May 27-19, 2021: The Very Revered Fr. James McCurry, OFM Conv. (center), Minister Provincial of our province, traveled to the InterProvince Novitiate (Arroyo Grande, CA) to visit with the Novices and Formators, and to present classes on the Blessed Virgin Mary and on Franciscan & Celtic Spirituality. It was a great time of fraternity, telling stories and sharing many laughs, for which the Novitiate community of friars is grateful. Friar James’ visit also coincided with the 56th anniversary of priesthood ordination, for our own Fr. Julian Zambanini, OFM Conv. (center left), who serves on the Formation Team as a friar in residence. Ad multos annos, frater Iulianus!
Memorial Day in the USA, a Federal Holiday celebrated the last Monday of May each year, honors American Military Personnel lost while fighting in the Civil War, World War I, World War II, The Vietnam War, The Korean War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. For our Canadian friars, the day – known as Canada Day – is held on July 1st. They celebrate Remembrance Day on November 1th.
June 2014: Our Lady of the Angels Province Minister Provincial, the Very Reverend Fr. James McCurry, OFM Conv. visited the Normandy American Cemetery at Omaha Beach (Cimetiere Americain de Normandy), where the graves of 9,387 soldiers, a chapel, memorials and garden can be visited to honor the courage, skill and ultimate sacrifice made by those who are laid to rest there.
While our friars hold in prayer all those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for freedom, of laying down their lives in times of war, we remember especially our own Paratroopers’ Chaplain, +Capt. Father Ignatius Maternowski, OFM Conv. +Friar Ignatius was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in 1912. He joined the Franciscan Friars Conventual and was ordained a priest, in 1938. He and several of his confreres enlisted as chaplains in the US Army, in 1942, and +Fr. Ignatius volunteered for the Parachute regiment. Deployed to Ireland and England, he celebrated one last Mass for his troops on June 5, 1944; the Eve of D-Day, giving them General Absolution, in anticipation of the peril awaiting them all the next day. He died on June 6, 1944 attempting to negotiate with the Nazi occupiers of Gueutteville-les-Grès (a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France) to establish a “safe-zone” where a common hospital could be used for all of the American, German, and French casualties. +Friar Ignatius was the only United States military chaplain to die on D-Day.
Memorial in Gueutteville commemorating the charity and heroism of +Friar Ignatius
Although Memorial Day is traditionally observed in honor of those who have died in times of war, faith communities often hold special Memorial Services and Masses around this same time, to honor all men and women who are serving or who have served in the US Military. Our province would like to take this opportunity to remember our friars who have served in the Military, and have been welcomed by Sister Death in the past couple of years:
Saturday, May 22, 2021: Our Little Portion Farm ministry, in Ellicott City, MD, celebrated a “Sowing and Blessing the Wildflowers.” This is an important part of an ecological balancing strategy to attract predatory insects to our farm to help control the pests that damage the crops. Farmer Matt Jones (above right – JPIC Assistant Director & Farm Outreach Coordinator), the friars, staff members from the varied ministries on site, and an extensive array of volunteers have planted a diversity of flowering plants to help attract these helpful creatures, in keeping with our avoidance of all pesticides. During the May 22nd event, guests of all ages were invited to help scatter seeds for the new wildflower section and participate in a brief prayer service. These wildflower sections provide habitat for pollinators and beneficial insects, but also create spaces where visitors can contemplate the beauty of creation. Province JPIC Commission Chairman and Farm Director ~ Fr. Michael Lasky, OFM Conv. (below left) presided over the service. After the blessing, visitors were welcomed to walk around the farm and learn more about our unique ministry, in rural Howard County, Maryland, on the grounds of The Shrine of St. Anthony; home to our Provincial House, the Carrollton Hall Historic Site, the Companions of St. Anthony, the Province Franciscan Mission Association Office, and the Franciscan Soy Candles ministry! Note from Farmer Matt: “One of St. Francis’ early biographers wrote that St. Francis believed that gardens should always have a part set aside to be “undug.” According to this biographer, St. Francis thought that seeing this wild beauty would lead people to praise the Creator. So the wildflower areas on the farm are an interpretation of this concept, in addition to being places of ecological benefit.”
Wildflower Sowing & Blessing – May 22, 2021
Opening Prayer:
Creator God, we ask you now to be with us in this place. We recognize you as the Giver and Sustainer of life—in the seed, in the soil, and in the sower. We thank you for the opportunity to take part as a co-creator in this garden, planting seeds that—with your continued sustenance—will flourish with life. We pray that we will never lack in wonder or gratitude for these gifts, and that we are always rooted in a deep place of humility.
