The Salutation of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Saint Francis of Assisi
Hail, O Lady,
Holy Queen,
Mary, holy Mother of God:
you are the Virgin made Church
chosen by the most Holy Father in heaven
whom He consecrated with His most holy beloved Son
and with the Holy Spirit the Paraclete,
in whom there was and is all fullness of grace and every good.
Hail His Palace!
Hail His Tabernacle!
Hail His Dwelling!
Hail His Robe!
Hail His Servant!
Hail His Mother!
And hail all you holy virtues
Which are poured into the hearts of the faithful
through the grace and enlightenment of the Holy Spirit,
that from being unbelievers,
you may make them faithful to God.
Pax et bonum
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Saturday, January 15, 2011
St. Berard and Companions
January 16 is the Feast of St. Berard and Companions (d. 1220). Preaching the gospel is often dangerous work. Leaving one’s homeland and adjusting to new cultures, governments and languages is difficult enough; but martyrdom sometimes caps all the other sacrifices.
In 1219 with the blessing of St. Francis, Berard left Italy with Peter, Adjute, Accurs, Odo and Vitalis to preach in Morocco. En route in Spain Vitalis became sick and commanded the other friars to continue their mission without him.
They tried preaching in Seville, then in Muslim hands, but made no converts. They went on to Morocco where they preached in the marketplace. The friars were immediately apprehended and ordered to leave the country; they refused. When they began preaching again, an exasperated sultan ordered them executed. After enduring severe beatings and declining various bribes to renounce their faith in Jesus Christ, the friars were beheaded by the sultan himself on January 16, 1220.
These were the first Franciscan martyrs. When Francis heard of their deaths, he exclaimed, "Now I can truly say that I have five Friars Minor!" Their relics were brought to Portugal where they prompted a young Augustinian canon to join the Franciscans and set off for Morocco the next year. That young man was Anthony of Padua. These five martyrs were canonized in 1481.
The deaths of Berard and his companions sparked a missionary vocation in Anthony of Padua and others. There have been many, many Franciscans who have responded to Francis’ challenge. Proclaiming the gospel can be fatal, but that has not stopped the Franciscan men and women who even today risk their lives in many countries throughout the world.
Before St. Francis, the Rules of religious orders made no mention of preaching to the Muslims. In the Rule of 1223, Francis wrote: "Those brothers who, by divine inspiration, desire to go among the Saracens and other nonbelievers should ask permission from their ministers provincial. But the ministers should not grant permission except to those whom they consider fit to be sent" (Chapter 12).
(From the Syracuse SFO newsletter)
Pax et bonum
In 1219 with the blessing of St. Francis, Berard left Italy with Peter, Adjute, Accurs, Odo and Vitalis to preach in Morocco. En route in Spain Vitalis became sick and commanded the other friars to continue their mission without him.
They tried preaching in Seville, then in Muslim hands, but made no converts. They went on to Morocco where they preached in the marketplace. The friars were immediately apprehended and ordered to leave the country; they refused. When they began preaching again, an exasperated sultan ordered them executed. After enduring severe beatings and declining various bribes to renounce their faith in Jesus Christ, the friars were beheaded by the sultan himself on January 16, 1220.
These were the first Franciscan martyrs. When Francis heard of their deaths, he exclaimed, "Now I can truly say that I have five Friars Minor!" Their relics were brought to Portugal where they prompted a young Augustinian canon to join the Franciscans and set off for Morocco the next year. That young man was Anthony of Padua. These five martyrs were canonized in 1481.
The deaths of Berard and his companions sparked a missionary vocation in Anthony of Padua and others. There have been many, many Franciscans who have responded to Francis’ challenge. Proclaiming the gospel can be fatal, but that has not stopped the Franciscan men and women who even today risk their lives in many countries throughout the world.
Before St. Francis, the Rules of religious orders made no mention of preaching to the Muslims. In the Rule of 1223, Francis wrote: "Those brothers who, by divine inspiration, desire to go among the Saracens and other nonbelievers should ask permission from their ministers provincial. But the ministers should not grant permission except to those whom they consider fit to be sent" (Chapter 12).
(From the Syracuse SFO newsletter)
Pax et bonum
He Who Wants to Be One of Us ...
“He Who Wants to Be One of Us in Everything”
Marty Lynch SFO
I came across these beautiful words by our Holy Father in his homily on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, It sheds new insight into yet another reason as to why Jesus asked John to do for Him what he of all people did not need to do: be baptized as a sign of his sorrow for His sins.
Notice also we have here another example of the comfortable and reverent use of God’s holy name, “Yahweh,” for the world to hear and read within the liturgy of the Mass:
“…The baptism of Jesus, which we recall today, fits into this logic of humility: It is the gesture of one who wants to be one of us in everything and gets in line with sinners; he, who is without sin, lets himself be treated as a sinner (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21), to carry on his shoulders the burden of guilt of all humanity. He is the "servant of Yahweh" whom the prophet Isaiah spoke to us about in the first reading, ‘Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights…’ (Isaiah 42:1). …”
May the holy name of the Most High be revered among the peoples and exalted to the heavens!
