Secular Franciscan Order

Once, when Francis was to preach before the Pope and the Cardinals, he had memorized a sermon which he had carefully composed.  When Francis stood in their midst to offer his edifying words, he went completely blank and was unable to say anything at all.  This he admitted to them in true humility and began to invoke the grace of the Holy Spirit.  Suddenly, he began to overflow with such effective eloquence, and to move the minds of those high-ranking men to compunction with such force and power, that it was clearly evident it was not he, but the Spirit of the Lord who was speaking.”  Major Legend of St. Francis by St. Bonaventure

Have you ever been speechless?  Being caught up in the moment, or standing in front of an awesome sight like the Grand Canon or Niagara Falls can leave on speechless.

During these beautiful summer days in the month of June the Church celebrates some of it’s most beautiful mysteries:  Ascension Thursday, Pentecost Sunday, Trinity Sunday, and Corpus Christi Sunday.  The mysteries of the Ascension, the Blessed Sacrament, the Holy Spirit, the Trinity… can leave one speechless and blank.  If you trust that the Spirit of the Lord is the one speaking to us through these mysteries we too, like Francis, will be filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Final Profession

Celebration

On May 15th during the 11:30 mass, Frances Acosta, Anne Collins, Janina Jelchocinski and Jeanne Reilly made Final profession vows after two and a half years of formation.
 Rosemarie Keegan renewed her sacred vows.
Special Thank You to Maureen Brennan & Clara Pascucci
who helped us through our journey.
The celebration continued with a light luncheon with our  fellow Franciscans, family and friends!
A great day at Sacred Heart Church!

The Dance of Joy

    It poured and it was very foggy. But the despite the fog as I sat in the tomb in which my Father Francis is buried I was able to see so clearly what God has called me to do! Two and half years later, I sit in the Church of the Sacred Heart Church getting ready to profess my life as a Secular Franciscan. It is pouring rain on this day and the fog is just as pronounced as in Assisi.

    What a beautiful day, I thought to myself, that I have come full circle. The journey set upon me by my Lord has only illuminated my heart to what I am meant to be. To continue the work set forth by my beloved Francis, to live, lead, preach, love and use words if necessary. My heart is filled Joy!
 Congratulations to my fellow classmates!

Pax et Bonum!
Frances

St. Anthony and the Child Jesus

St. Anthony Shrine,Ohio

St. Anthony has been pictured by artists and sculptors in all kinds of ways. He is depicted with a book in his hands, with a lily or torch. He has been painted preaching to fish, holding a monstrance with the Blessed Sacrament in front of a mule or preaching in the public square or from a nut tree.
But since the 17th century we most often find the saint shown with the child Jesus in his arm or even with the child standing on a book the saint holds. A story about St. Anthony related in the complete edition of Butler’s Lives of the Saints (edited, revised and supplemented by Herbert Anthony Thurston, S.J., and Donald Attwater) projects back into the past a visit of Anthony to the Lord of Chatenauneuf. Anthony was praying far into the night when suddenly the room was filled with light more brilliant than the sun. Jesus then appeared to St. Anthony under the form of a little child. Chatenauneuf, attracted by the brilliant light that filled his house, was drawn to witness the vision but promised to tell no one of it until after St. Anthony’s death.
Some may see a similarity and connection between this story and the story in the life of St. Francis when he reenacted at Greccio the story of Jesus, and the Christ Child became alive in his arms. There are other accounts of appearances of the child Jesus to Francis and some companions.
These stories link Anthony with Francis in a sense of wonder and awe concerning the mystery of Christ’s incarnation. They speak of a fascination with the humility and vulnerability of Christ who emptied himself to become one like us in all things except sin. For Anthony, like Francis, poverty was a way of imitating Jesus who was born in a stable and would have no place to lay his head.

“The sea obeys and fetters break/And lifeless limbs thou dost restore/While treasures lost are found again/When young or old thine aid implore.”
—Responsory of St. Anthony

 

St. Anthony of Padua 
Doctor of the Church

Feastday: June 13
b.1195 d.1231

Saint Anthony was canonized (declared a saint) less than one year after his death.

There is perhaps no more loved and admired saint in the Catholic Church than Saint Anthony of Padua, a Doctor of the Church. Though his work was in Italy, he was born in Portugal. He first joined the Augustinian Order and then left it and joined the Franciscan Order in 1221, when he was 26 years old. The reason he became a Franciscan was because of the death of the five Franciscan protomartyrs -- St. Bernard, St. Peter, St. Otho, St. Accursius, and St. Adjutus -- who shed their blood for the Catholic Faith in the year 1220, in Morocco, in North Africa, and whose headless and mutilated bodies had been brought to St. Anthony’s monastery on their way back for burial. St. Anthony became a Franciscan in the hope of shedding his own blood and becoming a martyr. He lived only ten years after joining the Franciscan Order.

So simple and resounding was his teaching of the Catholic Faith, so that the most unlettered and innocent might understand it, that he was made a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XII in 1946. Saint Anthony was only 36 years old when he died. He is called the “hammer of the Heretics” His great protection against their lies and deceits in the matter of Christian doctrine was to utter, simply and innocently, the Holy Name of Mary. When St. Anthony of Padua found he was preaching the true Gospel of the Catholic Church to heretics who would not listen to him, he then went out and preached it to the fishes. This was not, as liberals and naturalists are trying to say, for the instruction of the fishes, but rather for the glory of God, the delight of the angels, and the easing of his own heart. St. Anthony wanted to profess the Catholic Faith with his mind and his heart, at every moment.

He is typically depicted with a book and the Infant Child Jesus, to whom He miraculously appeared, and is commonly referred to today as the "finder of lost articles." Upon exhumation, some 336 years after his death, his body was found to be corrupted, yet his tongue was totally incorrupt, so perfect were the teachings that had been formed upon it.

Prayer to St. Anthony

Saint Anthony, perfect imitator of Jesus, who received from God the special power of restoring lost things, grant that I may find {mention your petition} which has been lost. As least restore to me peace and tranquility of mind, the loss of which has afflicted me even more than my material loss. To this favor I ask another of you: that I may always remain in possession of the true good that is God. Let me rather lose all things than lose God, my supreme good. Let me never suffer the loss of my greatest treasure, eternal life with God. Amen.

In his sermon notes, Anthony writes: "The saints are like the stars. In his providence Christ conceals them in a hidden place that they may not shine before others when they might wish to do so. Yet they are always ready to exchange the quiet of contemplation for the works of mercy as soon as they perceive in their heart the invitation of Christ."

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