Blessings: Sister Seed We invite you now to take a cup of seeds to scatter on the ground. Take care to scatter the seeds slowly and carefully, so that together we may cover the entire area evenly. Become aware of the wondrous reality that each tiny seed has the potential within to become a living plant. We pray that these seeds may burst forth in abundant growth to become healthy plants; that these plants may provide sustenance for many creatures; and that these flowers reflect the beauty of their Creator. ALL: Creator God, hear our prayer.
Brother Soil We invite you to walk on the seeds, pressing them into the soil. Touch the soil with your hands. Become aware of this particular soil, unique to this place, yet, at the same time, a part of our vast, interconnected planet Earth. We pray that this soil be a suitable home for a diversity of life, whether visible or invisible to us. May its nutrients nourish the wildflowers and may it provide a strong foundation for their roots. ALL: Creator God, hear our prayer.
Sister Water We invite you to take a cup of water. Touch the water and flick it onto the newly planted seeds. Become aware of the journey these particular drops of water may have taken to arrive here on this land. We pray that this water may break open these seeds and that this ground may be blessed with lifegiving rains. ALL: Creator God, hear our prayer.
Brother Sun We now invite you to feel the warmth of the sun’s rays on your skin. Become aware of the sun, whose heat makes our world inhabitable and whose light illuminates its beauty. We pray that the sun’s rays reach these wildflower seeds who need its light to sprout. May sunlight shine on these plants to help them grow and reflect their beauty to us. ALL: Creator God, hear our prayer.
Closing Prayer: Creator God, we thank you for the opportunity today to be gardeners tending a small corner of your magnificent creation. Sister Seed, Brother Soil, Sister Water, and Brother Sun – bless these companions of creation. Open our eyes that we may see how intimately we are connected to them; help us understand how deeply we depend on their gifts. Please guide our work on this farm. Give strength to our volunteers, sustain the plants we grow, and help us to provide an abundant harvest of nourishing food to the most vulnerable among us. Amen
This year’s Class of Novices will complete their “year and a day” at the Novitiate this July 2021. They are grateful to Friar Tim, for his great ministry to our Order and for spending some quality time with them, at the Novitiate. Keep them in prayer as they Profess their Simple (Temporary/First) Vows this summer. Pictured above from left to right with Friar Tim at center: friar Wayne Mulei, OFM Conv. (St. Joseph of Cupertino Province), friar Bram De Backer, OFM Conv., friar Jonathan García Zenteno, OFM Conv., friar Michael Boes, OFM Conv., friar Edgar Varela, OFM Conv. (Our Lady of the Angels Province), and friar Anthony Ruffolo, OFM Conv. (St. Bonaventure Province).
Friar Louis Maximilian signing the Book of Profession, witnessed by Friar Jude and Friar Andrzej.
May 19, 2021: In the presence of his confreres (below) & witnessed by his Friary Guardian ~ Fr. Jude DeAngelo, OFM Conv. (above) and Fr. Andrzej Brzeziński, OFM Conv., Fr. Louis Maximilian Smith, OFM Conv. professed his Solemn Vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience, as a friar of Our Lady of the Angels Province, at the hands of our Minister Provincial, the Very Reverend Fr. James McCurry, OFM Conv. (at right), in the chapel of our SS. Francis & Clare Friary (Washington, DC). Originally from Albany, NY, Friar Louis Maximilian first professed his vows as a friar of another Franciscan Order. After 15 years, he discerned the desire to transfiliate to our Order, specifically our province, and has been serving as Associate Chaplain for University Faculty and Staff in The Catholic University of America – Campus Ministry Office, while living as an active member of our community, since August 2018.
Congratulations, Friar Louis Maximilian!
Photo Cred: the Very Reverend Fr. James McCurry, OFM Conv. – Minister Provincial of OLA Province. Other friars on hand for the celebration: Fr. Albert Puliyadan, OFM Conv. – Associate Chaplain for Liturgy and Worship at CUA, Fr. Michael Heine, OFM Conv. – Vicar Provincial of OLA Province, Fr. Antony Varghese Vattaparambil, OFM Conv. (Student at CUA via Our Lady of Consolation Province), Fr. Richard-Jacob Forcier, OFM Conv. – Province Secretary of Our Lady of the Angels Province, Friar Louis Maximilian Smith, OFM Conv. – Associate Chaplain for University Faculty and Staff at CUA, Fr. Andrzej Brzeziński, OFM Conv. – Associate Chaplain for Faith Development at CUA, Fr. Angelo Geiger, OFM Conv, – Parochial Vicar of Our Lady of Hope Parish / Mother Cabrini Catholic Church / St. Patrick Parish in Pennsylvania, and Fr. Jude DeAngelo, OFM Conv. – University Chaplain & Director of Campus Ministry at CUA.
Fr. Edward J. Ondrako, OFMConv.