Pax et bonum
Marty Lynch SFO
I came across these beautiful words by our Holy Father in his homily on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, It sheds new insight into yet another reason as to why Jesus asked John to do for Him what he of all people did not need to do: be baptized as a sign of his sorrow for His sins.
Notice also we have here another example of the comfortable and reverent use of God’s holy name, “Yahweh,” for the world to hear and read within the liturgy of the Mass:
“…The baptism of Jesus, which we recall today, fits into this logic of humility: It is the gesture of one who wants to be one of us in everything and gets in line with sinners; he, who is without sin, lets himself be treated as a sinner (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21), to carry on his shoulders the burden of guilt of all humanity. He is the "servant of Yahweh" whom the prophet Isaiah spoke to us about in the first reading, ‘Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights…’ (Isaiah 42:1). …”
May the holy name of the Most High be revered among the peoples and exalted to the heavens!
Pax et bonum
National Minister's Message
The Joy and Mystery of the Incarnation
To what extent may we Franciscans justly claim that our St. Francis himself helped to highlight and deepen the joy and mystery of Christmas?
No less an authority than our current Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, spoke in great detail about this at his General Audience on December 23, 2009. He said:
the special, intense spiritual atmosphere that surrounds Christmas developed in the Middle Ages, thanks to St Francis of Assisi who was profoundly in love with the man Jesus, God-with-us. The Saint's first biographer, Thomas of Celano, recounts in his Vita Secunda that St Francis "Over and above all the other Solemnities, celebrated with ineffable tenderness the Nativity of the Child Jesus, and called "the Feast of Feasts' the day on which God, having become a tiny child, suckled at a human breast" (cf. Fonti Francescane, n. 199, p. 492). This particular devotion to the mystery of the Incarnation gave rise to the famous celebration of Christmas at Greccio. Francis probably drew the inspiration for this from his pilgrimage to the Holy Land and from the manger at St Mary Major in Rome. What motivated the Poverello of Assisi was the wish to experience as real, living and actual the humble grandeur of the event of the Child Jesus' Birth, and to communicate the joy of it to all.
In his first biography Thomas of Celano speaks of the night of the nativity scene at Greccio in a lively and moving way, making a crucial contribution to spreading the most beautiful Christmas tradition, that of the crib. Indeed, the night at Greccio restored to Christianity the intensity and beauty of the Feast of Christmas and taught the People of God to perceive its most authentic message, its special warmth, and to love and worship the humanity of Christ. This particular approach to Christmas gave the Christian faith a new dimension. Easter had focused attention on the power of God who triumphs over death, inaugurates new life and teaches us to hope in the world to come. St Francis with his crib highlighted the defenceless love of God, his humanity and his kindness; God manifested himself to humanity in the Incarnation of the Word to teach people a new way of living and loving.
In that Child, in fact, God-Love is manifest: God comes without weapons, without force, because he does not want to conquer, so to speak, from the outside, but rather wants to be freely received by the human being. God makes himself a defenceless Child to overcome pride, violence and the human desire to possess. In Jesus God took on this poor, disarming condition to win us with love and lead us to our true identity. We must not forget that the most important title of Jesus Christ is, precisely, that of "Son", Son of God; the divine dignity is indicated with a term that extends the reference to the humble condition of the manger in Bethlehem, although it corresponds uniquely to his divinity, which is the divinity of the "Son".
His condition as a Child also points out to us how we may encounter God and enjoy his presence. It is in the light of Christmas that we may understand Jesus' words: "Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven" (Mt 18: 3). Those who have not understood the mystery of Christmas, have not understood the crucial element of Christian life. Those who do not welcome Jesus with a child's heart, cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: this is what Francis wished to remind the Christians of his time and of all times, until today. Let us pray the Father to grant us that simplicity of heart which recognizes the Lord in the Child, just as Francis did in Greccio. Then what Thomas of Celano recounts referring to the experience of the shepherds on the Holy Night (cf. Lk 2: 20) with regard to those who were present at the event in Greccio might happen to us: "each one went home full of ineffable joy" (cf. Vita Prima, op. cit., n. 86, p. 479) (http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20091223_en.html)
Let us pray that the tender love, profound peace and "ineffable joy" that St. Francis felt in the presence of the child Jesus may stay in our hearts all through this still New Year 2011.
- Tom Bello, SFO
Minister, Secular Franciscan Order - USA
Pax et bonum
To what extent may we Franciscans justly claim that our St. Francis himself helped to highlight and deepen the joy and mystery of Christmas?
