Entering the cortile at the entrance of our Ellicott City, MD ministry ~ The Shrine of St. Anthony, as you look to the left, you will see this statue of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Anthony of Padua. This piece was originally created as one of the liturgical works of art for the chapel of the Franciscan Friars Conventual Theological Seminary, St. Anthony-on-Hudson, in Rensselaer, NY, which closed in 1989. Professor Corrado Ruffini (1913-1979), a sculptor from Rome, created this piece as well as the chapel’s altar, tabernacle, candelabra, crucifix, ambo, and the way of the cross. Ruffini’s statue “symbolizes the spirit of prayer and study, which are united in seminary life.”
When you visit our Shrine, take a few moments to prayerfully admire this beautiful work of art. The complex surrounding The Shrine of St. Anthony is full of beautiful and historic artwork. You are encouraged to spend time walking the property, and exploring the beauty, both manmade and natural.
Read more about, and see photos from, the former Seminary in the book:
“Saint Anthony-on-Hudson Seminary.”
[photo of the statue and the artist can be found on page 23]
June 20-25, 2022: Two friars of our Province’s Immaculate Conception Custody, Frei Jesus Rodrigues do Amaral, OFM Conv. (left)and Frei Ricardo Elvis Arruda Bezerra, OFM Conv. (right) attended the Union of Conventual Franciscans of Brazil’s Quinquennio; a meeting for young friars who were Solemnly Professed within the past five years. Frei Jesus can be seen below serving as deacon at Mass.
June 1-18, 2022: Fr. Michael Lasky, OFM Conv., the Order’s Delegate General for JPIC and a friar of our province, co-led a JPIC focused pilgrimage. The pilgrims were all Solemnly Professed Friars of our CFF (Conventual Franciscan Federation: Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland, U.S.A.), including three from our province – Friar Franck Sokpolie, OFM Conv. (at front), Friar Richard Rome, OFM Conv. (3rd from front) and Br. Tim Blanchard, OFM Conv. (far back)
Friar Michael stated, “Engaging our physical and spiritual senses, we were drawn out of ourselves into relationship by discovering how God is working in the lives of the friars, who are living the Gospel in solidarity with the poor and those on the margins. This led us all to encounter more deeply Christ Crucified in the little places of Franciscan minority and fraternity.”
The former St. Anthony-on-Hudson Seminary, in Rensselaer, NY
Because of COVID and the nature of the program, it was a rare fact, but when a friar would visit us in the novitiate, we were tremendously grateful and happy. A friar visiting was a breath of fresh air, an inspiration to persevere. Cheered on by the novice master, some of those friars shared intriguing stories about two famous and memorable places in our Conventual history on the East Coast: Granby and Rensselaer.
At a given moment, we searched the library for picture books and vocational brochures of a time long gone, hoping for a little nostalgia. I particularly remember a hardcover picture book published right after the seminary opening in Rensselaer in 1967. The not-so-spontaneous pictures featuring friars studying in a library void of books or friars involved in scholastic conversations with each other were ok, but it was the chapel that intrigued me. I’m one of the few who enjoy brutalist church design, and the altar and ambo struck me in a particular way. Later, I learned that despite the seminary’s closure in 1988, there is still lots of activity on the grounds of St. Anthony-on-Hudson, not in the least the community of friars living in the old Beverwyck Manor.
So, when our prefect of formation asked me if I had a preference for my summer assignment, I spontaneously mentioned Immaculate Conception Friary in Rensselaer, NY. A diverse community, beautiful grounds, historical significance: it all appealed to me. As a social work student, I was mainly looking for a community that could help me make things real and concrete. It’s one thing to delve into social work theory, it’s quite something else to give hand and feet to social work values.
That said, I’m not here as a social worker but as a brother. I’ve been in Rensselaer for about seven weeks. So far, it has been a wonderful experience for which I am genuinely thankful—helping friars run errands, driving them to doctor’s appointments, or going to the movies and just having fun. Ultimately, it’s about sharing our lives and being attentive to each other’s needs – nourished and challenged by the gospel and St. Francis’ example of minority. That’s beautiful but not as simple as it sounds.
Fr. Adam Keltos, OFM Conv., an artisan and one of nine friars in residence at Immaculate Conception Friary, explaining to friar Sebastian, the meaning of his artwork, which he painted in the 1960’s.
