Please click here to view and download an Easter greeting to all the Secular Franciscan Order from our Minister General.

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Easter Message from National Minister OFS-USA

It is said that hope is the last thing to die.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Darkness came over the earth.

For many, hope died.

Hope died, but love did not.
Love cannot be killed.

Love lives.

Love lives in the heart torn open so wide that no sin could come between us and God,
Love lives in the wounds that heal,
In the blood and water pouring forth from his side.
Love lives in that first glad greeting of Easter Morning,
Jesus has Risen!

There is no greater love than this, than to lay down one’s life for a friend.
This is the Love we live.

See Christ, Be Christ!
 Happy Easter!

 Your sister and minister,
Jan Parker OFS

https://secularfranciscansusa.org/2019/04/19/easter-messages-from-our-national-and-international-ministers/

(Our brother, Dave Kozemchak, OFS from St. Thomas More Fraternity in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania is requesting our Franciscan Family, nationwide, for prayers to end short and long-term abortions. Thanks to Bob Longo, OFS of the St. Margaret of Cortona Region for passing this on to us.)

My Sister and Brother Franciscans,

May the love of God, and the Blessings of our Seraphic Father Francis be with you. I write to you today to ask for prayers.  Jesus has called us to be the salt of the earth. St. Francis has said, “I have done what is mine to do; May Christ teach you what is yours to do!” Abortion has been legal in the United States since 1973. Recently, legislation has been enacted and/or proposed to ease the restrictions on late-term abortion, and/or even allowing the infant to die after birth. We Franciscans are called to be instruments of peace, love, pardon, faith, hope, light, and joy.

I thought, how powerful would it be if all the members of my Fraternity in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania all said the Crown Rosary on the same day to combat the evil of abortion spreading in our country. Further, how powerful would it be if all the Secular Franciscans in the St.Margaret of Cortona region joined us. And how so much more powerful would it be if all the thousands of Secular Franciscans in the United States also joined us.

So, my fellow Franciscans, what say we “storm heaven” this Good Friday by saying the Crown Rosary to help all of our fellow brothers and sisters in this country who are caught up in this evil, and to help save lives, and souls. We can pray individually, or in communion with other Franciscans, either privately or publicly. What say we make our Seraphic Father proud!

Your in the peace of Christ,

Pax et Bonum
Dave Kozemchak, OFS
St. Thomas More Fraternity
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

https://secularfranciscansusa.org/2019/04/17/pray-crown-rosary-on-good-friday/

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

May the peace of Christ be with you!

The Holy Land Friars have contacted me with a special request.   They are begging the help of all Secular Franciscans in promoting the Pontifical Good Friday Collection for the Holy Land.

The needs are many.  Please do what you can to help.  To learn more, see below, or spend some time on their website myfranciscan.org.

Remind others of this special collection, and thank you for your own prayers and financial support.

May the Holy Spirit continue to guide us as we journey together this Lent – and let’s make it a good one!

Peace and Lenten Joy,

Jan

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The Holy Land Friars:

• Provide ongoing emergency funds
• Support 29 Catholic parishes, 4 homes for orphans and 3 academic institutions
• Operate 16 schools for more than 10,000 pre-K through grade 12 students that are open to all faiths and currently serve Muslims and Jews in addition to the Christians in the Holy Land.
• Provide university scholarships
• Relocate and provide homes to Christian families
• Rehabilitate destroyed homes for Christians families
• Provide senior care facilities in Bethlehem and Nazareth
• Create jobs for Christians in the Holy Land
• Preserve 74 sanctuaries and shrines from the life of Jesus and the prophets
• Support more than 100 men preparing to be priests or brothers
• Assist Syrian and Iraqi refugee families in Jordan and Lebanon by helping to pay for rent, food, heat, schooling and transportation.

The Holy Land friars need your help. Syria has been devastated by a conflict that has displaced half of the country’s population. The friars refuse to abandon the Christians and others in need.

Help us raise awareness, prayers and financial support for the friars in Syria, who continue to celebrate Mass, provide pastoral care and offer humanitarian aid – water, medicine, food and more – in the midst of this devastating conflict.

https://secularfranciscansusa.org/2019/04/16/good-friday-collection-for-the-holy-land/

As in St. Francis’ Time, Spirit of Age Ultimately Doesn’t Satisfy

By Mary Stronach, OFS

(This article originally appeared in the Winter 2018-19 issue of Tau-USA)

Setting the stage for a weekend of formation visioning, Fr. David Pivonka, TOR, provided a dose of reality.

“The world has profoundly changed in the last 25 years,” said the host of EWTN’s Wild Goose series. “Young people have no safe place. There is a sense of danger infiltrating every part of us.” He said that there are things that want to corrupt, to manipulate the spirit of faith.

He took workshop attendees through an historical view of God.

In the pre-modern world, pre-1600s, God is the starting point. The world is imbued with God. The truth is rooted in God, he explained.

From the 1600s through to the 1960s, the modern world view has man at the center of all things. “God is pushed off to the side. God might exist but there is no intimate contact. Humanity has the ability to make things better… fix the world’s problems. Right and wrong is based on the human vision.”

