we had also the baptism of little Benjamin, the latest "Cenacolino," son of Kim and Vincenzo, who was just born four days earlier. We had a long break for dinner. Then the final part arrived that many people were waiting for: our show, "Rich in  Mercy." We had a nice prayer behind stage to get everyone ready and then lights out, and the music started. The crowd was silent, but as soon as the first dance started, they all started to clap, and they kept it up in many scenes. Everyone was really enthusiastic. The guys did a great job and got the people into it. During the scenes of joy, like Palm Sunday, everyone was clapping and participating, but then during the Crucifixion scene, you could not hear any sound except people crying. The show was just great, and everyone did a great job. Even the little kids did their parts very well.
Right at the end of the night, we had the last surprise of a video of Sister Elvira and the Americans that are in Europe. It was the grand finale, even though we had trouble with the sound. We did what we could Community style! We could not ask for anything more! The day was better that anything we ever expected, and we really felt the Holy Spirit in everything did.
We want to thank everyone that really helped in the preparation, families, and former members, friends of the Community --a big, very big, grazie from all of us!
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