Kicking off the weekend of celebrations for the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, is Fr. Paul Lininger, OFM Conv. (pastor of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Community – including Blessed Sacrament School, in Burlington, NC), as he blesses the animals of the school community families.
Fr. Tim Kulbicki, OFM Conv. serves as pastor and campus minister at UNC Chapel Hill Newman Catholic Student Center Parish. A nice crowd gathered in the parking lot for this year’s Blessing.
Pilgrims to The Shrine of St. Anthony, in Ellicott City, MD were greeted by Fr. Richard-Jacob Forcier, OFM Conv. and Fr. Grzegorz (Greg) Wierzowiecki, OFM Conv., as they gathered for the Blessing. [Friar Richard-Jacob also serves as Province Secretary and as the Spiritual Guardian for The Companions of St. Anthony.]
As part of the St. Casimir Church Fall Festival 2021, Fr. Andy Santamauro, OFM Conv. (parochial vicar) and Fr. Dennis Grumsey, OFM Conv. (pastor) bless the animals brought to them by Baltimore City’s Canton neighborhood residents.
Some of the student friars in study at The Catholic University of America (CUA in Washington DC) – friar Alex Gould, OFM Conv. of Our Lady of Consolation Province, and friar Cristofer Fernández, OFM Conv. & friar Edgar Varela, OFM Conv. of our province (Our Lady of the Angels Province) attended the Archdiocese of Washington’s Mass for Migrants and Refugees, at the invitation of CUA’s Center for Cultural Engagement. The young friars were stirred by the multicultural liturgy. They received a flattering compliment from the Guatemalan Ambassador about how lovely their singing throughout the liturgy was–they sat behind the ambassador and his family unknowingly. Afterwards, the friars participated in an informal dialogue with Bishop Mario E. Dorsonville, Auxilary Bishop of Washington & a native of Bogotá, Colombia, and other CUA students and staff on matters relating Migrants and Refugees to the Church and to our faith. [Article in the Catholic Standard]
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This participation touched the heart of another one of our friars deeply. Fr. Julio Martinez, OFM Conv. serves as pastor at St. Julia Catholic Community, a parish of more than 2,000 parishioners; 85% of them Spanish-speaking. The parish community celebrates diversity and the richness of the cultural backgrounds that bring together a Catholic community in the 21st Century. Friar Julio writes: “How Wonderful! My heart swelled with gratitude and pride at seeing two of our province’s friars in formation in attendance at the Mass for Migrants and Refugees in Washington, D.C. Your presence at that Mass speaks volumes about what Pope Francis bids us to do toward the stranger and the immigrant. Your presence speaks volumes about our Franciscan ideals of being in solidarity with the poor and the voiceless. You set an example of companionship and compassion which the migrant and refugee community all over the world needs and is hungry to feel. As a refugee myself, I just want to thank you.” ~Friar Julio
Consistent with our Franciscan charism and tradition of devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, our province is promoting opportunities to more fully tap into a devotion from our Kolbean heritage, through the example of St. Maximilian M. Kolbe, OFM Conv., and the continued efforts of his Militia of the Immaculata’s (M.I.) unconditional Consecration to the Immaculate. In order to better promote M.I. among the faithful served through the ministries of our friars of Our Lady of the Angels Province, Fr. Jobe Abbass, OFM Conv., our Province MI Assistant, has completed the 26th successful and rewarding stop on our Province M.I Initiative Tour of our pastoral ministries. Friar Jobe’s revised scheduled stops on this tour will continue through February of 2022. Keep him and all those he greets in your prayers, as he continues to preach at the Masses to encourage the faithful to consecrate themselves to the Immaculate, and to enroll in the M.I.
Friar Anthony Francis and Friar Jobe are some of the parishioners of St. Francis of Assisi Parish; new members of the Militia of the Immaculata (M.I.)
The 26th stop of the M.I. Initiative Tour, to promote Marian consecration and membership in the M.I., took place over the weekend of September 25-26, 2021, at St. Francis of Assisi Parish, in Johnstown, PA. The pastor, Our Lady of the Angels Province friar, Fr. Anthony Francis Spilka, OFM Conv. and the faithful at all three weekend Masses were keenly aware of the need for the Immaculate’s help and protection since they are not far from Shankesville and the Flight 93 National Memorial. In the above photo along with Friar Anthony Francis and Friar Jobe are some of the parishioners of St. Francis Parish and new members of the M.I.
