2 CENACLES UPDATE The group at Our Lady of Rosary in Ciales, Puerto Rico, started in 2015 learning and deepening our understanding of the Divine Mercy Message, and also helping others to consecrate their lives to Jesus. Our main goal is to spread the message of merciful love, changing and having a new lifestyle conducive to the Gospel, and motivating our brothers to live a Christ-filled life and filling it with happiness and merciful love. We remain rooted to the cenacle manuals, St. Faustina’s Diary and the Bible, and are thankful for the formation in the Apostolate of EADM. Weekly we offered community cenacles to families as our evangelization in our Catholic faith and the Divine Mercy message. Every home received a home consecration prayer to Divine Mercy and the Image. As a community of faith, we work with our parish and spiritual director and visit the sick and helping people in their needs. CIALES, Puerto Rico Maria Virella wrote and told us: PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida Jeannette Bajalia wrote and told us: It all started when COVID-19 caused our parishes to close their doors and parishioners were left searching for spiritual food. Many individuals and families were left searching for any opportunity to make sense out of the horrific pandemic. By God’s Divine Mercy and graces, I, like many others, discovered the online content published by the Marian Fathers and discovered a spirituality that I had not heard about but was totally captivated by. I continued digging deeper and taking advantage of the enormous content produced by the Marian Fathers. So, let the journey begin! Hunger led me to participate in a Divine Mercy pilgrimage in June 2023 (totally discovered accidently) with Deacon Mark Taylor and Dr. Bryan Thatcher. I had the opportunity to experience the purity and conviction of the Marian Fathers and had time with Bryan to learn about the Eucharistic Apostles of the Divine Mercy. That’s it! I knew this was God calling me to be an Apostle of Mercy. In order to clearly discern, I had to go back to the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts because I felt God calling me to do something in our local parish and truly to GO DEEPER with the message of mercy. So, in Oct. 2023, I went back with passion and conviction. Divine Mercy spirituality wasn’t really anything new to our parish. The Divine Mercy devotion has been an operational ministry at Our Lady Star of the Sea since 1990 when Jim and Barbara Conway organized the Divine Mercy Novena and Chaplet and the Divine Mercy Sunday celebration. During 2014, there was an initiative to organize a group to have bi-weekly meetings but that lasted for a year; however, the ministry continued under the ministry leadership of the Conways in the form of reciting the Divine Mercy Chaplet and Novena every Friday after 8:30 a.m. Mass. After submitting a ministry application to “go deeper with the Divine Mercy devotion” in July 2023, we got the approval to pilot for one year the Cenacle Group. Upon completion, we would evaluate the progress to formalize the ministry. And so, after a few weeks with low-key promotion in our bulletin, we held an information meeting attended by Sr. Lucy Clynes, DW, pastoral associate; Fr. Christopher Knight, parochial Vicar; Dr. Bryan Thatcher through Zoom; and 24 inquiring souls to see who wanted to GO DEEPER. So, our cenacle formation process and journey officially began on Nov. 11, 2023 with our first meeting, when the Holy Spirit brought 20 women with hearts on fire to deepen their faith and grow in the spirituality of Divine Mercy. The group photo at left (missing a few members) speaks a thousand words, and we present ourselves at this stage as “Apostles of Mercy In Training.” While we are just beginning our journey meeting every second and fourth Saturday of each month, the Holy Spirit shows up and enlightens our minds and our hearts. When asked what has the Cenacle group meant to you, here are some comments that demonstrate the depth of growth we are all experiencing: “The Holy Spirit is very much alive and our hearts are softening to the needs of those around us and helping us to feel worthy to receive the fount of endless mercy and spread this glorious message to others.” “We are learning what Jesus said to St. Faustina about His Divine Mercy and how to share the message with everyone we know. I feel so blessed to be a part of the cenacle. What a wonderful way to evangelize.” “Being with the group has increased my prayer life. I am edified being around faith-filled women.” “I’ve become more disciplined in remembering to pray; the more I do, the easier it is and the more fulfilled I become. Community makes it all better.” With hunger in our hearts to go deeper and mature through the formation manuals, we look forward to the opportunity to serve our parish and our community in meeting whatever is needed. Through these works, we spread the message of mercy, and we will have graduated from “Apostles of Mercy in Training” to “Apostles of Mercy On Fire.”
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