2 C E N A C L E S U P D A T E NORTHAMPTON, Pennsylvania Rosemary Rossner wrote and told us: MESA, Arizona Laurie Buckles wrote and told us: I am writing you from St. Timothy Catholic Church to share our happiness about having completed our Divine Mercy Cenacle Induction ceremony on May 15, 2022. Father John Greb, our pastor, performed our ceremony with family and friends in attendance. This was the culmination of a five-year journey of discernment and spiritual growth for our group. We began our journey in November of 2017 when we attended the 33 Days to Morning Glory retreat sponsored by our parish and facilitated by Deacon Jim Beattie and his wife, Sandi. We continued on, completing all of the subsequent Hearts Afire retreats. In August 2019, we attended a discernment retreat to see where the Holy Spirit was leading our group, which by this time had bonded and was interested in serving God and our parish according to God’s will. It became clear to us that we were being led to form a Divine Mercy ministry at St. Timothy’s. We spoke with appropriate advisory staff and proceeded to continue our formation in conjunction with our parish’s New Evangelization plan. We were able to access and complete videos and workbooks from Bishop Barron and Word on Fire’s Catholicism and the New Evangelization. In 2020, COVID hit with a vengeance. Not to be deterred, one of our group members was able to share a Zoom account with us, and our group went online to study 33 Days to Greater Glory. Throughout this ongoing formation time, while navigating the pandemic from afar, we felt led to inquire about your apostolate Eucharistic Apostles of The Divine Mercy. We ordered manuals and began our cenacle formation. We completed Manual 1 and are now more than halfway through Manual 2. Our cenacle members meet twice monthly. We have members who pray the Chaplet and Rosary regularly; are active in Eucharistic Adoration; are Extraordinary Ministers; are core members of Acts; bring Communion, the Rosary, and the Chaplet to the homebound; who minister to the poor and homeless in our community as well as supporting many of the other ministries within our very active parish. We also are the sponsors of Hearts Afire retreats at St. Timothy’s. It is our hope that, along with the retreats and our cenacle ministry, we will be able to continue sharing the message of Divine Mercy, add new cenacles within our parish, and if God wills, throughout the diocese. Our cenacle within our parish, Queenship of Mary, was created in May 2013. Currently our group, consisting of 12 active EADM members, meets every other Friday evening. Realizing it was so important to spread the message of the Divine Mercy within our community, we decided to erect a billboard directly on Main St. in Northampton during the month of May, depicting the Divine Mercy Image complete with the words “Jesus, I trust in You.” Easily the money was raised to fund the project through two weekends of hoagie sales at Queenship. Our parishioners were 100 percent behind the billboard project! We’re hoping to make this an annual billboard presentation in April. Our parishioners were asked to save their “hoagie appetites” till next year! Annually in October, to coincide with the feast day of St. Francis and the blessing of animals, we sponsor a drive for pet donations to local animal shelters. Another yearly drive, that really is well gifted, is our sock drive the month of November for homeless men at the Allentown Rescue Mission. Almost 1,700 pairs were delivered last year to the Mission. Other campaigns included food drives for our community food bank and a children’s book drive in collaboration with the Allentown Rescue Mission, which distributes the books to children within the Lehigh Valley school districts. In addition to offering gift cards to families at Thanksgiving and Christmas, quarterly within the year a member chooses which favorite charity should receive a monetary donation. Prior to COVID, during the Christmas holidays we spent evenings visiting senior facilities with caroling, trivia, and fun. Throughout the year at our gatherings, we share educational material, DVDs, books, and much more. Most importantly, we share a special camaraderie and are known throughout the parish as “prayer warriors.” It is our hope that other cenacles will have billboards erected with the Image to spread this “mercy message” from community to community, state to state!
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