What helps me to grow in this? The longer I am a friar, the more I am convinced of the importance of the stories we share with one another. About a year ago, a friend introduced me to a podcast called “The Place We Find Ourselves.” It features a social worker and a wide array of guests, discussing subjects like story, trauma, and attachment. Together, they try to navigate the guest’s story toward healing, wholeness, and restoration. Before interviewing the guest, Adam, the social worker, says something to the liking: “Any time you share a story from your life, you’re taking a risk. And so, as you are listening to this story, what does it mean to hold with honor the story of another human being? How can you receive the story with a sense of sacredness and gratitude?” Here in Rensselaer, as a brother to my brothers, I aspire to hold with honor the stories the friars share with me and the story we’re writing together.
Congratulations to our own Fr. Michael Sajda, OFM Conv., as he retires from his most recent assignment, as President at our Athol Springs, NY – St. Francis High School; a role he served for the past sixteen years, for a ministry he has served, for over twenty years.
On June 22, 2022, our Provincial Custody of the Immaculate Conception (Brazil) commemorated the 23rd Death Anniversary of +Friar Martinho de Porres (Matthias) Ward, OFM Conv. Our Provincial Custos, Friar Ronaldo Gomes da Silva, OFM Conv. presided with most of the friars of the Custody concelebrating the Mass.
Sunday, June 26, 2022: Our Elmhurst, NY province pastoral ministry ~ St. Adalbert Roman Catholic Church, celebrated a “Come Together” parish picnic celebration, which included a Santo Nino Statue Blessing, held during the 2:00 p.m. Filipino Mass. Our Lady of the Angels Minister Provincial, Fr. Michael Heine, OFM Conv., was on hand to preside at the Mass, bless the statue, and enjoy the parish fellowship. The parish took the opportunity to also celebrate the 30th Ordination Anniversary of their pastor ~ Fr. Mirosław Podymniak, OFM Conv. and the belated 60th Birthday of Fr. Michael. The parish enjoyed a day filled with live music, dancing, food and fellowship. More Parish Photos
The pastoral leadership of St. Adalbert Roman Catholic Church (left side front row – left to right) Fr. Ericson de la Pena, OFM Conv. (parochial vicar), Fr. Lucjan Szymański, OFM Conv. (parochial vicar), Fr. Mirosław “Mirek” Podymniak, OFM Conv. (pastor) & at right of the Santo Nino Statue, Fr. Michael Heine, OFM Conv. (Minister Provincial)
Fr. Herman Czaster, OFM Conv. (friar in residence at St. Adalbert Friary) can be seen behind Friar Michael.
Friar Eric assists Friar Michael for the blessing.
The THIRTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, June 26, 2022 (Sunday Mass Readings: 1 Kings 19:16-21; Psalm 16; Gal 5:1;13-18; Luke 9:51-62) “SPEAK, LORD, YOUR SERVANT IS LISTENING.”
We have ended another Liturgical season. We celebrated feasts and mysteries which changed the meaning of our life and world. These are neither phony fairy tales, nor magic moments meant to offer brief relief from the humdrum of our ordinary times.
Holy Week and Easter reminded us how our Savior entered His own creation to suffer and die in reparation for the misbehavior of God’s people. He did not come to curse and punish, but to save and revive. Jesus’ Resurrection confirmed His role as Savior, and His Ascension into Heaven was a sign of our very own rising over and above our weakness and failures. At Pentecost and the Feast of the Holy Trinity, we celebrated the gift of the God-Spirit who enters us who are baptized into the Family of God our Father, and to the life and mission of Jesus, our Brother and Savior. The Feast of the Body and Blood of the Lord reminded us that Jesus continues to live with us and within us. He is real, not just a memory. The Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus this past Friday reminded us that love, symbolized by the human heart, motivated our loving God to redeem His people, and of Jesus’ legacy: “Love one another as I have loved you.” On Saturday, the Gospel on the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary recalled Mary and Joseph’s relief in finding Jesus in the Temple, and how “she kept all these things in her heart.”
We also celebrated the Birth of John the Baptist. He was destined “to go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins.” The Baptist’s destiny is the mission statement of the Church and each of its members. In the coming days, the Gospel for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul will recall St. Peter’s profession of faith: ”You are the Christ, Son of the Living God.” It may remind us of the story where some of Jesus’ disciples left Him because following Jesus is hard. When Jesus asked Peter if he would also leave, Peter responded, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
The Feasts and Gospels might be our Annual Retreat, helping us remember, reflect, and confirm our identity as baptized Christian people. Our liturgists designed the schedule of liturgical feasts to remind those who were baptized at Easter what it means to be a follower of Jesus. It is also an effective way of confirming the confirmed – that is – us, the lifers, who also need to be reminded. Following Jesus is hard. We need God’s grace and the support of our brothers and sisters in the faith to “keep the faith,” and to spread it.