No less an authority than our current Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, spoke in great detail about this at his General Audience on December 23, 2009. He said:
the special, intense spiritual atmosphere that surrounds Christmas developed in the Middle Ages, thanks to St Francis of Assisi who was profoundly in love with the man Jesus, God-with-us. The Saint's first biographer, Thomas of Celano, recounts in his Vita Secunda that St Francis "Over and above all the other Solemnities, celebrated with ineffable tenderness the Nativity of the Child Jesus, and called "the Feast of Feasts' the day on which God, having become a tiny child, suckled at a human breast" (cf. Fonti Francescane, n. 199, p. 492). This particular devotion to the mystery of the Incarnation gave rise to the famous celebration of Christmas at Greccio. Francis probably drew the inspiration for this from his pilgrimage to the Holy Land and from the manger at St Mary Major in Rome. What motivated the Poverello of Assisi was the wish to experience as real, living and actual the humble grandeur of the event of the Child Jesus' Birth, and to communicate the joy of it to all.
In his first biography Thomas of Celano speaks of the night of the nativity scene at Greccio in a lively and moving way, making a crucial contribution to spreading the most beautiful Christmas tradition, that of the crib. Indeed, the night at Greccio restored to Christianity the intensity and beauty of the Feast of Christmas and taught the People of God to perceive its most authentic message, its special warmth, and to love and worship the humanity of Christ. This particular approach to Christmas gave the Christian faith a new dimension. Easter had focused attention on the power of God who triumphs over death, inaugurates new life and teaches us to hope in the world to come. St Francis with his crib highlighted the defenceless love of God, his humanity and his kindness; God manifested himself to humanity in the Incarnation of the Word to teach people a new way of living and loving.
In that Child, in fact, God-Love is manifest: God comes without weapons, without force, because he does not want to conquer, so to speak, from the outside, but rather wants to be freely received by the human being. God makes himself a defenceless Child to overcome pride, violence and the human desire to possess. In Jesus God took on this poor, disarming condition to win us with love and lead us to our true identity. We must not forget that the most important title of Jesus Christ is, precisely, that of "Son", Son of God; the divine dignity is indicated with a term that extends the reference to the humble condition of the manger in Bethlehem, although it corresponds uniquely to his divinity, which is the divinity of the "Son".
His condition as a Child also points out to us how we may encounter God and enjoy his presence. It is in the light of Christmas that we may understand Jesus' words: "Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven" (Mt 18: 3). Those who have not understood the mystery of Christmas, have not understood the crucial element of Christian life. Those who do not welcome Jesus with a child's heart, cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: this is what Francis wished to remind the Christians of his time and of all times, until today. Let us pray the Father to grant us that simplicity of heart which recognizes the Lord in the Child, just as Francis did in Greccio. Then what Thomas of Celano recounts referring to the experience of the shepherds on the Holy Night (cf. Lk 2: 20) with regard to those who were present at the event in Greccio might happen to us: "each one went home full of ineffable joy" (cf. Vita Prima, op. cit., n. 86, p. 479) (http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20091223_en.html)
Let us pray that the tender love, profound peace and "ineffable joy" that St. Francis felt in the presence of the child Jesus may stay in our hearts all through this still New Year 2011.
- Tom Bello, SFO
Minister, Secular Franciscan Order - USA
Pax et bonum
Saturday, January 8, 2011
The pope to go to Assisi
Catholic News service reports that Pope Benedict XVI has announced plans to go to Assisi in October to mark the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II's interreligious prayer for peace.
The pope said he would go to Assisi on pilgrimage and would like representatives of other Christian confessions and other world religions to join him there to commemorate Pope John Paul's "historic gesture" and to "solemnly renew the commitment of believers of every religion to live their own religious faith as a service in the cause of peace."
Read more here.
Pax et bonum
The pope said he would go to Assisi on pilgrimage and would like representatives of other Christian confessions and other world religions to join him there to commemorate Pope John Paul's "historic gesture" and to "solemnly renew the commitment of believers of every religion to live their own religious faith as a service in the cause of peace."
Read more here.
Pax et bonum
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Greccio, the Creche, the Eucharist
(From: The Spirit of Secular Franciscan Life Newsletter for Secular Franciscans - Assumption BVM Province December 2010 - No. 30, edited by Fr. Roch Nieman, OFM, Provincial Spiritual Assistant.. Taken from an article by Fr. Charles Finnegan, OFM entitled: “Lest We Forget: Christmas Is a Year-long Incarnation.”)
Christmas scene carved into the mountainside at Greccio
St. Francis of Assisi is often credited with giving us "the first Christmas Crib." While his devotion to the Christmas mystery no doubt influenced our modern custom of arranging Nativity scenes in our churches and homes at Christmas, what Francis did at Greccio was different. There were no statues or images of Mary, Joseph or the Babe, only the ox and ass. What Francis "invented" at Greccio was the “Eucharistic manger." The manger was the altar. Eucharistic bread and wine were placed over that manger, not an image of the Infant. Two great mysteries, the Incarnation and the Eucharist, were visibly shown to be intimately connected.
