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![[------------]](images/sep3.gif){kind=small}
WHAT IS A CENACLE OF PRAYER?
Each Wednesday evening at 6:30 p.m. at St. Bernard's Church a cenacle of prayer is held. This is the fifth year that this continuous cenacle has been taking place. It was formed in response to the request of the Blessed Mother that priests, religious and the faithful gather together, with her, in fervent prayer and fraternal love, as when the first apostles gathered with her in the Upper Room in Jerusalem awaiting the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Why this request? Because of the necessity to prepare for the Second Pentecost through the triumph of her Immaculate Heart. To draw down upon us the gift of the Holy Spirit, we enter with Mary into the cenacle. She asked that cenacles be formed everywhere in the world, thus preparing humanity for a new era of grace and holiness. This Marian movement has taken root all over the world with tens of thousands of cenacles going on around the clock.On the 8th of May 1972, Don Stefano Gobbi was taking part in a pilgrimage to Fatima and was praying in the Chapel of the Apparitions. An interior voice urged him to have confidence in the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Fr. Gobbi gathered three priests for prayer and fraternal sharing in Italy. Notice of this first "Marian Movement of Priests" was given in a few newspapers. By March of 1973, the number of priests had increased to 40. In 1974 the first Cenacles took place, which spread throughout Europe and every part of the world. By 1985 Fr. Gobbi had visited five continents. The movement expanded in a silent and extraordinary way in all the countries of Europe, America, Asia, Africa and Oceania.
There are 3 characteristics of the M.M.P.: Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, unity with the Pope and the Church united to him, and leading the faithful to trust in Our Lady. A passage from the book of inner locutions from Our Lady to Fr. Gobbi, which he began to write down in 1973, is read at each Cenacle. The book, "To The Priests, Our Lady's Beloved Sons" now encompasses 25 years of messages. The movement's phenomenal spread is attributed to this book.
- A cenacle is composed of the following:
- Invocation to the Holy Spirit
- Recitation of the Rosary
- Prayers for the Holy Father
- Reading and meditation of one of Our Lady's messages
- Fraternity--prayers from the participants for their concerns
- Act of Consecration to the Blessed Mother
- (We close the St. Bernard's cenacle with the Chaplet of Mercy.)
- Recitation of the Rosary
