(This article originally appeared on Spring 2020 Issue 100 of the TAU-USA)

He was the Bridge

by Sharon Winzeler OFS

With the death of Fr. Lester Bach, OFM Cap, Secular Franciscans lost a friend, mentor, author, spiritual assistant, and beloved friar on Feb. 2, 2020.

Fr. Bach is familiar to all Secular Franciscans as the author of formation materials, especially the spiral-bound text The Franciscan Journey, which is used throughout initiation, orientation, and candidacy.

Fr. Bach made his perpetual profession as a Capuchin in 1950 and was ordained in 1957. He began working with the Secular Franciscans in the 1960s. He served as Provincial Spiritual Assistant on the La Verna Regional Council, which covers Wisconsin and the upper peninsula of Michigan. Fr. Bach represented the Capuchins on the Conference of National Spiritual Assistants.

When he prepared to retire as Spiritual Assistant to the La Verna Regional Council about 10 years ago, he asked Lee Ann Niebuhr and Ed Voss to take his place. “Nobody could fill his shoes,” Niebuhr noted. “He was always active in the Region and he agreed to remain as Spiritual Assistant until Ed and I finished our spiritual assistant training.”

Fr. Bach served as a friar in Huntington and Crown Point, Ind., Saginaw, Mich., Madison and Marathon, Wisconsin, and Chicago, Ill. On his 65th anniversary as a friar in 2015, Fr. Bach said in an article in The Harvest News, “During my entire ministry I worked with the Secular Franciscan Order as a spiritual assistant at various levels. I wrote several initial formation books as well as a commentary on the Secular Franciscan Constitutions. In 2000, the NAPCC (Capuchin provincials) appointed me to the Conference of National Spiritual Assistants (CNSA) on which I served for 12 years. These ministries have served me well and enhanced my Capuchin life. They were and are a source of my growth both personally and in various ministries. I thank God for my brother friars, for my family, for the warm relationships in my ministries, and for the gift of 65 years in my Capuchin vocation.”

Fr. Bach served the Secular Franciscans well, according to Niebuhr, who knew him since the late 1990s. “He was a man of the people and felt very comfortable among people in the secular lifestyle,” Niebuhr said. “He loved being with ordinary folks.” Niebuhr describes Fr. Bach as the good shepherd of his flock. “He always sought to be with the sheep. He was totally a man of the people.”

One of his strengths was facilitating dialogue rather than debate. “He was good at creating ’and‘ situations, not ’either/or,’” Niebuhr said. “When discussions became tense, such as during a tough decision to remove a member from a fraternity, he would fall back and ask, ‘What is the most merciful way to look at this?’” she said. His answer would be “try to love her more.”

Fr. Bach also knew how to get people’s attention in a positive way. Niebuhr recalled a national gathering where everyone was standing around talking and it was past time to get started with the session. “Lester simply started singing a song that everybody knew. Eventually people heard and started singing, and slowly made their way to their seats,” Niebuhr said. “He showed us that in times of turmoil, instead of simply continuing to sing your own song, you join together and sing one song with one another,” she said.

Fr. Bach valued Secular Franciscans and “glowed” when Niebuhr told him about recent initiatives discussed at a 2019 CNSA meeting in St. Louis that called for Seculars and Friars to work more closely together. “He glowed when I told him about it,” Niebuhr said, “and asked ‘How can we start this initiative in our Region?’”

“He was so instrumental in forming the seculars. It’s true that he wrote all those books. But Lester was the person and not the author when you talked with him,” she said.

The beauty of this man shone through, even during his final days in hospice, according to a conversation shared by National Minister Jan Parker, OFS. “He misses writing, and says his computer is broken, and those days are behind him now, but he is cheering us on, that’s for sure. He indicated that we should ‘take it from here’ and we should not forget that it’s ‘all about Love, which means it’s all about God’ and it’s ‘one and the same, you know.’” Jan added that she would never forget a homily by Fr. Lester, given at the 2012 Quinquennial, during which he called us to “be the bridge.” That phrase became a National OFS-USA theme the following year and is a phrase often repeated by Seculars throughout the country.

Fr. Bach is survived by his sister, Anna R. Gillis of Stevens Point, Wisconsin, and numerous nieces and nephews, as well as his many Capuchin brothers with whom he lived, prayed and ministered for more than 70 years. The Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated on Feb. 10 at St. Joseph Church in Appleton, Wisconsin. He is interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Mt. Cavalry, Wisconsin. Fr. Bach was a columnist for the TAU-USA and the La Verna Vision, a regional Secular Franciscan newsletter.

