Franciscans of the Eucharist.......

The Mission of Our Lady of the Angels establishes a Catholic presence in the Humboldt Park area on Chicago’s west side.  This area presently is one of the poorest neighborhoods in the City of Chicago.  The purpose of the Mission is to assist the poor and evangelize through an apostolate of prayer, retreats and preaching.

Mention of Our Lady of the Angels brings to mind for many people the school fire of December 1, 1958, in which 92 students and three religious sisters perished.  In 2005, Cardinal George invited Fr. Bob Lombardo, CFR, to establish the Mission at the site of the tragic fire.   Fr. Bob is one of the founding friars of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal,  along with Fr. Benedict Groeschel.

Presently, the former rectory houses a discernment community of several young adults who are desiring religious life as Franciscans. There is a chapel for prayer/adoration and eight bedrooms to accommodate people wishing to come for retreat or volunteer opportunities. It also serves as Fr. Bob's headquarters from which he helps coordinate programs at the new Kelly Hall YMCA and oversees the renovation of the Convent across the street.

The pictures you see on their web site testify to the many who have shared their time, talent and resources to help create this Mission.   Fr. Bob is grateful to everyone, and considers what has occurred at the Mission to be miraculous. Yet, there is still much work to be done...

http://www.missionola.com/

Venerable Fr. Solanus Casey

St. Joseph of Cupertino - Franciscan Priest

Joseph Desa was born in the little city of Cupertino, near the Gulf of Tarento, in 1600. It is said in the acts of the process of his canonization that at the age of five he already showed such signs of sanctity that if he had been an adult, he would have been venerated as a perfect man. Already in his youth he was ravished in ecstasies which literally tore him away from the earth; it has been calculated that perhaps half of his life for some sixty years was spent literally above the ground. But much remains to be said of Saint Joseph, apart from his visible divine favors.

He almost died at the age of seven from an interior abscess, which only his prayer to Our Lady cured. He learned to be a shoemaker to earn his living, but was often absent in spirit from his work. He treated his flesh with singular rigor. The Cardinal de Lauria, who knew him well for long years, said he wore a very rude hair shirt and never ate meat, contenting himself with fruits and bread. He seasoned his soup, if he accepted any, with a dry and very bitter powder of wormwood. At the age of seventeen he desired to become a conventual Franciscan, but was refused because he had not studied.

He entered the Capuchins as a lay brother, but the divine favors he received seemed everywhere to bring down contempt upon him. He was in continuous contemplation and dropped plates and cauldrons. He would often stop and kneel down, and his long halts in places of discomfort brought on a tumor of the knee which was very painful. It was decided that he lacked both aptitude and health, and he was sent home. He was then regarded everywhere as a vagabond and a fool, and his mother in particular was harsh, as had been her custom for long years. She did, however, obtain permission for him to take charge of the stable for the conventual Franciscans, wearing the habit of the Third Order.

Saint Joseph proved himself many times to be perfectly obedient. His humility was heroic, and his mortification most exceptional. His words bore fruit and wakened the indifferent, warned against vice and in general were seen to come from a man who was very kind and very virtuous. He was finally granted the habit. He read with difficulty and wrote with still more difficulty, but the Mother of God was watching over him. When by the intervention of the bishop he had been admitted to minor Orders, he desired to be a priest but knew well only one text of the Gospel. By a special Providence of God, that was the text he was asked to expound during the canonical examination for the diaconate. The bishop who was in charge of hearing candidates for the priesthood found that the first ones answered exceptionally well, and he decided to ordain them all without any further hearings, thus passing Joseph with the others.

He was ordained in 1628.  He retired to a hermitage where he was apparently in nearly continuous ecstasy, or at least contemplation. He kept nothing for himself save the tunic he wore. Rejoicing to be totally poor, he felt entirely free also. He obeyed his Superiors and went wherever he was sent, wearing sandals and an old tunic which often came back with pieces missing; the people had begun to venerate him as a Saint, and had cut them off. When he did not notice what was happening, he was reproached as failing in poverty. The humble Brother wanted to pass for a sinner; he asked for the lowest employments, and transported the building materials for a church on his shoulders. He begged for the community. At the church he was a priest; elsewhere, a poor Brother.