Consistent with our Franciscan charism and tradition of devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, our province is promoting opportunities to more fully tap into a devotion from our Kolbean heritage, through the example of St. Maximilian M. Kolbe, OFM Conv., and the continued efforts of his Militia of the Immaculata’s (M.I.) unconditional Consecration to the Immaculate. In order to better promote M.I. among the faithful served through the ministries of our friars of Our Lady of the Angels Province, Fr. Jobe Abbass, OFM Conv., our Province MI Assistant, has completed the 25th successful and rewarding stop on our Province M.I Initiative Tour of our pastoral ministries. Friar Jobe’s revised scheduled stops on this tour will continue through February of 2022. Keep him and all those he greets in your prayers, as he continues to preach at the Masses to encourage the faithful to consecrate themselves to the Immaculate, and to enroll in the M.I.
On the weekend of September 18-19, 2021, Friar Jacek Leszczyński, OFM Conv. – pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Parish (Chicopee, MA), welcomed the M.I. Initiative on its 25th stop. At the English, Spanish and Polish Masses, many parishioners made their consecration to the Immaculate and enrolled in the M.I. In the picture are new M.I. members who attended the Spanish Mass together with Friar Jacek (in green vestments) and Friar Jobe.
On the evening of October 3rd, the Franciscan family throughout the world celebrates the solemnity of the Transitus of St. Francis, the passing over from this life to the next: “St. Francis spent the last few days before his death in praising the Lord and teaching his companions whom he loved so much to praise Christ with him. He himself, in as far as he was able, broke out with the Psalm: I cry to the Lord with my voice; to the Lord I make loud supplication. He likewise invited all creatures to praise God and, with the words he had composed earlier, he exhorted them to love God. Even death itself, considered by all to be so terrible and hateful, was exhorted to give praise, while he himself, going joyfully to meet it, invited it to make its abode with him. “Welcome,” he said, “my sister death.” (Br Thomas of Celano, Second Life.)
Our friars’ ministries throughout the province will be celebrating in person and virtually. Please contact our ministry location nearest to you to see if there is an opportunity for you to join on site to pray with us. You can also virtually join our friars of St. Lucie Friary (Port St. Lucie, FL) via the St. Lucie Catholic Church website’s Livestream. They recommend you log in a few minutes before the 7:00 p.m. service.
CANTICLE OF THE CREATURES Most High, all-powerful, good Lord,
Yours are the praises, the glory, and the honour, and all blessing. To You alone, Most High, do they belong,
and no human is worthy to mention Your name. Praised be You, my Lord, with all Your creatures,
especially Sir Brother Sun,
Who is the day and through whom You give us light. And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendour;
and bears a likeness of You, Most High One. Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars,
in heaven You formed them clear and precious and beautiful. Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Wind,
and through the air, cloudy and serene, and every kind of weather,
through whom You give sustenance to Your creatures. Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Water,
who is very useful and humble and precious and chaste. Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Fire,
through whom You light the night,
and he is beautiful and playful and robust and strong. Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister Mother Earth,
who sustains and governs us,
and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs. Praised be You, my Lord, through those who give pardon for Your
love, and bear infirmity and tribulation. Blessed are those who endure in peace
for by You, Most High, shall they be crowned. Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death,
from whom no one living can escape. Woe to those who die in mortal sin.
Blessed are those whom death will find in Your most holy will,
for the second death shall do them no harm. Praise and bless my Lord and give Him thanks
and serve Him with great humility.
Thanks to the Fantastic Volunteers and Supporters of theLittle Portion Food Pantry sponsored by Blessed Sacrament Church (Burlington, NC), Our Lady of the Angels Province friar and pastor of Blessed Sacrament – Fr. Paul Lininger, OFM Conv. shares a brief video of the Monday, September 13th, 2021 major Food Distribution, where they served 821 families, consisting of 2828 individuals.
Video produced and edited by Leo Quinn, the Coordinator of Youth Ministry at Blessed Sacrament:
Saint Francis with the Blood of Christ (c. 1490-1495) by Carlo Crivelli
The Triumph of the Cross and Stigmata of St. Francis of Assisi – September 17 Texts: Gal 6, 14-18; Lk 9, 23-26. Theme: A new creation is everything (Gal 6); Subtheme: Those who are ashamed of me and of my words, of them the Son of Man will be ashamed (Lk 9). NRSV
Love for the Eucharist: Principles to Align and to Choose Over 800 years ago, St. Francis of Assisi led a Eucharistic crusade to rekindle understanding, respect and love for the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Our times mask the recurrent problem of growing cold in understanding, love and reverence for the Eucharist. In times that are uncommonly difficult, how do we deal with our duties towards God and our duties to society and the State. Our duties towards God and the State are different. Often enough they are seen as contraries. When our duties are contraries, what do we do? We often dance around issues as long as we can. We wait to make difficult decisions until we cannot defer any longer. The truth is that we do not hate the world, the State or society, but we have to align, which means to weigh our duties, our abilities, and the quality of our Christian example. When duties towards God and duties towards the State are contraries, we have to do more than align; we have to choose.