Fr. Bach was a prolific writer and authored many books on Secular Franciscans and spirituality, including:

Giving Life to the Words (2014). A spiritual commentary on the OFS General Constitutions

Franciscan Family Connections (2007). Training book for spiritual assistants to the Secular Franciscan Order

Capturing the Spirit of Francis & Clare (2007). Ongoing formation book for the Secular Franciscan Order

Seeking a Gospel Life (2008). General book on the spirit of Francis and living the gospel vision

Take Time for Sunsets (1975). Reflections on Franciscan Spirituality

Catch me a Rainbow (1990). Formation book for Secular Franciscans

Called to Rebuild the Church. a spiritual commentary on the General Constitutions of the Secular Franciscan Order (1997)

Where Bible & Life Connect (1998). Reflections for Spiritual Directors

Catch Me a Rainbow Too (1999). Book for initial formation

Come and See. Authored with Teresa Baker, OFS (2001)

Life-Giving Union (2003). His revision of an updated text for spiritual assistants

Pick More Daisies (2004). Ongoing formation for Secular Franciscans

Take Time for Sunsets (1975). Reflections on nature’s beauty

Where Bible and Life Connect: Reflections of a Spiritual Director (1995)

https://secularfranciscansusa.org/2020/06/17/remembering-father-lester-bach-ofm-cap/

By Mary Bittner, OFS

During the Easter season, we read at Mass about the growth of the early Christian community as described in the Acts of the Apostles.

“These remained faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers. The many miracles and signs worked through the apostles made a deep impression on everyone. The faithful all lived together and owned everything in common; they sold their goods and possessions and shared out the proceeds among themselves according to what each one needed. They went as a body to the Temple every day but met in their houses for the breaking of bread; they shared their food gladly and generously; they praised God and were looked up to by everyone. Day by day the Lord added to their community those destined to be saved.” Acts 2: 42-47

What should we note from this passage? The most obvious fact is that there, in first century Jerusalem, the Gospel was being lived. The Reign of God spoken of by Jesus in the gospels was becoming a reality in the lives of ordinary people. This reality was a powerful sign to the people around them, Jews and pagans alike. Yes, there were “miracles” and “signs.” Probably just as impressive to their audience was the fact that these Christians “lived together” and “sold their goods and possessions and shared out the proceeds” according to need, that “they shared their food gladly and generously.” In short, they both worshiped and lived as a community, a community of those whose lives had been transformed by the Good News.

Moreover, within a short time the community of believers included members of diverse social groups (slaves and freemen, pagans and Samaritans, Jews and Greeks), whose lives were characterized by a unity that would have been undreamed of a few years earlier. This was not an easy, painless coming together of like-minded individuals. No. Numerous references in Acts and Paul’s epistles make it only too clear the difficulty people had in accepting others whose backgrounds differed from their own. But unity was of utmost importance to them, and they persevered.

Jesus spoke of this sort of unity in a solemn moment at the Last Supper. “I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory that you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.” (John 17:20-23)

This is such a stupendous prayer that it’s hard to believe it’s true. Think about it. Jesus asked the Father that our unity with Him and with each other might be as profound as the unity between Himself and His Father. We may forget to be surprised by this because of our familiarity with the text, but this has to be one of the most amazing and challenging passages in Scripture. Furthermore, wonderful as it may be, this unity is not just for our own benefit. Jesus asks that we “may be brought to perfection as one” so that the world may know the truth about Himself. Our unity is meant to be profound and blatantly obvious, a sign to the unbelieving world.

You can probably see where this is leading. What was true for the followers of Jesus in the year 34 A.D. should be true for us living in 2020. As Franciscans, we have pledged ourselves to live the Gospel life as Francis did, as those early Christians did. The unity Jesus called for is as critical now as it ever was.

1. Is your local fraternity a relatively homogeneous group? If so, would someone of a different background feel welcome? How do you know?

2. Are those in your fraternity deeply committed to unity, or do you have a surface, “feel good” unity that falters as soon as people disagree? Is it possible to disagree and still have unity?

3. Does your fraternity display the sort of unity that can convince the world? If not, what should you do about it?

https://secularfranciscansusa.org/2020/06/15/2018-2021-national-priority-fraternity-life-living-fraternal-communion/