We are Lorenzo and Maurizia; we married in 1978 in a Parish in Rome. Since then we have seen the fulfillment of the promises we made, on the day of our marriage, to love each other and to welcome the children that God would have given us.

Some years before marrying we listened to the catecheses of the Neocatechumenal Way in our parish. It was a decisive event, which marked a new starting point for our life. The announcement and the closeness of Christ deeply moved us and invited us not to live for ourselves any longer.

In the Neocatechumenal Way we have been greatly helped by the weekly celebrations of the Word and of the Sacraments, by the catecheses of the Church's Magisterium and by the communion with the brothers and sisters of our community, pledge of a greater communion that God was calling us to have with everyone.  All of this enlightened us on our dignity as persons, on the meaning and truth of sexuality, on the meaning of our being husband and wife and on the mission which God was calling us to.

If it had been for our selfishness, we would not have had many children; but, as the prophet said, the Lord seduced us. We now have nine children. The eldest is 26, has felt the vocation to the priesthood and is studying in a Seminary in Rome; the youngest is 5 years old.

From the very beginning of our married life we prayed every day together and with the children. On Sunday we have a domestic liturgy with psalms, songs and a Word from the Scripture. We dialogue with the children, helping them to place their lives before the Lord with all the difficulties they encounter. Thus we have lived with them the different phases of childhood, of adolescence and of youth, in a way that also for us was new, enlightened by the Word of God and by the Wisdom of the Church.

In 1986, on the feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth, Pope John Paul II sent out in mission twelve families of the Neocatechumenal Way to various European cities. We were sent to London, to the diocese of Southwark. At the time we had three children.

We went to live in the North Peckham Estate, a poor area renowned for violence and drugs; there we were given a small council flat. All had been prepared for us by God. We no longer lived to make money but to serve God as He wished. In this way we experienced a deep freedom and enjoyed communion between ourselves and with our children as never before.

We have seen the miracles of the announcement of the Gospel; many people enslaved by alcohol, pornography and selfishness, deeply wounded by their own and others' sins, have found help in a small community where the Word of God and the Sacraments are little by little healing them.

God has always provided for us and our children often offer to the Lord their small discomforts and sufferings.

All of us in the family think that the life that God has given us is most beautiful.