A Prayer Home is a place in which anyone in search of prayer can experience this, accepting the invitation of the Lord: "Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest "
The first prayer home was born of the wish of some Community members to withdraw into a life of prayer and contemplation, also made possible thanks to Clarisse di Valdragone who, in April 1988, made available a farmhouse in the Republic of San Marino.
The rhythm of the day is marked by prayer, expressed in its various forms: the Liturgy of the Hours, the Holy Mass, the Adoration, the Rosary, meditation on the Word of God and silence. Jesus is always present in the little chapel inside the home in the Eucharist.
Life in a prayer home can also involve direct sharing with the least, meaning that anyone is welcome to come in and withdraw into prayer and meditation, indeed this is the purpose of the home. If poor person come into the home, in order to pray with them, it is necessary to bear their burden of problems and weariness, making the prayer home also a place for sharing the life of the most marginalised. These people then become instrumental in teaching those who come later, without even speaking of it, the relationship of total abandon to the Father.
Today the Community has about 12 homes, many of them run by married couples or families. In addition to the moments of prayer the people in the home do some work that is suitable for the people welcomed in, such as handicrafts, growing fruit and vegetables or rearing small domestic animals. Life in a prayer home is pared down and simple.
The Fraternity Home is where fraternity, as the experience of the love for God directed at our brother and sisters, is made visible and credible. “It is the ‘gym’ in which we experience the emptying out of the self to fill it with God in the encounter with our brother or sister, becoming the hub from which the fraternal life radiates.”
As in all the other Community centres, fraternity homes are open to welcoming in the poor and the least because “it is our ‘crucified angels’ who set the tone for fraternity as it is lived in our vocation”.
