The origins of the community in Boise go back just a few years ago, to Adrianna and her husband Brian moving to Idaho. Adrianna had attended the University of Notre Dame, where she and Brian encountered the Movement, attracted primarily by people they met who seemed to live differently because of their belonging to Communion and Liberation.

After their wedding, Adrianna and Brian decided to move to Boise to be within driving distance of family, imagining that they would soon find new friends and a vibrant parish life. But their move coincided with the beginning of the Covid pandemic. Like so many others during that time, they found themselves unable to meet people easily or to participate in the life of their new parish. As new parents, this sense of disconnection was particularly difficult.

Even amid the isolation, Adrianna stayed connected to her friends from Notre Dame and Communion and Liberation. Some invited her to participate in a Catholic podcast which would take its inspiration from the method of education proposed by Fr. Giussani. The experience helped to keep her connected to the charism and fueled a desire for a local school of community.

For several years, the desire remained mostly a hope. Then, in 2024, Adrianna felt compelled to take a step. “I started to pray about attending the National Assembly in the fall of 2024,” she recalled. “The National Assembly became a real provocation for me. I went to Estes Park and saw this unity there—a unity that amplified our desire for a proximate experience of a community. It corresponded to what we wanted for our marriage and family.”

When Adrianna returned home, she and Brian began a school of community almost immediately, inviting friends from their parish and other circles. “Many of the women were from Well Read Mom,” Adrianna explained, referring to an international reading group for Catholic women. “Those meetings had already taught us how to speak about our lives and experiences in a real, authentic way. The questions we loved most in Well Read Mom were always about how the books touched our daily life—so it felt natural to invite them to School of Community.”

One who soon joined was Cory, a recent convert who was looking for something to help him integrate his new faith into daily life. “I found it difficult to live a life that wasn’t fragmented,” he shared. “I was looking for something that made Christ part of all of my life.”

Cory sees God’s providence in his path to CL. “My son Jack had just passed away after a nine month battle with leukemia, and I happened to cross paths with Adrianna while walking home from the parish office after planning Jack’s funeral.” Cory had never met Adrianna, but he knew from his wife Andi (a member of the Well Read Mom group) that she had started a School of Community. All Cory knew about SoC was that a group met to discuss an obscure book, yet he felt moved to tell Adrianna he wanted to join.
“After watching your son slowly and painfully die of cancer, there is a strong temptation to conclude either God does not exist or that he no longer loves us,” Cory shared. “But CL helped me reject those temptations and to instead see Jack’s death as a mystery that can bring us closer to God.” Cory says he is still in the midst of even attempting to understand why Jack died the way he did, but he sees the day he met Adrianna as a clear sign that God wants him to remain open to understanding the mystery.

As the small group grew, they began to consider going on vacation together. “Guido really encouraged us that it was possible. I was uncertain because I’d never been on a CL Vacation before. But through his enthusiasm and the support from others, I felt a real nudging from the Holy Spirit.” Adrianna reached out to a friend from Notre Dame, Aldo, and friends she’d met at the National Assembly, David, and Laura Beth, and asked them to help her organize the vacation. “Their availability and openness to helping us is still a profound witness to me.”

In planning the vacation, Adrianna remarked, “We really had to take seriously what was possible for us. We wanted to make sure the vacation could exist as a missionary gesture, and for that to be possible I knew that it needed to be affordable.” To meet this criteria, the group decided to organize around a campground within the Sawtooth National Forest. “It felt very American,” Adrianna recalled, “and rustic”. The campground was tucked away in the Sawtooth Mountains at the foot of the Salmon River but also had no potable water and no cell reception. “It was a bit of a logistical challenge,” Adrianna laughed, “but was also an immediate education in our dependence on one another.

About 35 people joined for the first Boise Vacation, half of them children under six. Each family contributed something practical to make the weekend possible. Cory and Andi brought all the drinking water in their truck. Brian and Adrianna brought the food and the grill. The children ran freely, the adults cooked and prayed together. Brian and Laura Beth worked together to learn six songs to play on guitar, even though it was a new instrument for both of them. “The dependence we experienced made unity tangible. We literally had to rely on one another for water,” Adrianna reflected. “But it was also an experience of our total exposure within nature. It felt like the Mystery was thrust upon us, we had to close our eyes not to see it. All together, we could experience Christ in such a proximate way.”

Cory agreed. “The vacation was a solidifying moment,” he said. “School of Community can sometimes feel abstract or intellectual. But the vacation shows the real fruits of what Fr. Giussani talks about. It was powerful to experience a weekend in what felt like true community with one another.”

During the vacation, David agreed to give a witness on his life in the Movement, and shared the experience of losing his wife and children in a car accident. His witness was a powerful moment for Cory and Andi. Cory recalled that earlier in the day he had told David about Jack’s death–not knowing David’s story. “I had just met David for the first time and still wasn’t comfortable sharing Jack’s story with new people because it can make the conversation awkward quickly. For some reason, though, I felt compelled to tell David. I don’t remember anything he said in response, but the expression on his face made me feel truly understood for perhaps the first time since Jack died. When David gave his witness that night, everything just clicked.” Cory shared that he thinks about David often and draws inspiration from him on how to remain open to Christ even while grieving a tragedy.

A few months later, the group planned a “kick-off day” to begin the new year together. Once again, friends from around the country volunteered to help. “Aldo has taken on such a paternal role for our community,” Adrianna shared. “He offered to come again, along with David, Massi, and Massi’s son, Gio. Having people from outside our local group is a constant reminder that we belong to something larger—the universal Church.They really remind us that we receive our education from an Other and not from ourselves alone.”

The day began with charitable work at a local veterans’ home, where even the youngest children participated. Later, about forty people gathered for dinner at Adrianna and Brian’s house. Talks were given by Massi, from Philadelphia, and Hanna, from Boise. The evening ended in shared testimonies and singing, filling the home with joy.

Both Adrianna and Cory reflected on how central the presence of their children has been in shaping their community. “During the visit to the veterans’ home, the kids playing bingo had the biggest impact,” Cory said. “It was powerful for the parents to see this too. Communion and Liberation has proposed a beautiful family life for us. Fr. Giussani references being child-like to describe our original nature, having the kids present with us has been a gift and experience of integration.”

Adrianna agreed. “It wasn’t natural for us adults to sing together, but we did it for the kids. They got so excited to sing. It becomes an educational presence for us as adults too. Brian only started to learn the guitar so we could sing together. This effort only began once we started School of Community.”

Looking back on the beginnings of the Boise community, Cory offered his gratitude. “Adrianna and Brian have been so generous—hosting us, organizing the vacation, opening their home again and again. They have had such a profound effect on my life in such a short amount of time. I could never thank them enough, and I’m so excited to see how our community will continue to grow closer to Christ.”

Adrianna shared in turn, “The Movement has really educated my husband and me to an openness. We’ve been really moved by the availability of others like David, Laura Beth, Aldo, and Massimo. It’s also moving that Cory joins us every week and agreed to the vacation even though he and his family had never camped before. Their witness makes us want to live with this kind of openness, too. It’s really an education to unity. Through our unity we’ve been able to share life together even when it’s difficult or full of suffering, and it has given me an experience of both Christ’s death and resurrection. The charism of Communion and Liberation allows us to experience life this way.”