Christmas scene carved into the mountainside at Greccio
St. Francis of Assisi is often credited with giving us "the first Christmas Crib." While his devotion to the Christmas mystery no doubt influenced our modern custom of arranging Nativity scenes in our churches and homes at Christmas, what Francis did at Greccio was different. There were no statues or images of Mary, Joseph or the Babe, only the ox and ass. What Francis "invented" at Greccio was the “Eucharistic manger." The manger was the altar. Eucharistic bread and wine were placed over that manger, not an image of the Infant. Two great mysteries, the Incarnation and the Eucharist, were visibly shown to be intimately connected.
Although there was a “vision” of a lifeless babe coming alive in the hands of Francis, all the biographers (Thomas of Celano, St. Bonaventure and Julien of Speyer) report the same: an empty manger but a child waking up in the hands of Francis. Francis notes this close association between Bethlehem and the Eucharist in his writings. In his “First Admonition.” He writes: "See daily He humbles Himself as when He came from the royal throne into the womb of the Virgin; daily He comes to us in humble form; daily He comes down from the bosom of the Father upon the altar,” just as shepherds brought gifts to the altar, the most important being the gift of themselves.
The faith of St. Francis, who often said “I see nothing bodily of the Most High Son of God in this world except His most holy body and blood,” should be the inspiration and pattern of their Eucharistic life.
Speaking of this gift, St. Francis wrote: "Hold back nothing of yourselves for yourselves so that He who gives Himself totally to you may receive you totally”. The very word "Christmas" reminds us that the great Christmas celebration is the Eucharistic liturgy celebrating the Lord’s birth. The word "Bethlehem" means "House of bread" and for Francis, Christmas was above all else the coming of Him who is “the bread of life” and “the living bread come down from heaven.”
Speaking of this gift, St. Francis wrote: "Hold back nothing of yourselves for yourselves so that He who gives Himself totally to you may receive you totally”. The very word "Christmas" reminds us that the great Christmas celebration is the Eucharistic liturgy celebrating the Lord’s birth. The word "Bethlehem" means "House of bread" and for Francis, Christmas was above all else the coming of Him who is “the bread of life” and “the living bread come down from heaven.”
Francis knew well that Christmas is for children, children of all ages. Thomas of Celano, Francis’s first biographer, wrote: “At Greccio Francis became a child with the Child." Only the little ones can come before the Crib full of awe and simple joy, "lost in wonder" at the marvel of it all. Only the little ones can celebrate with purity of heart the feast of the littleness of God. Only the humble can recognize the awesome power of this littleness. Clarence Jordan, originator of the “Cotton Patch Version of the Gospel” liked to say: “God moved in with us.” He became what we are, to make us what He is. He took on our humanity so He could show us God’s love, and in exchange gave us a share in His divinity so we could live forever. The liturgy calls this “a marvelous exchange.”
At Christmas we sing and pray: “A Savior has been born to you” (Luke 2:11). This wonder (this Bethlehem) takes place every day upon the altar…Francis grasped that truth and awakened that mystery for us. This is what transpired in the cave at Greccio: an altar, an empty manger, and Jesus comes to earth once again.
The Eucharist is the center of the life of the Church. Christ unites us to Himself and to one another as a single body in it. Therefore, the Eucharist should be the center of the life of the fraternity. The brothers and sisters should participate in the Eucharist as frequently as possible, being mindful of the respect and love shown by Francis, who, in the Eucharist, lived all the mysteries of the life of Christ.
Pax et bonum
Prayer for Secular Franciscan vocations
National Prayer for Vocations to the Secular Franciscan Order
Here is our version of the national prayer. Perhaps it could be cut and placed somewhere that it could be prayed daily.
Father,
Good and Gracious God,
God of mercy, compassion generosity and love,
as we live our lives in the model of Saint Francis,
choosing daily to live the Gospel life,
Help us to help others hear your call,
Help us to help others to recognize their vocation
as a Secular Franciscan
that You have already planted in their heart,
Help us so that together we all may work
to bring the Gospel to life.
Amen
Pax et bonum
Here is our version of the national prayer. Perhaps it could be cut and placed somewhere that it could be prayed daily.
Father,
Good and Gracious God,
God of mercy, compassion generosity and love,
as we live our lives in the model of Saint Francis,
choosing daily to live the Gospel life,
Help us to help others hear your call,
Help us to help others to recognize their vocation
as a Secular Franciscan
that You have already planted in their heart,
Help us so that together we all may work
to bring the Gospel to life.
Amen
Pax et bonum
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