Hearts Home and the Fraternity of Molokai

France-based Heart’s Home was founded by Priest Father Thierry de Roucy in 1990. Five years later, he started the Fraternity of Molokai, a priestly branch of the group, now with about 30 priests and seminarians. The name, he said, came to him in an inspiration while he was in Senegal. He chose St. Damien as a patron because of “his desire to exactly the same life of the lepers of his parish.” But instead of naming the group after Damien, Father de Roucy named it after the island of Molokai, in homage to the people.

“It’s the people that make us what we are,” explained Father Gonzague Leroux, a member of the fraternity. Ten priests from the group came to Molokai.

“It was special to see where he became a saint,” said another member, Deacon Edward De Grivel, “and have mass in the first chapel he built.”

The Heart’s Home group stayed at Pu`u O Hoku Ranch during their week-long stay on the island, where they learned about St. Damien’s life and work on Molokai, held masses and enjoyed the tranquil landscapes. They also visited Kalaupapa during their trip, described by Father Leroux as a “theological vacation.” 

“The aloha spirit is so beautiful,” he said.  “We carry the same spirit all around the world.”

In a special mass held at Our Lady of Seven Sorrows, three members became “lay-consecrated” by taking the same life-long vows of poverty, obedience and chastity taken by priests and nuns, but without becoming ordained or wearing a habit. While many people take their vows surrounded by family and friends, these three young people chose their consecration to take place on Molokai.

“When they proposed the Molokai trip, I thought, ‘it’s a gift,’” said Alexander Descours, one of the three newly lay-consecrated. “It’s unbelievable [to take vows in St. Damien’s home].”

Heart’s Home, inspired by St. Damien’s work and dedicated to compassion for those in need, has 45 centers in 22 countries around the world.

Sylvie Muller is a lay-consecrated member who made the journey to Molokai. Muller’s current mission is in Brooklyn, New York. She began with Heart’s Home, as many do, as a volunteer, first sent to serve in Argentina over 10 years ago. She said though her work with Brooklyn’s elderly, under-privileged and home-bound is often difficult, she is inspired by Saint Damien’s closeness to the people he served and how much he loved them.

“You don’t know how I was longing to be closer to Damien and follow in his footsteps,” said. St. Damien “gives meaning to what I do and what I am.”

Article from:  http://www.themolokaidispatch.com/following-his-footsteps

Their website:  http://heartshome.org/

Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT)

The Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, whose spirituality leads to communion with the Most Holy Trinity through discipleship of Jesus and Mary, was founded on the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, July 16, 1958, by Father James H. Flanagan under the guidance of Archbishop Edwin V. Byrne, D.D., of Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. The Society’s international headquarters is currently located in Robstown, Texas, in the Diocese of Corpus Christi, Texas, USA. When the Society achieves pontifical status, the headquarters will be transferred to Rome.

The Society of Our Lady is comprised of priests and permanent deacons, religious, and single and married laity united in the solidarity of graced friendships as a family, in fidelity, loyalty and charity. United to the saving mission and ministries of the Church, the members serve in Her apostolic works, especially in the areas of deepest human and spiritual need.

By serving together on ecclesial teams, the members of Our Lady’s Society present to the People of God an image of the Church-as-Community in the gift of Her three vocations of priest, religious and laity. By their special dedication to imitate Mary in her communion with the Three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity and in her communion with all in becoming like Jesus, they bear witness to the People of God of the Church-as-Community.

Website: www.societyofourlady.net/

The Cenacolo Community

The Cenacolo community was founded by Sr Elvira Petrozzi, an Italian nun in 1983. For many years she had been concerned by the destruction she had seen among young people through drug abuse and she longed to help them. Since she had no formal training to work with addicts and the charism of her order was teaching, it was 8 years before she managed to persuade her superiors that this was a genuine call of God and to release her for the work.

She began with two companions - a fellow religious, Sr Aurelia, and a teacher Nives Grato. They were given an abandoned old house in the city of Saluzzo in Italy, which was leased to her by the city for a dollar a year, and on July 16th, the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the Cenacolo community officially opened. Soon young people began to arrive on her doorstep needing help and the work began. Sr Elvira has leamt as she has gone along. In the beginning the young addicts were allowed to smoke and have a glass of wine, Italian style, with their meals. She soon leamt, however, that such social niceties were not possible for people fighting with addiction. One evening she came back to find the young men in the community were all drunk, having bored a hole in the pantry wall and finished off all their supplies of wine. Now alcohol and tobacco are not allowed on the premises for anyone.


"A SCHOOL OF LIFE"

While secular de-tox programmes will use methodone and other drug substitutes to wean people off hard drugs, Sr Elvira has a completely different method. She believes that the problem of the young people is not so much one of chemical dependence on drugs, but that drugs are the only way that these young people have found to cope with their problems in life. She sees her job as showing them, a better and much more effective option - Christ. Thus Cenacolo is not so much a therapeutic community or drug rehab centre, as a school of life with prayer at its heart. The young people are thus put through a kind of intensive spiritual boot camp where they leam to live in a totally new way - to accept a simple lifestyle, and to rediscover the gifts of work, friendship and of faith in the Word of God, instead of relying on the crutch of drugs to escape from everything that is too painful to deal with. In their brochure the Cenacolo members explain their biggest problems are not the chemical withdrawals but re-orienting their lives.

One of the keys to the healing of the drug addicts is the role of their "guardian angels". These are fellow addicts who are further along the spiritual journey, who can offer emotional and spiritual support to new boys. The guardian angels provide 24 hour support for their charges, listening to them, encouraging them, making them cups of tea if they wake up in the night troubled, or even doing their work for them, if they feel too ill to do it. This unconditional love melts the hardest of hearts and helps prepare the newcomer for the day when he will do this for someone else on the programme. Later it is hoped they will take this giving attitude out into the world and help others, instead of being stuck in the self-centred spiral that many addicts find themselves in because of their drugs habit.

Article from  http://www.ccr.org.uk/archive/gn0501/g07.htm

Check out Website of Cenacolo Communita:  http://www.comunitacenacolo.it/

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