25 years of consecration of Sister Luisa Curreli
On October 5, I celebrated 25 years of life dedicated to the Lord in the Cenacle family.
This birthday was an opportunity to look back and see that my life was made up of many YES which made me grow and helped me to open up to others, to the world, to God.
The questions that young people ask me about life in the “convent” make me think of the many clichés that we have about nuns and I understand them very well because I also had my own. For me, the nun was that person who renounced everything to give her life to God. Renunciation occupied everything: renunciation of one’s own freedom and autonomy, of one’s femininity, of a family life, of motherhood, of a professional activity… And in the end, it was a renunciation of a life full and happy.
But when God came my way, he didn’t ask me to give up. He asked me to choose it. He gave himself to me and asked me to welcome him and love him with all of myself. I wasn’t giving up, I was choosing a full life with him. Which is very different!
I wanted to celebrate these 25 years to thank the Lord. I did it in a Eucharist which is by definition a “thanksgiving”.
It was a beautiful and joyful celebration where I felt so much affection and friendship from everyone.
My beautiful family, my community, the general government community, sisters from other communities, old and more recent friends and many other people who frequent the community and who wanted to join us were present.
With Saint Thérèse Couderc, founder of our religious community, I can say:
“I would gladly start the journey again. I have found the Lord so well”
I pray to the Lord that he gives other young women the joy of finding him in the Cenacle in the footsteps of Thérèse Couderc.
Sister Luisa Curreli, community of Rome
“Lord, when I was young, you put a beautiful restlessness in my heart that made me not be content with what I did and had.
You made me hear your voice saying to me: ‘Arise, my friend, my beautiful one, and come’. And so you put in my heart the desire to give myself entirely to you and to those I would meet in my life.
You made me feel like the ‘precious pearl’ for which you, the Father, gave your Son. I discovered you as a precious treasure and to have you, with joy, I left everything.
You have put in my heart the burning desire to help others to get to know you, not to settle, to listen to their heart’s desire to choose Life fully.
Thank you for what you have done in my life and for what you have done through me.
Thank you for my family, who love and support me.
Thank you for my friends, my sisters and all the people I’ve grown up with and for those I’ve helped on their journey of human and spiritual growth.
You have given me sisters to live this mission.
With hearts full of gratitude for having called us to the Upper Room, we renew, Father, our commitment to be women at the service of Life, the true Life that your Son has given us.
This shapes our hearts, making them more and more like the heart of Jesus.
Make us capable of deep listening, of recognising the seeds of life and encouraging them. Make our life fruitful as you love it. Amen”.