Then the cohort of my priests, prepared and led by me, are to come forth into the open to proclaim with courage and before everyone the divinity of my Son, the reality of all my privileges, the necessity of the hierarchical Church united to, and under the leadership of, the Pope and all the truths contained in the Gospel.
Blue Book #34 q, s
Let your gatherings be true cenacles of life with me, of prayer, of brotherhood, and of waiting…
Preaching the Gospel to the whole world means living it. We cannot preach unless we live. It is all very nice to talk about it; it is beautiful to sit in the evening and discuss the Holy Spirit and Our Lady, but it doesn’t get us anywhere. We go to Mass. We receive the Body and Blood of Christ, a mystery beyond any mystery. A mystery of love in a cup! And a piece of bread! Things so familiar to all of us. And yet they contain within themselves God!We are receiving God, communicating with God. Now let us communicate with each other! Let us show that we are Christians!Make it so that others can touch it. We are weak, sinful and unimportant. But we must try to live the Gospel with our lives.
This image came to my mind once about how the Body of Christ the Church functions and how cenacles are needed. Think of our united jobs in getting ‘Life’ out to everyone as akin to the circulatory system. The bigger centralized positions, the hierarchy are similar to the arteries … they are big and highly visible. But no more important to the life of the body than the tiny capillaries that bring nourishing blood to the farthest out cells.
So it is with each of us, we need to remain connected to the main artery, and then go to where we’ve been planted …usually our homes, parishes and neighborhoods.
The MMP Cenacles are beautiful ways of doing this. We gather regularly at our local parishes, with our core group of priests and fellow parishioners and be formed and lead by Our Blessed Mother… and then we are invited to occasionally bring the cenacles into our own homes, to in turn feed those closest to us that may not yet be fully integrated into the body and gently bring them into the fold.
For these home cenacles it is so important that priests come out among their sheep and be in attendance, along with church going parishioners to be a welcoming committee of sorts, and provide solid catechesis, so it doesn’t become just another prayer group cut off from the main body.