Toward the end of his life all divine consolations were denied the Saint, including his ecstasies. He fell victim to an aridity which was unceasing, and he could find no savor in any holy reading. Then the infernal spirits inspired terrible visions and dreams. He shed tears amid this darkness and prayed his Saviour to help him, but received no answer. When the General of the Order heard of this, he called him to Rome, and there he recovered from the fearful trial, and all his joy returned.

He still had combats with the enemy of God to bear just the same, when the demons took human form to attempt to injure him physically. Other afflictions were not spared him, but his soul overcame all barriers between himself and God. He died on September 18, 1663, at the age of 63, in the Franciscan convent of Osino. He had celebrated Holy Mass up to and including the day before his death, as he had foretold he would do.

Source: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 11.

The Capuchin Friars..

St. Anthony of Padua.......

St. Anthony of Padua

Born in 1195 in Portugal as heir to a noble title and lands, Anthony's future seemed to be secure and well planned. But he started his restless quest for God's call early, giving up his inheritance to enter a monastery at age 15, seeking a life of solitude and devotion. Anthony moved to the Abbey of Santa Cruz, noted for learning and study, and devoted the next eight years to studying theology and Scripture. His phenomenal memory and facility for knowledge made it obvious to everyone that this was the life he was meant to lead ...until five guests showed up at the monastery.

Barefoot, clothed only in rags, with bright eyes and burning words, were these men holy or heretics? What was this new Order called the Franciscans to which they belonged? Anthony listened to their story of fellow Franciscans being martyred in Morocco, and he began to believe that he was wasting his life on books.

With permission to leave the monastery, Anthony was intent on going directly to Morocco as a Franciscan and to die for the faith. The Franciscans accepted Anthony into their Order knowing he intended to become a martyr as soon as possible. When he landed in Morocco it seemed like everything was finally going as he planned it.

But God had other plans. He no sooner got out into the desert than he became so ill that he wasn't even able to get out of bed, let alone walk the street preaching. His attempt at missionary work was such a complete failure that the Franciscans ordered him back to Portugal after only four months.

The ship taking him back to Portugal, however, was sent off course by a storm and forced to land in Sicily. As Anthony recovered his health in Italy, he conceived a new plan. He would go to the fourth general chapter meeting of the Franciscans and see St. Francis of Assisi. Surely St. Francis would know what Anthony was supposed to do with the rest of his life. But Francis, close to death, didn't notice Anthony among the three thousand friars who had come to the chapter.

However, after his ordination at Forli in 1222, in a sermon on the priesthood, Anthony's gifts were finally discovered. Suddenly recognized as a great preacher, Anthony was given the mission by St. Francis to preach anywhere and everywhere.

Suddenly what looked like failures or misdirections in his life made sense. His study in the monastery was not a waste of time, but a foundation to preach on the Scriptures. His travel to Morocco and Italy was not a disaster but experiences in real life from which to teach. His assignment to a retreat house in the mountains was not a rejection but a grounding of his spirit in prayer and meditation to sustain him in the Holy Spirit.

What did Anthony preach? He preached the Scripture; it was said of him that he knew the Bible so well, that if some disaster destroyed all copies of it, the Scriptures could still be recovered from what he knew. He probed deep into each passage to find the key message for Christians.

Anthony preached peace in a time of feuds, vendettas, and wars, saying, "No more war; no more hatred and bloodshed, but peace. God wills it." Anthony preached a positive message. In a time when heretics were teaching things such as that the flesh was evil and only the soul was created by God, Anthony didn't indulge in attacks of heretics. He spoke of the true beliefs of Christians in such a positive way that he won people back to the Faith.

But Anthony believed that preaching was useless -- if one didn't preach by example. "The only ones who preach correctly are those who conform by their actions to what they announce with their mouths."

Padua was the place that Anthony had chosen as his home base after he started preaching. And that's where he went after he fell ill in 1231. In order to find a little solitude in the midst of the clamors for his attention, he built a sort of treehouse where he lived until he became too weak. He asked to be taken back to his friary to die but he didn't make it. At a stop at a convent of Poor Clares he said, "I behold my God," and died. It was June 13, 1231; he was only 35 years old.

