Author: Franciscan

Good day to you all.

In my reading I came across a question that I really never thought of before.”What does love look like?”

Can we give a clear answer to this question? Does love look differently to each of us? Can we give answer to that question?

St Augustine was faced with the same question. Here he gives us his answer. “What does love look like? ”It has hands to help others. It has feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want, It has ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of others. That is what love looks like.”

How does this definition measure up to ours? Does what Augustine tells us today fill in some of the holes in our definition of what love looks like?

I would dare say that Augustine gives us something to ponder today.

Peace and All Good,
Fr. Vinnie, osf and the
Bros and Srs of the
Franciscan House of Prayer.

Greetings.

Well the Mid-term elections are upon us. Many of us, hopefully vote not just for today by for the days and years to come. We try look into the future to see what kind of world do I wish to leave those who will come after us.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer tells us, “The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leave to its children.” And I would guess that we wish to leave a world that is one more peaceful where our children can grow in a spirit of love and security.

Let us, during this time, pray to the Holy Spirit to guide our decisions as we are asked to cast a vote for the one we feel will lead us into a world of peace and understanding.

May the Spirit that motivated the apostles to leave the upper room and go into the streets of Jerusalem to proclaim the Good News, be with our country as we go through this Mid-term election time. Let all pray for peace.

Peace and All Good,
Fr. Vinnie, osf and the
Bros and Srs. Of the
Franciscan House of Prayer.

Good day to you all. Hope all is well with you.

Well, we have opened another new month, Oh my, how the time goes by so quickly. 🫨

Yesterday, we remembered all those who are saints, but we do not know their names or where they are from. It is our belief that anyone in heaven is a “saint”. These souls stand before the face of God and give praise and honor with the untold number of others who have been given a place promised by the Lord when He said that he was going ahead of us to prepare a place for us so that we could be where He is.

Blessed Fulton Sheen once said,”Did you know that I think perhaps we spent too much time — there must be some — praying for the departed souls and not enough time praying to them? Take the example of parents, husbands ant are dead, wives, children. They are our intercessors. And perhaps we limit their influence in heaven simply because we do not sufficiently invoke them.”

Bl. Fulton goes on to tell us that there are two things we need to remember. “1. Our prayers help the dead,” and  “2. Their prayers help us.”

As hard as we might, we just cannot grasp what God has in store for us when we close our eyes to this world. As I have often said, as we drape our homes with black bunting in grief, those who await our arrival are butting up “WELCOM HOME” signs.

Peace and All Good,
Fr. Vinnie, osf and the
Bros and Srs of the
Franciscan House of Payer.

• Hello, happy Feast Day.
• Today we remember all those saints who we do not know their names, but we know that there were many who suffered in the early days of Christianity during the persecutions inflicted upon them by the Roman emperor.
• Some have call these saints the “Great Cloud of Witnesses” Given that we don’t know them by name as we do so many of our “heroes” we put this day aside to give them the honor due them for their example of faith they left us and and are praying for us even as you read this.
• Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB, tells us the following. “For centuries the church has confronted the human community with role models of greatness. We call them saints when what we really often mean to say is ‘icon,’ ‘star,’ ‘hero,’ ones so possessed by an internal vision of divine goodness that they give us a glimpse of the face of God in the center of the human. They give us a taste of the possibilities of greatness in ourselves.”  (in A Passion for Life)
• Each one of us are called to be saints. Though we may never have churches in our name, or holy cards printed with our picture, or be known for our holiness. That is not the point of living out our Christian faith. Each of us, as was those who have gone before us, are to follow Jesus and live out His word, “ A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have love you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)

 Peace and All Good,   Fr. Vinnie, osf and the    Bros and Srs of the   Franciscan House of Prayer.

