Let me introduce to you the Carmel Deanery Indiana Flame of Love Cenacle. Our cenacle is led by a three-chord strand. “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” (Ecclesiastes 4:12)
I was pleasantly introduced to two wonderful women at a Flame of Love Cenacle training meeting in the middle of 2019. I was new to the Flame of Love and had no idea the grace that was about to be unleashed! These women have now become beloved sisters to me and we have grown to a large family all ignited in unity for our love for our Lord and our Blessed Mother to spread the Flame of Love to others! Our group consists of mostly women but St. Joseph has brought us three beloved men who lead and guide us with their wisdom and love for the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is such a blessing to be around Marian men who have the heart of St. Joseph! From the beginning, our group was blessed with special graces of unity and love. I truly believe Mary has handpicked each person to make a beautiful bouquet. Every member brings a different grace to our table of prayer. Early on in our cenacle, we experienced some persecution, due to this devotion being private revelation. We each did some discernment and once we got direction, we persevered. The Blessed Mother has blessed our perseverance! This group is on fire for the Blessed Mother and I’m always humbled by the unity and their willingness to say “yes”!
Early in 2020 when we were under Covid19 lockdown our cenacle stayed the course like a lot of prayer groups by going virtual. We increased our cenacle to meeting twice a week, as people were hungry to pray. Till this day we have continued meeting twice a week and using the phone line for one of our cenacle days. The phone-line gives those who can’t attend or with a busy schedule an opportunity to still join and be connected. When even the phone-line is not possible for members we have noticed that uniting our prayers together or having members text in their prayer requests keeps us unified. As the Covid lockdown began to let up, the Holy Spirit led us out to the streets. Our Thursday cenacle began praying the Flame of Love rosary around areas with a spiritual box of holy cards, rosaries, exorcised salt, and FOL prayer cards to pass out or leave for someone to discover. We prayed around government buildings, police stations, schools, communities, churches, etc., to push back evil with the Flame of Love prayers. We prayed by name for government officials to protect and provide peace, for churches to stay open and pastors to speak truth, along with many other prayers. For Pentecost we had a Flame of Love Pentecost Party and prayed diligently, read scripture and sang songs and called down the Holy Spirit to equip us. Later last summer, we attended the Indiana FOL Seeking Refuge One where we enjoyed learning on how to further grow our domestic church and realized that our group was an example of a domestic church and we should be repeating this in our own homes, neighborhoods and with extended family. Late 2020, we were called to pray at cemeteries for souls with our Flame of Love rosary. A priest got wind we were praying at cemeteries and wanted to join so in middle of January 2021, with cold hands and warm hearts, we prayed for souls at Mary Queen of Peace Cemetery then we warmed up nicely afterwards sharing a meal together. In February this year, we celebrated Candlemas, the Flame of Love Feast Day. As I looked down the pew to see who was able to come to Mass almost every member of our Cenacle was there. Tears came to my eyes, as I realized this group is truly a spiritual family, a grace given to us by Mary’s Flame of Love. Around this same time, we were prompted to consecrate ourselves to St. Joseph and one of our members invited us to celebrate a long family tradition of hers by honoring St. Joseph on the Solemnity of St. Joseph. We celebrated with a priest blessing, formal consecration, and sharing a meal together in her home.
Our Lady has recently led us all to Rome City, Indiana. Rome City has received permission to open as a private devotion for the lay faithful as a shrine of Our Lady, Patroness of America. After our cenacle visit and Flame of Love Rosary there, we’ve been called as a group to pray five consecutive First Saturdays there. Even though Rome City is three hours away from the two churches we meet to pray at, we met one of our male cenacle members there who attends both of the churches where we pray. With that said, this new male member brought in an additional male member, so now we have three men! Thank you, Mother Mary and St. Joseph!
Today, we are meeting twice a week and will be attending our third Rome City First Saturday next month to pray the rosary. Attending the shrine in Rome City, we invite our children, spouses and friends to join. We are hoping for a Cenacle retreat this summer to visit a shrine of relics to unite, pray together and retain more grace. As Mary leads us it’s become apparent, we are fighting the good fight as a united family bonded together by Mary’s Flame. We communicate on a text thread sharing sometimes daily. We depend on one another for prayer support, discernment and encouragement. We support each other by attending one another’s prayer rallies or rosary walks. As you can see, we have not been just a cenacle, we are a Marian Family. For some reason Mary has truly blessed us with graces of love, unity, and docility.
I think it’s important to mention that the above was not a thought-out plan to grow our cenacle by our three chord strand leaders. It was just a group of people brought together that were given the grace to love, follow, and trust Mary to lead. Looking back, I’m in awe as I can see Mary’s well-orchestrated plan, as I’ve only gotten to share a glimpse with you. It’s beautiful to watch the progression as each of us have been ignited with her flame. I could sit here and write you a story about each and every cenacle member. Some had never experienced the Holy Spirit before receiving the Flame of Love and are now having prophetic dreams, sharing words of knowledge, and evangelizing. Some were struggling, carrying heavy crosses, and we are now witnessing their walks of surrender and them relying on God’s strength to carry them. When souls overfill with the Flame of Love grace, they become a reservoir and their sanctification becomes a source of sanctification for all of us. We are witnessing this in our lives! We see it in our families, our places of work, our churches, in strangers we encounter, and in our relationships with others! Each one of us are being purified and you can literally watch the stains fall off of our garments. I don’t think we can wrap our human mind around the power of these prayers and Mary’s Flame of Love! I truly believe we are only grasping a very small glimpse of what is happening here in each one of us and those we pray for.
Many have said they have never experienced such love and grace from a prayer group. But, Oh! We are not just a prayer group and we are not just a cenacle! We have become a Marian family. We are just small sparks that were lit from the largest torch of love, the Flame of Love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and oh, how I can’t wait to set the world on fire! “My flame of Love is so great that I can no longer keep it within me; it leaps out at you with explosive force. This is the miracle becoming the blaze whose dazzling light will blind Satan. We will put out fire with fire: the fire of hatred with the fire of love (Mary, Flame of Love blue diary).”