YOU CANNOT SERVE TWO MASTERS

     I long to see your heart and affection stripped of the world and of yourself. There is no other way we can be clothed in Christ crucified, since the world has nothing in common with God. The world's disordered affection loves pride, and God loves humility. The world looks for honor, status and greatness and God spurned these things, embracing disgrace, scorn and insult, hunger, thirst, cold and heat, even to a shameful death on the cross. By this death of his gave honor to the Father, and we were restored to grace. The world looks to please creatures, unconcerned about displeasing the Creator, Christ never looked to anything but to fulfill his eternal Father's command for the sake of our salvation. He embraced voluntary poverty and clothed himself in it, while the world seeks great wealth. They are really different from one another. So, if our heart is clothed in the world it is necessarily stripped of God, and if it is stipped of the world, it is necessarily filled with God. This is what our Savior said: " No one can serve two masters. If you serve one, you hold the other in contempt." We must, then, very conscientiously free our heart and affection from this tyrant, the world, and set it on God, completely  free and sincere, letting nothing come between ourselves and him. We must not be two-faced or love falsely, since he is our dear God, and he keeps his eyes on us, seeing our hidden  and inmost heart.


St. Catherine of Sienna
(+1380) Doctor of the Church, was a Dominican stigmatist and papal counselor.

The Graces of the Rosary

The rosary is a magnificent gift of God to humanity, because through this prayer we attain extraordinary graces. For some, it is an old monotonous prayer, but we can testify to you that it has real efficacy of healing, liberation, peace, and reconciliation. The rosary must articulate the dawn, the afternoon, and the sunset of life; our entire existence. The sunrise of each day is the beginning of our lives: for this we fix our gaze on the birth of Jesus and we meet him through the "yes" of Mary, so that our lives, too, can be born again, can begin every day with him and can say "yes" to his project of love for us today. Then there is the first afternoon, adolescence,which is often the most problematic age, where we search for the deeper reason for things. When you are twelve, thirteen, or fourteen years old, you begin to see the defects of your parents, school begins to be restrictive for you, the differences between rich and poor make you suffer, you do not know whom to take sides with, and you have an incredible struggle with your emotions. Sometimes you have a strong conflict with yourself and with all that surrounds you. It is a moment that we educators are never really prepared for, in order to give true and convincing answers to the deepest questions which the young people place upon us on their objections. For this, in the first "afternoon" which is adolescence, when you are not given many answers, we pray the sorrowful mysteries, because the passion of Jesus heals our wounds, negative memories, and the violent and angry judgements which at that age provoked false rebellion inside of us on the path of evil. Then the moment of the evening comes. To recite the third rosary is already to foresee the years of tiredness , of old age, of sickness; the sunset of life. With the rosary in your hand, you will not be discouraged and you will have clarity of mind and a full and extraordinary freedom in your heart. Contemplating the resurrection of Christ, you will prepare your heart for the definitive encounter with him and you will discover that your suffering "gives birth" to a new life, which is the concrete reality that waits for you in heaven. 


Mother Elvira Petrozzi
Foundress of Comunito Cenacolo, welcoming the lost and desperate in 56 houses in 15 countries