🎃 Greetings all. 🎃
Halloween. As kids, for most of us, this time was more exciting as Christmas. It truly was a “kid’s “ night.
We all have our remembrances of what the 31st of October means to us. Some of us would begin to put together our costume together in July, and I am sure would change it about 25 times before the 31st of October.
There are many explanations as to where this tradition came from. The word HALLOWEEN is shortened from ALL HALLOW’S EVE, as this was the eve before All Saints Day. But this tradition goes further back. It was the end of the harvest so people gathered together to celebrate that. It was believed that the vail that separated the worlds of the living and the dead was very thin and that souls were able to pass through. People wore costumes to hide who there were so that the souls could not know who they were. And there are many other histories of this day as well.
For the most part it is for children to go through the town and collect candy, with the words, “Trick or Treat “
For some it is a date that they wished they were children once again. “Elizabeth Chase Allen once wrote, “Backward turn backward O Time, in your flight, make me a child just for tonight.”
Ghost and goblins, black cats, and witches’ hats and all that frightened us as children and that which we tell our children are not real, become somehow real on the 31st of October.
May your Halloween be filled with happy scary fun. May we all allow our inner child out just for this night. Even if we do not go out, we may watch a scary movie and eat a bowl of popcorn with the family. AND, let us not forget that the next day is OUR feast, the Feast of All Saints. It is the celebration of all those whose name we do not know are celebrating in the Celestial Halls of heaven, yes, even our loved ones who rejoice in the presence of our Loving Father. One day, in the Father’s good time, we also shall rejoice with those we have loved, not for just one night, but for an eternity.
Peace and All Good,Fr. Vinnie, osf and theBros and Srs of the Franciscan House of Prayer.

Hello, happy Friday.

Have you ever wondered why a loving God and Father would allow His Son to undergo such a horrible and painful death as Jesus did?

In those days, putting someone to death in this way was in someway a deterrent to prevent others to commit any major crimes against the Empire. This was a very public event and usually it took place on or near a road that most people would travel in and out of the city. The form of execution was not just limited to Israel, but was a form of execution throughout the Empire. The only ones where spared such a death was citizens of the Empire. We see this example with Sts. Peter and Paul. Peter was not a citizen so he was crucified. Paul on the other hand, was, so his execution was to be beheaded.

But there was a reason that God allowed his Son to undergo such a painful death. And down through the ages, writers have tried to explain this is so many ways. But they all came up with the same conclusion, that was to show us how much He loves us.

St. Anthony of Padua, gives us this thought. “Nowhere other than looking at himself in the mirror of the Cross can a man better understand how much he is worth.”

So, this instrument of pain and death now become a “Valentine Card”, when opened it says, “I love you”, signed, God”

Peace and All Good,
Fr. Vinnie, osf and the
Bros and Srs of the
Franciscan House of Prayer.

Good day to you all.

When you think of a saint, what do you envision? I would dare say that when I was younger, I would think of a saint as one who walked around with a rosary or prayer book or the bible in hand. There eyes would be looking heaven ward, and they would tend to be oblivious to what was going on around them. One would see them in church as one in some sort of trance. Yet, it is not until we begin to read about their lives of the saints, that we see that they were really no different than you or I.

The Irish author and poet Oscar Wilde wrote, “Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.”

The word we use to embellish a person’s life is called HAGIOGRAPHY. This means to “ . . . treat a person as if they were a flawless hero.” Wilde’s statement puts the lives of most saints into focus. We begin to see that these women and men who we call “Saint” were humans very much like ourselves.

G.K. Chesterton picks up this them as he tells us about our Holy Father Francis. “St. Francis is not a proper person to be patronized wth merely “petty” stories. There are any number of them;  but they are too often used so as to be a sort of sentimental sediment of the medieval world, instead of being, as the saint emphatically is a challenge to the modern world.”

What does this do for ourselves? Well, I would say that one does not have to walk on water or heal the sick of some horrible desires with the touch of one’s hand. But it does mean that being a saint means living the life that Jesus asked of us, that is “Love one another as I have love you.”

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, osf and the

Bros and Srs of the

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Greetings, hope all goes well.