So, what now! We return to “Ordinary Time.” “Ordinary” is not to be distinguished from “extraordinary,” like in yawn–time: nothing special going on! No! No! The Liturgical Calendar “Ordinary Time,” uses ordinal numbers to identify the weeks, e.g. first, second, or thirteenth Sunday in OrdinaryTime.” There is nothing “ordinary” about time spent with God!
Now that we have celebrated what God has done for us, it’s time for us to do something for God. The Mass texts for this, the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, provide inspiration. In our first reading, from the Book of Kings, Elisha is unexpectedly called to succeed Elijah as God’s prophet. He could not even say goodbye to his family. God’s work was urgent. He had to go – and go quickly! In our Second Reading, St. Paul teaches the Galatians that God’s law is quite clear: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” In a suggestion that might be relevant for us today, St. Paul warns his listeners: “If you go on biting and devouring one another, beware that you are not consumed by one another.” What a response to the oratory of mutual destruction that we hear today! And, in the Gospel, Jesus, now “determined to journey to Jerusalem,” and his fate there, reminds His listeners that following Him requires immediacy, determination, and perseverance!
The Scripture Readings on these Sundays in Ordinary Time require more than a polite listening. When we go to church, we expect to hear a sermon. Listening is important, but let’s be serious. How many sermons have YOU heard that changed your life? Hearing is one thing. More is needed. Priests, ministers, and televangelists blast the “Good News” from pulpits, stages, and TV screens. The Alleluia verse in today’s Mass is “Speak, Lord, YOUR SERVANT IS LISTENING.” Are we? Do you remember any details from the sermon you heard last Sunday?????? How much of that “Good News” is reflected in the 6:30 Evening News?
The teachings of Jesus Christ are not just words to be heard. They are intended to change ourvision of the world: to see the world as God sees it; to see people as God sees people; to see the created world and all it offers as God sees it all. God created the world – and us – with a Divine purpose. Conversion is all about converting our ways and our goals to God’s ways and God’s goals. It’s as simple – and as critical – as that. That explains the urgency in the lives of Elisha and those people to whom Jesus said, in today’s Gospel, hey, we have to do this NOW!
St. John tells a beautiful story of Jesus healing a man born blind (Ch 9). In that story, Jesus identifies Himself as the “Light of the World.” Without light we see nothing. When the power fails, we are completely lost, even with 20-20 vision. A flashlight might help us find the fork which fell from the table, and we may find our way upstairs. But in darkness, there is no perception of distances or dangerous obstacles. When the sun rises – or the power restored – we can see clearly. Jesus IS the LIGHT OF THE WORLD. Or, imagine driving into a city where there are no street signs or traffic signals. You can ride around in circles, but where are you going and what danger might lurk around the corner? When we “see” with The Light of the World, our way is clear and obstacles avoided. FOLLOWING Jesus means being “enlightened” by Him.
In the weeks ahead, “seeing things as God sees them” will direct our reflections. By all means, “SPEAK LORD, YOUR SERVANT IS LISTENING.” The LIGHT OF THE WORLD gives us the vision to see things as God sees them. Ordinary Time is, indeed, an extraordinary time.
Meanwhile, enjoy the lazy, crazy days of summer, and GOD BLESS…..
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Have Mercy on Us Immaculate Heart of Mary, Pray for Us
June 24, 2022 will never be forgotten by anyone who believes in God as the origin, development, and final goal of all life. The Supreme Court of the United States of America made a decision that the Court overstepped its power on 22 January 1973. The Supreme Court has returned the power to the people in the fifty states. Citizens can echo: “we rule ourselves.” The truth about our Constitutional Republic is brought out by many minds exercising the power of the vote. The citizens of each State now have the power to make decisions about life. For forty-nine years, the Supreme Court was exercising a power they did not have deep down and strangled free action and free thinking about life.
Second, how many took note that this decision was handed down on the day that we Catholics celebrate the Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Vigil of the Immaculate Heart of Mary? Does that have any consequence? Think about the prayers since the unstable Roe was decided in 1973. Think of Roe’s replacement by another unstable holding based on the burden that followed in Casey in 1992. Think about the many broken hearts upon recognition of their own grave error in failing to recognize God as the giver of life. Remember that Franciscans teach a beautiful Scotistic “condetermination” which means that the indescribable act of the generation of life as ordered by God has a man and woman along with the presence of God! One sacrament is matrimony for a husband and wife to freely assume the rights and duties of marriage. We have rights because we have duties. Our Savior-Redeemer gave us the foundation for the Church’s seven sacraments.