St. Francis of Assisi said: YES to the real innovation of Christianity, the truth in the Second Person of the Trinity as God and Man, the hypostatic union, by which the atonement and transforming forgiveness of sins is from above, and beyond our capability and incapability to explain. The Truth took on our human nature, was born in time, loved us and consumed our guilt in the fire of his love. To listen to conscience is to become free to hear the message of conscience. Truth becomes a yoke that is not too heavy. YES, we have the right to try to escape from extremities that God allows to come our way, to try to reconcile the demands of divine and human law, the laws of the Church and laws of the State. Thomas More’s precise teaching justifies our natural desire to escape what God allows us to suffer.
The Eucharist is the center of the Church’s life. We live with real and apparent contradictions. Pope Benedict teaches: “Jesus is the lodestar of human freedom; without him freedom loses its focus, without the knowledge of truth, freedom becomes debased, reduced and alienated to empty caprice. With Jesus, freedom finds itself.”[1] St. Francis imitated Christ perfectly. He suffered with Christ’s wounds. St. Thomas More (martyred 1535) aligned with Christ’s suffering. As a statesman, he exemplified the license to defer, to compromise as inevitable, and how to religiously sanction compromise.
Guided by the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, the Second Vatican Council reminded us that in every age of the Church’s history, the eucharistic celebration is the source and summit of her life and mission. “The Eucharist makes us discover that the Christ, risen from the dead, is our contemporary in the mystery of the Church, his body.”[2] As our primary teachers on the wonder that the eucharistic mystery must awaken in the hearts of the faithful, the American Bishops are leading the faithful towards a renewed Eucharistic crusade that aligns with Eucharistic crusades throughout history. May the Virgin Mother of our Savior assist us to ignite a new Eucharistic “awe and love.” May the Holy Spirit fill us with the same ardor experienced by the disciples on the way to Emmaus (Lk 24: 13-35)![3]
Sts. Francis and Thomas witness the persuasive authority of Eucharistic truth in our secular age. Conscience formation, prayer and discussion of love for the Eucharist pivots on: (1.) alignment and choice; (2.) the Christian license to defer; and, (3.) compromise that is religiously motivated.
Principle one: alignment is horizontal; choice is vertical. As a young man, Francis hesitated. Prayer led him to align with the Gospel and to choose to become like Christ. God gave him the gift of the sacred stigmata, the wounds of Christ. Thomas More was married and after his wife died, remarried. He aligned with King Henry VIII as a lawyer and loyal chancellor, but, in the end, chose God over the King.
Principle two: the Christian is licensed to defer. Francis tried to defer, to become a knight, but grace overpowered him. Thomas More exemplified the genius of Catholicism to attempt to compromise. Compromise is relative rather than absolute. His skills were in loyalty to duties of the State, ability to reconcile with duties to God and duties to neighbor. When these duties became contraries, fidelity to conscience and religious motivation won the personal crisis, his license to defer.
Principle three: claims of compromise by forming conscience needs religious motivation. Thomas More tried every legal avenue to escape taking the oath of supremacy to King Henry VIII. The inconvenient truth of the papal denial of the king’s petition for an annulment prompted Henry to make himself the Head of the Church of England. We live with consequences of the “rebellion.”
St. Thomas was caught in a dangerous ordeal that no one desires, deferred, and with legal skills compromised as far as possible. As the pressure mounted, he remained silent of criticism of the King, but in the end, Thomas’ religious conviction sealed his fate. He was condemned to death and martyred in full sight. When Thomas was going up the steps to the platform to be executed so all could see, he thanked the executioner for help and added that he would not need any help on the way down.
At his final earthly judgment, St. Thomas More said: “I am the King’s good servant, but God’s first.” In his Letter to the Galatians, St. Paul described all Thomas Mores as “A new creation [which] is everything” (Gal 6). St. Paul was blunt with the Galatians. “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus was publicly exhibited as crucified” (Gal 3). St. Paul reminded the Galatians that they had started with the Spirit, then relied upon doing the works of the law for their justification and redemption. “[How could] you be so foolish?” It is not doing the works of the law but “a new creation [that] is everything.” St. Paul cried out: “May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal 6).