Golden Jubilee of Priesthood, May 22, 1971-2021 Year B. Acts 2:1-11; (1st Option) 1 Cor 12: 3b-7, 12-13; (2nd Option) Jn 15: 26-27; 16:12-15
Living in a Post-Christian Culture Theme: “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit” Acts 2; Subtheme: “To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given….” 1 Cor 12; Subtheme: Jn 15: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you to all truth.”
On Pentecost the mission of the Son links definitively with the mission of the Holy Spirit. The Son, Perfect Love became incarnate, was willing to suffer, die, and rise from the dead. By taking on our human nature, He suffered beyond description in His humanity, but not in His divinity because our eternal God cannot suffer. To say God suffers is a metaphor. By participating in the sacraments we are filled with the Holy Spirit for God’s purpose. Before God we are equal. No one gets a free pass.
The Spirit of truth will guide us to all truth. What is truth? Something cannot be true and false at the same time. What is true and what is a lie? We do not like it if we have been taken by lies. What is truth in a broken world (le monde cassé)?
God is the Creator who intends human solidarity and gave the love of the woman to Adam. God knew man would sin but created humans from a single ancestor, Adam, not for the male to dominate the female, but to foster harmony, spousal harmony. The imperial lie is that love does not exist, there is no spouse, only those who conquer or cancel others matter. To read history with a spousal vision is to read with a biblical vision.
Christ’s self-giving love is spousal. It dismantles every lie. To recognize the sacrificial love of Christ the Bridegroom explodes confidence in myths that hide pride and deception. The Spirit of truth guides us to all truth. In a complex universe we cannot be intellectually lazy but have the duty to think about what is true, what is false, and to make judgments. Can anyone hold out for a better spouse?
Sts. Francis, Bonaventure, and Bl. John Duns Scotus lived in premodernity, a time when stresses, in general, were felt less than in modernity. Sts. John Henry Newman and Maximilian Kolbe lived in modernity. Two world wars left lasting scars which the Second Vatican Council analyzed while renewing the whole Church. I was ordained in this euphoria, while the sober eyes of Pope St. Paul VI saw dark clouds of atheism. I wondered what he meant. Then I began to see the thinning of religion. How to respond? Not by blaming external forces alone such as social platforms, political untruths, or absorbing educational theories that hide ideologies. Internal forces count such as taking too long to respond by authorities is part of the thinning of religion. Inviting in new ideas without competence to guide them Christianly, is part of the thinning of religion. These facts converge into complicity for our post-Christian culture.
Where is the light? It shines in the innocent. My sister Margie with Down Syndrome just turned 64. I dedicated a book[1] to her with an inscription from Dante. “Whoever sees the Light, is soon made aware that such a Light would be impossible to set aside for another sight; because the good, the object of the will, is fully gathered in that Light; outside that Light, what appears good, is hollow.”[2] By turning to light, knowledge, beauty, and peace, Dante represents heaven and says the unsayable. God is Light and Love. Love exists. Love matters. Love is the woman given by God to Adam. Union with a person who is as beautiful as Margie says the unsayable about heaven.
The point is: Pentecost shouts out: “The Spirit of truth guides us in all truth.” The Spirit of truth assists us to think, to judge, to love. Truth always goes forward. May we allow a spousal vision of the Love of God to operate where we do not expect to see it! May we see with the eyes of the Bridegroom who did not eschew mixed company. The sinless one mixed himself with sinners. His nakedness is a self-emptying spousal love mediated through the sacraments. May we see the whole world, its history, and the future with eyes formed by the Bridegroom’s love. May we see his Bride, the Church as “a Church marked by being pliant and stubborn, holy and always straying into scandal.”
May we understand the sacrifice of Christ in the Eucharist as forming a solidarity always being built up to counter the cynicism since the time of Adam and Eve. May we see with Christ’s eyes, our failings, those of other Catholics; of separated Christians; of those drifting away and of people outside the Church. A narrative of freedom is emerging from the captivity of empire, a narrative released from the domination by the lust for domination.[3] The Church does not exist to add to another imperial myth to compete with others. May we be fair in understanding our post-Christian culture.
I can make these points with conviction because on Pentecost Monday we honor the Mother of the Church, who to the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, ‘mothers every new grace.’[4] Since I left St. Cyril’s sixty-two years ago and fifty years as a Franciscan priest, the Immaculate Virgin has mothered every grace. “Sancta Maria Virgo, non est tibi similis nata in mundo, in mulieribus,” wrote St. Francis of Assisi. “Holy Virgin Mary, among all the women of the world, there is no one like you.” He [5] got it.
Delivered on Pentecost at SS. Cyril and Method, Binghamton, N.Y.
