Consecrated Life: A Life in the Cenacle
We must live in [a consecrated] community as if we were living in the Cenacle. We must be practitioners of prayer and charity … always awaiting an increase of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. (OOCC, XIII, p. 252)
The consecrated life, for St. Vincent Pallotti, is a life in the Cenacle. The community at the Cenacle consisted of the apostles, Mary, the mother of Jesus, and a few other women. The members of the community, though thoroughly shattered by the loss of Jesus from their lives, were supported by their love for each other and their openness to God in prayer as a community. In other words, the Cenacle-community was a loving community and a praying community. United in love and prayer, the members were awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit, the advocate and the consoler promised by Jesus. Hence, the Cenacle-community, besides being a loving and praying community, is a community in expectation of the gift of the Spirit of God. By saying that consecrated life is a life in the Cenacle, St, Vincent wanted to stress the loving, praying and awaiting dimensions that should become part and parcel of every consecrated community. The members of the community must be united in love with the Lord and with each other. By constant and regular prayer both in the personal and communal levels, their union with God and each other must move from depth to depth. United in love and prayer, the members of the community must constantly live awaiting the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in their personal and community living to inspire, to guide, and show their way, as they accomplish the plan of God through their institute of consecration.
Do I believe that the consecrated life is a life in the Cenacle? Is my institute of consecration a loving community? Is there a regular prayer life in my community? Are we open to the Holy Spirit in understanding our Charism and planning for our apostolate?
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place … And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit. (Acts. 2: 1 – 4)