Third, it is also no small coincidence that the feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus coincides with the Church’s universal day of prayer for priests. Every priest has to deal with sympathy, gentleness, love and mercy for sinners, since he himself is one in every respect (Heb 5: 1-10). None of us doubts, or makes lame excuses, or worst of all gives free passes to priests whose sins and failures for a half century have driven good folks away from the Church and participation in the tremendous gift of the sacraments. Good folks have lost understanding that God gave the sacraments for our sanctification and justification.
There can never be enough prayers for priests. Judgments which priests have to make by the nature of their ordination, one of the seven sacraments, have become more difficult than ever. Priesthood is not for the weak. Priesthood requires teaching and preaching what Christ wants. Priesthood is not for one who lacks compassion but requires wise judgments. Priesthood is not to hide behind canon law, but knowledge of canon law. Priesthood requires intelligence and courage in applying the rule of faith to the sinner. The Letter to the Hebrews explains that no one takes the honor of the priesthood upon himself unless called by God. There are years of discernment. “Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by the one who sent him. Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard from his godly fear. He learned obedience through what he suffered; and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.” As a priest gets older, this truth humbles him. Without the grace of God, a disaster is in the making.
On the solemnity of Pentecost, 22 May 1994, Pope John Paul II wrote:[1] Priestly ordination, which hands on the office entrusted by Christ to his apostles of teaching, sanctifying, and governing the faithful, has in the Catholic Church from the beginning always been reserved to men alone. This tradition has also been faithfully maintained by the Oriental churches.
Since then, in conversations, more often heated than not, I turned searchers for truth to John Paul II. He answered the question of the ordination of women in the Anglican Communion by quoting Pope Paul VI who, “out of fidelity to his office of safeguarding the apostolic tradition, and with a view to removing a new obstacle placed in the way of Christian unity, reminded Anglicans of the position of the Catholic Church.”
Given the historic Supreme Court decision on the Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, coinciding with the Universal Day of Prayer for Priests, painfully aware of the calamity of modernity, searching for a way to transcend a culture which evacuates Christianity, the antidote to living in fear and anxiety is at hand. Could any cure offer more complete healing for the Catholic living by faith and in hope of salvation than the seven sacraments and sound existential formation for exercising faith and reason? They serve as backdrop for free choice.
After thoughtful inquiry about the entire statement of Pope John Paul II, some understand. Not everyone has put out what he said with the trash. Others refuse to accept the Holy Father’s teaching. It is fitting to repeat: “in order that all doubt be removed regarding a matter of grave importance, a matter which pertains to the Church’s divine constitution itself, in virtue of the ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32), I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.”
No priest has a right to change or soften the teachings of the Church or he does real harm. When a thinking, praying person awakens to the altered truth, that person has every right to be angry. In truth, our hearts break to hear: “I could have been a grandmother.” Regret for having been duped by the cultural backdrop of free choice is integral to the anatomy of a culture of vacuity. In reply, Franciscan teaching is on free action which means: voluntary action enjoys priority over natural, love over understanding. For free action, love is both necessary and free, as well as free and rational.
eondrako @ alumni.nd.edu, University of Notre Dame, 24 June 2022
_____________ [1] John Paul II, De Sacerdotali Ordinatione Viris Tantum Reservanda (Apostolic Letter, 22 May 1994).
Fr. Edward J. Ondrako, OFM Conventual
Research Fellow Pontifical Faculty of St. Bonaventure, Rome
Visiting Scholar, McGrath Institute for Church Life
University of Notre Dame
June 24, 2022
Entering the cortile at the entrance of our Ellicott City, MD ministry ~ The Shrine of St. Anthony, as you look to the left, you will see this statue of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Anthony of Padua. This piece was originally created as one of the liturgical works of art for the chapel of the Franciscan Friars Conventual Theological Seminary, St. Anthony-on-Hudson, in Rensselaer, NY, which closed in 1989. Professor Corrado Ruffini (1913-1979), a sculptor from Rome, created this piece as well as the chapel’s altar, tabernacle, candelabra, crucifix, ambo, and the way of the cross. Ruffini’s statue “symbolizes the spirit of prayer and study, which are united in seminary life.”
At a given moment, we searched the library for picture books and vocational brochures of a time long gone, hoping for a little nostalgia. I particularly remember a 