Today we remember two of men who had followed Jesus. After the decent of the Holy Spirit they with the other Apostles went forth to proclaim the Good News. One we might not know very well. The other we have heard about in so many ways. St. Simon also known as the zealot, was the one we might say “Who”. The other is St. Jude, the Saint of the impossible. It is to Jude that we turn to when we are face with the impossible in our lives. Jude became the patron saint of the impossible in France and Germany in the 18th century and continues today. Jude is pictured wearing green which symbolizes hope.

St. Cyril of Alexandria (376-444), tells to us, “ . . . It was their vocation to call sinners to repentance, to heal those who were sick, whether in body or spirit, to seek in all their dealings, never to do their own will but the will of Him who sent them and , as fast as possible, to save the world by their teachings.”

What St. Cyril tells us today is a call of not only to the Apostles, but of everyone who calls themselves Christian. We are all call to seek out those lost, those sick of body or spirit. We may not be able to build hospitals or preach in cathedrals or bring throngs to Christ, but we, but by our living out the Gospel Message of “Love thy neighbor “ we might being solace to one who is lost and hurting. We may, by our love for another, bring them to experience the Love the Father has for them and open their eyes to the blessings the Father showers upon them. Sometime, “less is best”. If we each could bring one person to Christ, we have accomplished the work the Lord has sent us on.

Have a safe and blessed day.

Peace and All Good,
Fr. Vinnie, osf and the
Bros and Srs of the
Franciscan House of Prayer.

Dear sisters and brothers, greetings. I hope all goes well.
I would guess we all have a favorite author. And as you might imagine, mine is C.S. Lewis. I have found that his writings can be very thought provoking. A convert from the Anglican Church to the Roman Church, he wrote a great deal about his relationship with God and how this relationship was not just a religion that he identified with, but it was a way of life that he was ready to share with whomever would what to hear.
Today Lewis offers this meditation to us. “All sort of people are found of saying repeating the Christian statement that “God is love.” But they seem not to notice the words “God is love” have no real meaning unless God contains at least two persons. Love is something that one person has for another person. If God was a single person, then before the world was made, He was not love.”
How do these words resonate in ourselves as we read them. Love cannot be something that we keep for ourselves but must be shared with another for it to be true love.
In the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis, we read God saying , “Let us create . . .” It is obvious that He was not just talking to Himself, but to the Trinity which has been one of those marvelous mysteries of our faith. Though we are not able to understand, we accept it as one of the pillars of our faith.
This love in which we were created is a gift that God gives each one of us and is as such we much honor that love in eace person we meet. For as God has loves you and me with all our dings and dents, with all our shortcomings and failures, so to we are called to do the same with each sister and brother we encounter. For as Lewi says, if we are unable to give this thing we call love to another, then it is not love.

Peace and All Good,Fr.Vinnie, osf

and the Bros and Srs of the Franciscan House of Prayer.

Greetings. I hope you had a restful weekend.
In looking for an appropriate message, I came across one from someone we surly have heard of but may not know a lot about. Her name was Harriet Tubman. A former slave, she, through her determination established the “Underground Railroad” which enables those enslaved to escape and find their way North and to freedom. Harriet lived between 1822 to 1913. She died in a nursing home she established for former slaves.  Ms. Tubman, tells us today

“ Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”
Her last words were, “I go away to prepare a place for you so that where I am you also shall be”.This woman put herself and her well being aside so to help those who did not have the strength to help them selves. Her “dream” was one of freedom. And she used all the strength and ability that God gave her to enable others to live out the rest of their lives as free human beings.
Today, Ms Tubman stands before us as an example of what God calls each one of us to be. That is to live out our dreams which I believe is God’s way of speaking to us in the silence of our hearts. We may not be called to be another Harriet Tubman. We may not be called to enable others to escape the horrors of slavery, but we are surly called to treat others with the respect and kindness awarded to one made in the image of our God.
May we offer prayers for those who are not “free” of whatever may be holding them bound so they may experience the freedom of being a child of God. Have a blessed and safe day.
Peace and All Good,Frl Vinnie, osf and theBros and Srs of the Franciscan House of Prayer.