Four Promises

I give you a new commandment:
That you love one another.
As I have loved you,
so also love one another

John 13:34

Tarcisio Mezzetti again-in the summer of 1978-was at the origin of this very important trait of community spirituality, so important that it became the core of theCovenant Commitment that Community members renew annually.

“I want from the Community four promises: poverty, permanent forgiveness, love building and service.” This is what a “voice” commanded Tarcisio that day as he stood in prayer in the church of his own parish – San Donato all’Elce – in the university district of Perugia where he then lived.

It is the living voice of Tarcisio who tells us what happened and how the Community accepted and made that prophecy its own:

The Four Promises form the pillars of allied life.

This is how the Foreword to the Community Statute talks about it:

“We believe that the Lord,
to make us free and able to love,
with selfless love, God and our brothers and sisters,
calls us to live according to the spirit of the “Four Promises.”
Poverty, Permanent Forgiveness, Love Building, Service.

We believe that the primary and necessary condition
for living community life is the Poverty;
with it we choose a simple and sober lifestyle
that is a sign for the world.

We believe that the Permanent Forgiveness
makes us willing to forgive
as Jesus forgave us
and to fight the inclination to judgment.

We believe that the Construction of Love
leads us to recognize in each brother the person of Christ
and commits us to resolve faulty relationships
taking the first step to true reconciliation. We believe that the charity generated by the Eucharist
makes us “generous of heart” (Exodus 25:2)
to live the Service to God, to the poor, to humanity, to the Church.”