Anthony is often shown with the Christ Child because of a legend concerning an event that took place in a monastery where he stayed overnight. When his host peeked into Anthony's room to see the saint at prayer, he saw that Anthony was not alone. The Christ Child stood on a table before Anthony, and Anthony placed his arm gently around the Child, holding him. At times Anthony is also pictured with the Book of the Scriptures, for he preached and taught God's Word so eloquently, or with a lily, a sign of his holiness of life.

St. Pio of Pietrelcina

St. Louis IX of France - Franciscan Tertiary

St. Louis of France
Reigning from 1226 to 1270, Louis IX showed how a saint would act on the throne of France. He was a lovable personality, a kind husband, a father of eleven children, and at the same time a strict ascetic.

To an energetic and prudent rule Louis added love and zeal for the practice of piety and the reception of the holy sacraments. He was brave in battle, polished at feasts, and addicted to fasting and mortification. His politics were grounded upon strict justice, unshatterable fidelity, and untiring effort toward peace. Nevertheless, his was not a weakly rule but one that left its impress upon following generations. He was a great friend of religious Orders, a generous benefactor of the Church.

The Breviary says of him: "He had already been king for twenty years when he fell victim to a severe illness. That afforded the occasion for making a vow to undertake a crusade for the liberation of the Holy Land. Immediately upon recovery he received the crusader's cross from the hand of the bishop of Paris, and, followed by an immense army, he crossed the sea in 1248. On the field of battle Louis routed the Saracens; yet when the plague had taken large numbers of his soldiery, he was attacked and taken captive (1250). The king was forced to make peace with the Saracens; upon the payment of a huge ransom, he and his army were again set at liberty." While on a second crusade he died of the plague, with these words from the psalm upon his lips: "I will enter Thy house; I will worship in Thy holy temple and sing praises to Thy Name!" (Ps. 5).

Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch

It was his mother's supreme desire that her son should become a kind, pious and just ruler. She was wont to say to him: "Never forget that sin is the only great evil in the world. No mother could love her son more than I love you. But I would rather see you lying dead at my feet than know that you had offended God by one mortal sin." These words remained indelibly impressed upon his mind.

St. Louis was a member of the Third Order of St. Francis and so is included in the family of Franciscan saints.

Patron: barbers; builders; button makers; construction workers; Crusaders; death of children; difficult marriages; distillers; embroiderers; French monarchs; grooms; haberdashers; hairdressers; hair stylists; kings; masons; needle workers; parenthood; parents of large families; prisoners; sculptors; sick people; soldiers; stone masons; stonecutters; tertiaries; Archdiocese of Saint Louis, Missouri.

Symbols: Crown and scepter tipped with a Manus Dei; crown of thorns; fleurs-de-lys; three nails; banner with fleurs-de-lys; three crowns at his feet; king holding a cross or crown of thorns.

The Little Brothers of St. Francis

Excerpt of St. Maximilian Kolbe’s Explanation of the Act of Consecration

Cast myself at your feet, humbly imploring you to take me with all that I am and have, wholly to yourself as your possession and property...

By these words we beg, we beseech the Immaculata to accept us. We offer ourselves to her entirely, in every respect, as her children, and as slaves of love, as servants, as instruments, and under every single aspect, under every title that anyone at any time might be able to express. We become hers as her possession and property, to use us and use us up even to complete destruction, according to her free disposition.

Make of me, of all my powers of soul and body, of my whole life, death and eternity, whatever most pleases you.

To her we give our whole being, all the faculties of our soul, and therefore, intellect, memory and will, and all the faculties of the body - therefore, all the senses and each in particular, our strength, health or sickness. We offer her our entire life with all its experiences, pleasant, unpleasant or indifferent. We give her our death, whenever and wherever and it whatever way it befalls us. We give her our whole eternity. We expect that we will be able to belong perfectly to her, only then beyond comparison. In this way we express a desire and entreaty, so that she allows us to become hers under every aspect more and more perfectly.

In the third part of the act, we pray,

Use all that I am and have without reserve wholly to accomplish what was said of you: "She will crush your head, "and, "You alone have destroyed all heresies in the whole world"

On the statues and pictures of the Immaculata we always see the serpent at her feet, surrounding the globe of the earth, as she crushes the head of the serpent.

