The Embrace of God's Mercy: Mother Elvira and the Rise of Community Cenacolo
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$16.95
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$12.69
Author: Michele Casella
Publisher: Sophia Institute Press
Paperback:
ISBN 10: 1622828321
ISBN 13: 978-1622828326
On July 16, 1983, in an abandoned house on an Italian hillside, Sister Rita Petrozzi, known today as Mother Elvira, opened Comunità Cenacolo. That dilapidated building quickly became God's hope-filled answer to the desperate cries of the many lost, lonely, drug-addicted young people who soon began knocking on its door, seeking to be reborn. A potent apostolate was born.
Today barely thirty-six years later Comunità Cenacolo consists of seventy houses stretched across the globe that welcome thousands of young people struggling with drug or alcohol addictions as they search for meaning in life. Mission houses in Africa, Central America, and South America shelter abandoned and orphaned street children, inviting them, too, on a journey of rebirth in love. Each house is imbued with God's mercy and forgiveness. There, young people live in a simple Christian family environment, transformed by the healing powers of prayer, work, friendship, sacrifice, and love.
For decades now and on a daily basis, Mother Elvira's humble spirituality has awakened hope and joy in the souls of the troubled and the lost, giving each of them new life. Open the pages of this wise, uplifting book. That same hope and joy can be yours.
Review
"I just read The Embrace of God's Mercy in a single sitting and WOW, I loved every second of it! Mother Elvira's wisdom applies, and will appeal, to anyone searching for Hope and Truth. Her humility is overwhelming (or is it underwhelming)?"
Jim Wahlberg
Producer, Writer and Director
"What you will discover in these pages is a profound spirituality for our times. Addressed primarily to young people by the foundress of the world-wide Cenacolo Communities, the message of Mother Elvira Petrozzi will touch the minds and hearts of all. Her story is a spiritual classic from the heart of a great, yet simple lady of deep faith and prophetic vision, whose embrace now reaches out to the entire world."
Most Rev. Robert J. Baker, S.T.D.
Bishop of Birmingham, AL
"This inspiring story of the beginnings and ministry of the Cenacolo communities is worth the attention of those who suffer from addiction and those who love them. It is a witness to the work of the Holy Spirit who wants all of us to have true freedom and happiness in this life. Young people who have lost their way can find it again by living within a disciplined Christian Community that prays together, shares responsibility, and strives to increase in virtue."
Most Reverend Edward C. Malesic
Bishop of Greensburg, PA
--Personal Endorsements
From the Inside Flap
Founded in 1983 by a poor Italian nun, Mother Elvira Petrozzi, Comunita Cenacolo began in an abandoned old house in Saluzzo, Italy. Today, with over 2,000 members worldwide, the community is a free, fully residential Catholic program for people seeking to overcome substance abuse.
This is Mother Elvira's story of her community's founding and growth and of the powerful principles that guide its uniquely successful programs. This inspired nun's conviction that hard work, prayer, and the sacraments can heal young people of the deep emotional wounds they have suffered has effectively freed thousands from the cruel chains of addiction and other destructive pastimes.
Now functioning in 71 houses in 20 countries around the world, Cenacolo communities welcome young people from everywhere and help them rise to new life through a regimen of loving service. They offer a profound source of hope and resurrection for souls lost in a world of darkness, sadness, drugs, and desperation.
This is the moving account of the indomitable foundress, her vocation, the arrival of the first young people, the evolution of her teaching methods, the spiritual underpinnings of the community, and the remarkable transformations that her work has produced. Most stirring of all, however, is Mother Elvira's understanding of the compelling demands and the unparalleled joy of love for the less fortunate, which love has motivated her for eight decades now.
About the Author
Rita Agnese Petrozzi, known as Mother Elvira and identified by many as the nun of the drug addicts, was born in Sora, Lazio on January 21, 1937. She loves to call herself the daughter of poor people. During World War II, she immigrated to Alessandria with her poor family, where they lived the hardships and the misery of the time after the war. She became the servant of everyone at home. At the age of 19, she entered the convent, in Borgaro Torinese, of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Jeanne Antide Thouret, where she went from Rita Agnese to Sister Elvira.
Around the mid-seventies, an internal fire ignited in her to devote herself to the young people she saw who were lost, wandering and searching. Comunità Cenacolo was founded on July 16, 1983, after a long period of waiting with trust and patience. The Community is not only a site of social work and welfare work, but above all it is a family founded on faith. It's a place where those who are wounded can meet a love that welcomes them freely, helps heal their wounds, sustains them and guides them to find the Way of Truth. It's a demanding love that educates them about the beauty of true life.