St. Thomas More’s convincing example is a virtue of attempted reconciliation that goes beyond the virtue of prudence. His choice to remain silent and not to speak out in public against the king prompts deeper reflection. In the end, Thomas More’s loyalty to King Henry VIII and his faithful silence did not help for he was executed by his friend over an inconvenient truth. How many similar martyrs are there? History attests to countless examples of loyal martyrs, bloody and unbloody or emotional.
Discussions about reception of the Eucharist and Catholic politicians who do not align with Catholic teaching are very painful. One side wants to escape, by which I do not mean running away from responsibility. The other side wants to align with the power of the lie, which is deaf to the internal promptings of truth. Yet, to be in denial of the consequences of our acts and deaf to the present judgment of conscience puts us into a perilous space. Vatican II confirms that the truth wins with gentleness and power.[4] God allows and uses sinners, frail and weak persons, to do his will.
How do we invite understanding, respect, and “awe” for God’s seven sacraments? How do we avoid weaponizing them? Christ became the food of truth inviting everyone to the truth about love!
In Celebration of My Golden Jubilee Year of Priesthood, Fr. Edward J. Ondrako, O.F.M.Conv.[5]
eondrako@alumni.nd.edu
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[1] Pope Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, (Vatican: 2007), 2. The Eucharist is the very center of her life.
[2] Sacramentum Caritatis, 3. Ritual forms are orderly from antiquity.
[3] Sacramentum Caritatis, 97. This is key to theological development on the Eucharist.
[4] See Vatican II, Decree on Religious Liberty, Dignitatis Humanae. Memory has a freshness for modernity.
[5] See P.D.Fehlner, Theologian of Auschwitz (Hobe Sound, FL: Lectio Press, 2020); E. Ondrako, Rebuild My Church (Hobe Sound, FL: Lectio Press, 2021). Fehlner explicates St. Francis and Ondrako amplifies Fehlner’s Franciscanism.
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
September 17, 2021
Lord Jesus Christ, we praise you and adore you. Like Francis, we are amazed that you held nothing back from us in pouring yourself out for us so totally through your holy wounds on the cross. We ask you to breathe forth your Holy Spirit into us and set our hearts on fire, so that, with the Spirit’s help, we might respond more fully to you. Amen.
Fr. James M. McInerney, OFM Conv., Fr. Colin Mary Edwards, OFM Conv. and Fr. John Delaney, OFM Cap. are friars of our Province Custody – Blessed Agnellus of Pisa (Greyfriars of Great Britain & Ireland) who serve in ministry at the Catholic National Shrine and Basilica of Our Lady in Walsingham, England. Starting today, September 15, 2021, the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, pray along with our friars, the clergy and staff of the Walsingham Shrine, the devoted pilgrims there, and all who share in the online Novena in honor of Our Lady of Walsingham. The Novena ends on the September 24th Feast of Our Lady of Walsingham. (Downloadable Novena)
Our Lady of Walsingham, pray for us.
St. Michael and the Archangels, defend us from all evil and disease.
St. Joseph, patron & protector of the Universal Church, pray for us.
Saints & Martyrs of England, Wales, Scotland & Ireland, pray for us.
If you live in Great Britain or Ireland and would like more information on vocations with our Blessed Agnellus of Pisa Custody, contact the Custody’s Vocation Director, Fr. Maximilian M. Martin OFM Conv. at The Friary, St. Mary’s Road, Oxford, OX41RU or email him at vocation@thegreyfriars.org.
Photo taken from 
This participation touched the heart of another one of our friars deeply. Fr. Julio Martinez, OFM Conv. serves as pastor at 
On the evening of October 3rd, the Franciscan family throughout the world celebrates the solemnity of the Transitus of St. Francis, the passing over from this life to the next: “St. Francis spent the last few days before his death in praising the Lord and teaching his companions whom he loved so much to praise Christ with him. He himself, in as far as he was able, broke out with the Psalm: I cry to the Lord with my voice; to the Lord I make loud supplication. He likewise invited all creatures to praise God and, with the words he had composed earlier, he exhorted them to love God. Even death itself, considered by all to be so terrible and hateful, was exhorted to give praise, while he himself, going joyfully to meet it, invited it to make its abode with him. “Welcome,” he said, “my sister death.” (Br Thomas of Celano, Second Life.)
