The “Il Senso del Pane” (The Meaning of Bread) Project

"Il senso del Pane" (The meaning of Bread):
host production workshops in the world

Thanks to Ennio Doris

"Il senso del Pane" (The meaning of Bread):
host production workshops in the world

Thanks to Ennio Doris

Where

OPERA PRISON

The "Il senso del Pane" project was born inside the Opera prison, on the outskirts of Milan.

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The intuition of having the hosts produced by the hands of people who in their past had committed crimes and repented was born by praying and asking Jesus how to communicate His real Presence in the Eucharist to so many people. The intent is to donate the hosts they produce to the priests in order to be consecrated

A paradox, a way to communicate the infinite mercy of divine love to believers and non-believers.

This first workshop was born in the Opera prison (Milan) where three people detained  have been producing artisan hosts since 2015. Hosts that are donated every week to dozens of churches throughout Italy and abroad.

The Holy Father blessed the project and consecrated the hosts of the small laboratory on the occasion of the Jubilee of prisoners, at the Holy Mass in San Pietro.

Even dignity has entered prison. Each inmate has learned a real profession and has a job recognized through the recruitment by the Cooperative Casa dello Spirito e delle Arti which collaborates in synergy with the projects of the Foundation.

In a second time the "Il Senso del Pane" project has grown: the new idea was that from the first one new "Eucharistic workshops" could be born and "blossomalso abroad. 

And so the inmates became "distance trainers" and thanks to their video lessons, it was possible to start other workshops in Italy and worldwide.

Forming together the bread that will become the body of Christ

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Mattia smiles at a life that finds meaning even behind bars

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Together, every day, at work

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The possibility of rebirth for every human being starts from everyone's spiritual dimension and dignity.

In the Jubilee Year 2016, with the collaboration of the Cariplo Foundation, a workshop for the production of hosts, which involved some prisoners convicted of serious crimes, was launched inside the Opera Prison. Il senso del Pane ("the meaning of bread") project was definitely consecrated in January 2016 when Pope Francis blessed the hosts prepared at Opera on the occasion of the Jubilee of Migrants. The strength and immediacy of the project - in which the bread for the Eucharistic celebration is produced by those who killed in the past but then followed an authentic path of interior conversion and repentance - have encouraged the membership of over 500 Italian and foreign dioceses, religious congregations, parishes, monasteries, Christian and Catholic realities - which have received and keep receiving, completely free of charge, the hosts produced. Today the artisanal production has exceeded 4 million hosts.

To request the hosts produced in prison as a gift, just write to ilsensodelpane@gmail.com.

The "Il senso del Pane" project - thanks to the support of Ennio Doris, chairman of the Banca Mediolanum - has blossomed in Italy and abroad, in collaboration with associations and organizations that focus on the dignity of the human being and the union inseparable between Christ and the poor. These associations guarantee that the poor people involved in the various "Eucharistic workshops" can be followed in the recovery of their dignity and autonomy.

New “Eucharistic workshops” have been born in Italy and in the world, where it is always the “last”, the poor people, who produce what will become the Body of Christ. In Buenos Aires there are young people who come from a past of addictions, in Pompeii and Bethlehem people with physical and mental disabilities, in Ethiopia former street boys, in Milan single mothers who have a history of great suffering behind them, in Barcelona people who have served their sentence and are being helped in their process of social reintegration, in Maputo inmates and former prisoners, in Sri Lanka young widows and girls in a state of great poverty. 

The Casa dello Spirito e delle Arti Foundation is committed to building together with every person who works in the Eucharistic workshops a project of life and dignity for their future.

Articles about the "Il senso del Pane" project:
➡ "Le ostie che nascono dalle mani insanguinate dei detenuti" (Aleteia.org)
➡ "La rinascita è per tutti" (International Family News)
➡ Ennio Doris e le ostie prodotte in carcere: «Nei detenuti il volto di Cristo
 (Avvenire.it)
➡ Il Pane eucaristico fatto in carcere, modello "esportato" nel mondo
 (Avvenire.it)

 

What can you do

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