Sisters of the Cenacle
The Church is in the midst of celebrating A Year of Consecrated Life as declared by Pope Francis in 2013. The Year of Consecrated Life began on November 30, 2014 and ends on February 2, 2016. It is a time to honor and to celebrate the men and women who live the consecrated life as religious sisters, brothers and priests.
My parish, St. Thomas Aquinas, has enjoyed a long-standing relationship with two religious sisters who are members of The Congregation of Our Lady of the Retreat in the Cenacle, more commonly known as the Cenacle Sisters. Sister Susan Arcaro and Sister Barbara Young came to Atlanta in the early 1990’s in order to carry out the Cenacle’s particular mission of companioning men and women on their spiritual journeys. They do this by helping people to recognize the presence of God in their lives through prayer, retreats, days of reflection and spiritual direction. They began offering spiritual direction to individuals in the Archdiocese of Atlanta here at St. Thomas Aquinas in 1993. Since then, their ministry has grown. Today, they regularly visit seven parishes giving spiritual direction to more than 100 people.
Spiritual direction, according to the Cenacle brochure, is “A privileged moment to reflect with another on your relationship with God and your response to God’s calls as they unfold in your daily life. The focus of spiritual direction is your life with God as it is lived out in all of your experiences. It is a process of coming home to your deepest self.” Sr. Susan says that a person who participates in spiritual direction will typically experience a deeper relationship with God, a more grateful heart because of the awareness of the presence of God in his/her life and a holy longing for more and more God. For more information on spiritual direction or on the Cenacle Sisters, visit www.cenaclesisters.org or email atlantacenacle@gmail.com.
Pope Francis expressed his expectations for the yearlong observance of consecrated life: That consecrated men and women would be witnesses of communion, of joy and the Gospel, and go evermore to the peripheries to proclaim the Good News. He told those living the consecrated life, "I am counting on you to wake up the world," a maxim that is similar to the mission of the Cencacle Sisters, which says, "We work for the transformation of the world by awakening and deepening faith with and for the people of our times."