Satan, soiled by sin, endeavors to soil all souls on earth. He hates her who was always unspotted. He waits for her heel in the persons of her children; she crushes his head in the fight in the person of everyone who has recourse to her. We ask her to use us if she wishes, as an instrument to crush the proud head of the serpent in unfortunate souls. Holy Scripture adds, quoting the verse mentioned above, And you shall lie and wait for her heel. The evil spirit really lies in wait in a special way for those who dedicate themselves to the Immaculata; he desires to insult her at least in them. His endeavor against sincerely dedicated souls always ends with more shameful defeat; hence his fury is more violent, impotently furious.

The words, You alone have destroyed all heresies in the whole world, are taken from the prayers which the Church orders her priests to say about her. The Church says "heresies" and not the heretics, whom she loves, and because of this love desires to free them from the error of heresy. The Church says "all", without any exception; "alone", since "she" alone suffices. God is hers with all the treasures of grace for the conversion and sanctification of souls. No corner of the earth is excluded in the whole world. In this act of consecration we beg her to use us to destroy the whole serpent coiled about the earth, the serpent representing the various heresies.

Franciscan Tertiary - St. Margaret of Cortona (Italy)

St. Margaret of Cortona (1247 – February 22, 1297) was an Italian penitent of the Third Order of St. Francis. She was born in Laviano, near Perugia, and died in Cortona. She was canonized in 1728.
She is the patron saint of the falsely accused; hoboes; homeless; insane; orphaned; mentally ill; midwives; penitents; single mothers; reformed prostitutes; third children; tramps.

When Margaret was seven years old, her mother died and her father remarried. Little love was shared between stepmother and stepdaughter. At the age of 17 she met a young man, according to some accounts a man named Arsenio, the son of Gugliemo di Pecora, lord of Valiano. She ran away with him. For ten years she lived with him in his house near Montepulciano and bore him a son. She wanted to marry him as promised, but he refused^.

When Arsenio failed to return home from a journey one day, Margaret became worried. The unaccompanied return of his favourite hound alarmed Margaret, and the hound led her to his murdered body which was located deep in a forest. This crime shocked Margaret into a life of prayer and penance, and Margaret returned all the gifts he had given her and left his home. With her child, she returned to her father's house but her stepmother would not have her. Margaret and son then went to the Friars at Cortona where she put herself in their care at the church of San Francesco in the city. She fasted, avoided meat, and subsisted on bread and vegetables.

After three years, St. Margaret joined the Third Order of St. Francis and chose to live in poverty. Following the example of St. Francis of Assisi, she begged for sustenance and bread. She became a Franciscan tertiary.

In 1277, while in prayer, she heard the words: "What is your wish, poverella (little poor one)?" and she replied: "I neither seek nor wish for anything but You, my Lord Jesus." She began regular communications with God. She asked the city of Cortona to found a hospital for the sick, homeless and impoverished. To secure nurses for the hospital, she instituted a congregation of Tertiary Sisters, known as "le poverelle". She also established a link to Our Lady of Mercy and the members bound themselves to support the hospital and to help the needy.

On several occasions, St. Margaret participated in public affairs. Twice following Divine command, she challenged Msgr. Guglielmo Ubertini Pazzi, Bishop of Arezzo, in which diocese Cortona sat, because he lived like a prince. St. Margaret moved to the ruined Church of St. Basil and spent her remaining years there. She is buried there. After her death, the Church was rebuilt in her honor. St. Margaret was canonized by Pope Benedict XIII on May 16, 1728.

Article from Wikipedia...

Franciscan Sisters in Texas....

Wisdom of St. Pio of Pietrelcina

Do good everywhere, so that everyone can say: "This is a son of Christ."

Endure tribulation, sickness and pain for the love of God and for the conversion of poor sinners. Defend the weak, console those who weep.

Life is nothing but a continual struggle against one's self, and it does not open to beauty without the price of suffering.

Always keep Jesus company in Gethsemane and He will know how to comfort you in the hours of anguish that will come.

There is one thing I absolutely cannot stand and it is this: if I have to rebuke someone, I am always ready; but I cannot bear to see someone else do it. To see someone humiliated or mortified like this is unbearable for me.