In the post-modern world – the last 50 years – there is no center. There is chaos. “The truth is whatever an individual believes to be true.” There are no boundaries. God is not a part of the equation. During this era, he said, many people have no identification with religion.

Youth talk about being “spiritual” but not “religious,” he said. They react to culture mainly by feeling. It is an era when you “can’t offend anybody.” He continued, “This is a non-reflective age. We are so busy, so consumed…We don’t reflect on consequences.” In the 24-hour news cycle, we are “bombarded with noise. Our interior life is suffering. We need to invite people to an interior life.”

“Words like ‘should or should not’ are foreign to this culture,” he added. “Truth and preference are largely the same. If I determine what’s true and someone disagrees, then it reflects on me… The world is so divided, so hostile, we can’t dialogue.” He referred to a quote in a school that said, “We will tolerate all things except what we believe to be intolerant.”

He offered three approaches on how to engage this culture. The first is “accommodation,” accepting that every- thing is OK. But, he said, using this approach “ultimately doesn’t respect the individual.”

The second is not to critique the culture. “This is an escape behind walls, and leads to isolation,” he said. “The church is counter-cultural. We must confront it.”

He provided a more hopeful alternative with the third approach – “Infiltration and transformation.” Engage the culture, he said. “Desire to create a fraternal world. When Francis embraced the leper, he recognized Christ…Recognize and see that, and help other people to see it. There are two conversions into Christ. The first is to leave the world and go to Christ. The second is to go back to the world with Christ to bring to the world what we discover… The power of the Gospel is an encounter of the love of God that changes us… Especially now, in the midst of chaos, they see in us something that can satisfy.”

https://secularfranciscansusa.org/2019/04/11/a-visioning-for-formation/

Greetings of peace, dear Franciscan Family!

I pray this finds you well and filled with the peace of our loving Lord.

I wish you all a Happy New Year as we celebrate this World Day of Peace; through the intercession of Mary, Mother of God. I take this occasion to highlight a few things from Pope Francis in his World Day of Peace message entitled, “Good politics is at the service of peace.”

Our Holy Father begins by stating that “Bringing peace is central to the mission of Christ’s disciples. That peace is offered to all those men and women who long for peace amid the tragedies and violence that mark human history.”

I needn’t remind you that we do live in violent times and our very lives and vocations call us to be bearers of peace in this world. “Pope Benedict XVI noted that ‘every Christian is called to practice charity in a manner corresponding to his vocation and according to the degree of influence he wields in the pólis… When animated by charity, commitment to the common good has greater worth than a merely secular and political stand would have… Man’s earthly activity, when inspired and sustained by charity, contributes to the building of the universal city of God, which is the goal of the history of the human family’”

It is our Christian responsibility to practice charity at all times; and it is our Franciscan call that reminds us that all are brothers and sisters in Christ – especially those we find difficult to be charitable towards. These are the times we must not only soften our hearts but also our words. It is very easy to get caught up in the “mob mentality” in the polis. Yet, our vocation and profession calls us to a higher standard. We must place Christ at the heart and center of all that is; then we focus all our attention on Jesus, who is represented in the faces of all those we dislike or disagree with.

It is no accident that the message for this new year speaks to the political arena. There are those of the mind that Franciscans have no place in politics. Both Jesus and Francis ministered in the heart of the political sphere because this is where the “least of these” resided and were ignored. It is in this political arena where we must pray, learn and act for justice, to right the wrongs done to our brothers and sisters who have no recourse and are left to fend for themselves.

This month marks the anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling that women have the right to choose abortions. We as Franciscans strongly advocate for the right to the life of the unborn – a political action. Every January, there is a March for Life in Washington, D..C. Many of us attend and give heart and voice for the voiceless, the unborn. This is political action at its best. And I personally thank you for it!

But let us not stop there. There is so much to be done in the name of our Lord. This month is also Poverty Awareness Month, Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month as well as when we pray for Christian unity. Yes, my family, there is much to be done in the public arena. The God of Peace has called us to this amazing and difficult work, and I am not willing to disappoint Him. In this new year there is so much to be thankful for as our Lord continues to bless us in our comings and goings. Should we not bless others as we have been blessed?

Thank you for your hearts, your minds and your hands that work for peace and justice. I pray that this year bear much fruit and produce great works in the public arena. It is also my prayer that we continue the good work that God began in us with compassion and civility. Imagine every conversation as a sacred moment with our Lord, who always listens with the ears of faith, hope and love. My heart is full because the greatest of these is love.

Attached please find some goodies to help you pray, learn and study the plight of those living in poverty (Daily Ways to Learn about Poverty in America – January 2019: Calendar, Full Text).

I wish you love, joy, peace, and a very blessed New Year!

Carolyn D. Townes, OFS
National Animator,
Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation
U.S. Secular Franciscan Order

See Christ, Be Christ.
Share the Vision!
(OFS-USA 2019 Theme)

https://secularfranciscansusa.org/2019/01/01/jpic-2019-new-years-letter/