Put the glory of God and the salvation of souls first

Let your intentions in the fulfillment of your duties be so pure that you reject from your actions every other object but the glory of God and the salvation of souls. -St. Angela Merici                  

Pax et bonum

Preaching with our deeds

 

“The deeds you do may be the only sermon some persons will hear today”  - St. Francis of Assisi

Pax et bonum

Our Christian call to action

A Christian can never remain silent in the face of violence, poverty, hunger, corruption or abuse of power. - Pope Benedict XVI

Pax et bonum

Jesus is Our Ladder

By Fr. Isaac Spinharney, CFR from the Friars’ e-Letter

In …Genesis 28:11-22, we hear the story of Jacob’s ladder. The Fathers of the Church saw in Jacob’s ladder a prophetic image of Jesus Christ.   Jesus, who is both True God and True Man, is a ladder uniting heaven and earth upon which God first descends to us so that we might ascend to Him! 

We see this ladder image played out in Matthew 9:18-26… where Jesus heals… the woman with the hemorrhage and the official’s daughter. By a simple touch Jesus descends into their hopelessness allowing them to ascend the ladder of hope and healing to new life in God. The fact that He touched them, or allowed Himself to be touched…, is significant.  According to Jewish ceremonial law, touching the bleeding woman or a corpse rendered Jesus ritually unclean; that is, unfit for Temple sacrifice and worship.  But Jesus has already said to the Pharisees who were outraged that He was eating with sinners that God “desires mercy, not sacrifice” (Mt 9:13). Jesus ranks mercy over the ceremonial law because only the ladder of God’s mercy, only His sacrifice, can bridge the infinite gap between God and man.

Brothers and Sisters, what about us?   Do we experience the mercy of God in our own lives? Do we try to ascend to God by… human effort or do we beg Him to first come to us? Do we allow the ladder of God’s mercy to touch down upon those areas of our hearts that are bleeding or even dead so that we might rise and ascend to new life in Him?

This is God’s desire for us: that we would allow His mercy, which comes to us in the sacrifice of Jesus, to be the ladder by which we climb to Him.  This can happen every time we go to Mass. In the Eucharist—the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus—heaven and earth are united… Jesus comes to us as we are, to once again eat with poor sinners. He comes to forgive, He comes to heal.  He comes so that through Him, we might return to God our Father!

 


Pax et bonum

The Local Franciscan Family Grows

The Glory of the Most High Fraternity's "daughter" fraternity, The Immaculate Heart of Mary Fraternity, celebrated the profession of four new members of the Secular Franciscan Order.

At an August 17 Mass at St. Leo's Church in Hilton - the home of this offshoot of our Rochester fraternity - Douglas Charles, Margaret Keiffer, Gail Parmelee, and Dennis Viele all became professed members of the Secular Franciscans.

From Right, Katherine Schmidt, OFS (Minister), Margaret Keiffer, OFS, Douglas Charles, OFS, Gail Parmelee, OFS, Dennis Viele, OFS, and Father Anthony Baetzold, C.F.R (the celebrant).

Alleluia!

Pax et bonum

Knowing Jesus in our Midst

Knowing Jesus in our Midst

Saint Clare

     Our labor here is brief, but the reward is eternal.  Do not be disturbed by the clamor of the world which passes like a shadow.  Do not let the false delights of the deceptive world deceive you.

     Love Him totally Who gave Himself totally for your love.

     Our body is not made of iron.  Our strength is not that of stone.  Live and hope in the Lord, and let your service be according to reason.  Modify your holocaust with the salt of prudence.

     Melancholy is the poison of devotion.  When one is in tribulation, it is necessary to be more happy and more joyful because one is nearer to God.

     Close your eyes to the whisperings of hell and bravely oppose its onslaughts.

(Submitted by Gwen Franus OFS)

Pax et bonum

The Secular Franciscan Identity

The Secular Franciscan Identity

General Minister Emanuela DeNunzio

From a speech to International Gathering 7

     Who are the Secular Franciscans scattered all over the world?  What is their identity? ...There were in the past very many groups.  Mostly their members used to wear characteristic clothing, … In some places there were different fraternities for men and women and, even when they were mixed, the men sat on one side and the women on the other. .. For some time some Fraternities presented themselves still composed of laity with a certain nostalgia for the life of the friars and of religious, although having the persistent call to be valid tools of action of the Church in the world.  But the attitude of the brothers and of the sisters was changing into a new way to be Franciscan,..The Franciscan Third Order had assumed the new Franciscan name of The Secular Franciscan Order, exactly because it wanted to underscore the presence of Franciscan laity in the world; it wanted to distinguish itself in its "secular" state, the most significant feature of the Third Order. 

     Later, in the Christifideles Laïci, Pope John Paul II, recalling the doctrine of the Council, wrote: "The vocation of the laity to holiness carries with it that life according to the Spirit be expressed in a particular way by their insertion in temporal reality and in their participation in earthly activity"   And so, to update the discussion, we have to ask ourselves: What does it mean today to be a Secular Franciscan?  To be Franciscan belongs to the most intimate part of our personal identity, to the marrow of our being …

     The updated legislation of the SFO (Rule and General Constitutions) states that the identity of the Secular Franciscan is expressed in a triple dimension: personal (the inner life), fraternal (co-responsibility) and universal (the mission).

     The Inner Life: Our contribution in overcoming the problems that clutch the world and the Church is not realized by transforming us into "activists", but into disciples of prayer.  It is certain that for Secular Franciscans, like other citizens, we are called to political commitment, professional competence, promotion of solidarity and of liberty, of rights and of justice.  Nevertheless what is specifically ours is prayer to the living God.  The contemplative dimension allows us to go through the world with eyes enlightened by hope and compassion.  There is no true Christian commitment in the world without prayer… This is why it is very important that Fraternities be eloquent schools of prayer, places of harmony, mirrors of charity and sources of hope, so that their members feel the joy of being loved by their brothers and sisters, and at the same time to communicate to those around them the fullness of joy of being disciples of Christ… 

To be continued…

Pax et bonum