[1] E. J. Ondrako, Rebuild My Church (Hobe Sound, FL: Lectio Publishing, LLC., 2021). [ISBN 978-1-943901-18-0 To order, call (513) 677-3554 or contact eric.wolf@lectiopublishing.com [2] Adapted from Dante, Commedia, Paradiso, Canto 33, 100 (written by 1316). 2021 is the 700th anniversary of his death in 1321. [3] St. Augustine, The City of God, Preface. [4] Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ, “The Blessed Virgin Compared to the Air We Breathe.” (1883). [5] St. Francis of Assisi, “Antiphon for the Office of the Passion.”
Earlier in the year, as part of Catholic School’s Week 2021, Our Lady of the Angels Province friar, Fr. Christopher Dudek, OFM Conv. was honored as the Archbishop Curley High School Teacher of the Year.
“Fr. Chris has worked so hard this year to bring the Curley family together during this unprecedented time through community prayer, ativities etc. He continues to speak faith in to these young men and it’s more important now than ever before.”
From Curley’s Facebook Page post ~ Fr. Donald Grzymski, OFM Conv. ’70, president of Curley, said the following: “Fr. Chris has abundant energy and creativity, and a real desire for Curley’s young men to grow in their relationship with God, and to build the spirit of brotherhood among all students. This year, through prayer services, spirit-building activities, service projects and class retreats he has helped the Curley spirit to survive and to thrive. In January, during Catholic Schools Week, Fr. Chris was recognized as Curley’s Teacher of the Year, which put him in running for this award. We don’t think the Department of Catholic Schools could have made a better decision!”
MORE: In addition to this great honor, on Saturday, March 22, 2021, Friar Chris graduated from Fordham University with an MA in Pastoral Care. This was a great program that was both challenging and useful for ministry. I am very grateful for the friars providing me the opportunity to study and obtain my masters. It was very life-giving and will help me to become a better minister.
Honoring Our Lady by crowing statues of her in our churches, schools, gathering spaces and outside areas, with a crown of flowers, has been a tradition in the Church for decades. The exact origin of this devotion can not be pinpointed, but honoring Mary in the month of May holds dear to our friars and our province ministries. Throughout the month, we have been sharing posts from our parishes and parish schools, as they celebrated May Crownings, onto our Province FaceBook page. Be sure to check it out to see more photos from around the province. These photos are from the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Community, in Burlington, NC.
Top Row l-r: friar Edgar Varela, OFM Conv. (OLA), friar Wayne Mulei, OFM Conv. (SJC), Assistant Director of the Novitiate – Fr. Maurice Richard, OFM Conv. (OLA), Minister Provincial of St. Bonaventure Province – the Very Reverend Fr. Michael Zielke, OFM Conv. (SB), Director of the Novitiate – Br. Joe Wood, OFM Conv. (SB), friar Jonathan García Zenteno, OFM Conv. (OLA) Bottom Row l-r: friar Michael Boes, OFM Conv. (OLA), friar Anthony Ruffolo, OFM Conv. (SB), and friar Bram De Backer, OFM Conv. (OLA)
The Minister Provincial of St. Bonaventure Province, the Very Reverend Fr. Michael Zielke, OFM Conv. spent time at the U.S.A. Provinces’ Novitiate, from May 4-11, 2021, to visit with the community there, cook several delicious meals for them, and meet with the community for the scrutiniums for the novices, as they prepare to end their Novitiate year; looking forward to profession of simple vows this Summer. {For our province, we will joyfully celebrate the Simple Vow Professions of friar Michael, friar Edgar, friar Jonathan and friar Bram, on July 29, 2021} It was a great time of fraternity, sharing many laughs and telling stories with Fr. Michael.
Please keep these six Novices in your continued prayers as they make final preparations for their Solemn (Simple/Temporary) Vow Professions. For more information on vocations, contact our Province Vocation Director, Br. Nick Romeo, OFM Conv. at vocations@olaprovince.org or visit FranciscanVoice.org.
May 27-19, 2021: The Very Revered Fr. James McCurry, OFM Conv. (center), Minister Provincial of our province, traveled to the InterProvince Novitiate (Arroyo Grande, CA) to visit with the Novices and Formators, and to present classes on the Blessed Virgin Mary and on Franciscan & Celtic Spirituality. It was a great time of fraternity, telling stories and sharing many laughs, for which the Novitiate community of friars is grateful. Friar James’ visit also coincided with the 56th anniversary of priesthood ordination, for our own Fr. Julian Zambanini, OFM Conv. (center left), who serves on the Formation Team as a friar in residence. Ad multos annos, frater Iulianus!
Earlier in the year, as part of Catholic School’s Week 2021, Our Lady of the Angels Province friar, Fr. Christopher Dudek, OFM Conv. was honored as the 
