TRANSITUS: Each October 3rd, friars from all over the world gather to celebrate the Transitus of St. Francis of Assisi. Transitus is Latin for crossing or passage. It is commemorated on the Vigil of the Feast of St. Francis with prayer, scripture readings, joyful songs of praise and thanksgiving. The often candle lit night service commemorates the 1226 death of our beloved Seraphic Father, as he crossed over from life on earth to eternal life with the Lord. Traditionally the celebrations of these Feast Days are chosen to mark the date of a saint’s death and are remembered by the faithful with special mention, prayers, and scripture readings.  For Franciscans, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi (October 4th) is much more. It is a day filled with celebration and joy, including the traditional Blessing of the Animals and gatherings of fellowship with our brothers and sisters, in Christ.
Archbishop Curley’s Transitus Service 2021

 

FEAST DAY FRATERNAL FELLOWSHIP: Throughout Our Lady of the Angels Province, our friars share this joyful day with the people we serve. We also take the opportunity to celebrate our Franciscan Brotherhood with Mass, prayer, meals and laughter together in our friaries and in our ministries.
A tri-lingual Mass at our Brooklyn, NY pastoral ministry of Most Holy Trinity – St. Mary was celebrated by all three friars serving there: Fr. Raphael Zwolenkiewicz, OFM Conv. (pastor), Fr. Tomasz Ryba, OFM Conv. (parochial vicar) and Fr. Nader Ata, OFM Conv. (parochial vicar).

BLESSING OF THE ANIMALS: On the days surrounding the October 4th Feast Day, friars from throughout our province ministries enjoy the traditional Blessing of Animals; a simple act that helps us share the charism of St. Francis by blessing these special “companions” of those we serve. It is always a source of great joy for our friars and it was wonderful to have others who serve through several of our special ministries there to join in the fun.

• From around the Province

 

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.

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.

CNY Central online article featuring the Blessing
with Friar Rick Riccioli, OFM Conv.
– pastor of Assumption Church, Syracuse, NY.

Photo taken from – Catholic Archdiocese of Washington | Facebook

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

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 the Little 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:

Our St. Francis High School (Athol Springs, NY) was featured in the Sep 16, 2021 “Journeys & Insights with Bishop Mike.”

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)

Each day will be shared on our Province Facebook page from the posts on the Catholic National Shrine Walsingham Facebook page, so you can easily join in prayer. If you do not have access to Facebook, visit the Novena – Catholic National Shrine of Our Lady (walsingham.org.uk) on the Catholic National Shrine and Basilica of Our Lady website for each daily prayer link: Novena, Day 1: The Annunciation of Our Lord – Catholic National Shrine of Our Lady (walsingham.org.uk)

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.

A modern Franciscan Chapter is reminiscent of the 1221 version when St. Francis of Assisi called more than 3,000 friars to come together as family, to the Portiuncula chapel, in Assisi, for a general meeting or “Chapter of Mats.” At that time, the friars lived in huts made from reeds and brought their sleeping mats with them, to the area surrounding the chapel to have a place to sit. Modern day friars, instead meet in a conference center, get to sit on actual chairs, and sleep in “real” beds. It is however still thought of as a coming together as a family, offering witness of brotherhood and celebrating Franciscan life. Days are filled with meetings, presentations as well as the much-needed work of organizing the general needs of the friars and ministries of the Province. Chapter is also a time to just enjoy Franciscan Brotherhood. From September 13-16, 2021, a set of delegate friars (about 1/3 of the province) will be representing the rest of our 165 Solemnly Professed friars at an Extraordinary Provincial Chapter.

Our province is grateful to those to whom we minister, and all of those who prayerfully support our work, who are praying for our friar delegates at our Monday through Thursday Meetings. We will share some photos after the Extraordinary Provincial Chapter.

Pax et Bonum!

PHOTOS