May God be pleased to see that these poor creatures truly repent and return to Him. One must truly be a mother towards all those people and, for this reason, have great care for them, because Jesus tells us that there is more festivity in Heaven for the sinner who repents than for the perseverance of 99 just people. These words of the Redeemer are truly comforting to many souls who unfortunately sin, and who then want to repent and return to Jesus.


The woes of humanity: these are thoughts for everyone.
 

Don't try, excessively, to heal your heart, as your efforts would only make it more infirm. Don't make too great an effort to overcome your temptations, as this violence would only make them stronger. Despise them and don't dwell on them too much.

Don't worry about taking up my time, because the time best spent is that spent in the sanctification of souls, and I don't know how to thank our Heavenly Father when He presents me some souls that I can help in some way.


Never has the thought of revenge crossed my mind. I have prayed for them (the slanderers) and I pray. Perhaps sometimes I have said to the Lord: "Lord if to convert them a punishment is necessary, then give it so that they may be saved."

Secular Franciscan Order

The Secular Franciscan Order (SFO) is a community of Catholic men and women, of any of the Rites in communion with Rome (Latin, Byzantine, Melkite, etc.), in the world who seek to pattern their lives after Christ in the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi. Secular Franciscans are tertiaries, or members of the Third Order of St. Francis founded by St. Francis of Assisi 800 years ago. Originally known as the Brothers and Sisters of Penance, the Order is approved and recognized by the Holy See by the official name of Ordo Franciscanus Saecularis (OFS).  It is open to any Catholic not bound by religious vows to another Religious Order. It is made up of the laity (men and women) and also secular clergy (deacons, priests, bishops).

Although Secular Franciscans make a public profession, they are not bound by public vows as are religious orders living in community. The Third Order Regular (TOR), which grew out of the Third Order Secular, do make religious vows and live in community. The Holy See has entrusted the pastoral care and spiritual assistance of the Secular Franciscan Order (SFO), because it belongs to the same spiritual family, to the Franciscan First Order (Friars Minor) and Franciscan Third Order Regular (TOR).

Franciscans of the Immaculate

St. Francis - The Founder

Saint Francis of Assisi

Born Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone; 1181/1182 – October 3, 1226) was an Italian Catholic friar and preacher. He founded the Franciscan Order, assisted in founding the woman’s Order of St. Clare, and the lay Third Order of Saint Francis.  St. Francis is one of the most venerated religious figures in history.

Francis was the son of a wealthy cloth merchant in Assisi, and he lived the high-spirited life typical of a wealthy young man, even fighting as a soldier for Assisi. While going off to war in 1204, Francis had a vision that directed him back to Assisi, where he lost his taste for his worldly life. On a pilgrimage to Rome, Francis begged with the beggars at St. Peter's. The experience moved him to live in poverty. Francis returned home, began preaching on the streets, and soon amassed a following. His order was endorsed by the Pope in 1210. He then founded the Order of Poor Ladies, which was an order for old women, as well as the Third Order of Brothers and Sisters of Penance. In 1219, he went to Egypt where crusaders were besieging Damietta, hoping to find martyrdom at the hands of the Muslims. Supposedly, Francis achieved personal rapprochement with the Muslim sultan who declared he would convert if possible. By this point, the Franciscan Order had grown to such an extent that its primitive organizational structure was no longer sufficient. He returned to Italy to organize the order. Once his organization was endorsed by the Pope, he withdrew increasingly from external affairs. In 1223, Francis arranged for the first Christmas manger scene. In 1224, he received the stigmata, making him the first person to bear the wounds of Christ's Passion. He died in 1226 while singing Psalm 141.

On July 16, 1228, he was pronounced a saint by Pope Gregory IX. He is known as the patron saint of animals, the environment and one of the two patrons of Italy (with Catherine of Siena), and it is customary for Catholic and Anglican churches to hold ceremonies blessing animals on his feast day of 4 October.

Above article from Wikipedia

The Franciscan family today ranges from Religious Movements to Secular Apostolates and Fraternities and is so varied all over the world.  They are a living testimony to the great witness of this amazing Saint.  In this blog we will visit and see some of the many Franciscan movements and people around the world who strive to continue on the great legacy of their founder.