Author: Franciscan

What does it mean when we say that someone is “coming out of their shell”? 

I would guess that it could mean that someone is growing up, that someone has “found themselves” and know what they want to do with their lives. I guess it could mean many things. 

At one time or another, we all have constructed a “shell” around ourselves to protect us from the “cold, cruel world.”

I remember someone I knew that was a very rough street kid. He lived on the streets but was a truly a street , and knew just about all there was to live on the street.

 Soon we became friends. And in time he got in trouble and  I found myself visiting him in jail. Though he was a very “tough” kit, he also was very lovable. 

If I had to liken him to a vegetable, I would have to say he was an artichoke. If you ever have eaten one, you know that you have to deal with layers of hard leaves. But if you have the patience you will come to the heart which is delicious. 

That is the way this kid was. If you were patient with him you would experience a sweet little kit hiding inside because he had been hurt so many times as he was growing up.    

Siobhan Shaw the American author says to us today, “The Easter egg symbolizes our ability to break out of the hardened, protective shell we’ve surrounded ourselves with.”

Unfortunately. this kit never got the chance to break out of his shell completely. He died before he could. But I am sure that God had the right tools to chip away at his hard shell to become the person God intended him to be. 

As we complete our Lenten journey, maybe we will allow God to chip away our hard shell so that we may become the creation God intended us to be, a creation in His own image.

Peace and All Good, 

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the 

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Greetings. Hope all goes well.

Our Lenten season is quickly approaching its end. Easter will be upon us before we know it.

I am sure that we all have been in the situation where we want to explain something, but we just cannot find the words. As hard as we try, the right words just do not come to mind much less out of our mouths. We find ourselves stuttering to find a way to explain what we wish to express.

Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher and theologian tells us today that we are not the only ones who find it hard to find the right words to express what is deepest in our hearts. We might even say that God may 

find Himself in the same situation. In the words attributed to Fred R. Bernard, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

Kierkegaard tells us, “Christ has not only spoken to us by his life but has also spoken FOR us by His death.”

The death of Christ may be interpreted in many ways, from “paying back” what we owe to the Father to expressing the extent to which the Father will go to express His love.

No matter how we want to give meaning to the Lord’s death, His death is not the end of our story but only the beginning. 

Let us keep in mind that the life we now live is but a foreshadowing of the life to come.

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the 

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.  

Greetings, I hope you all are well.

It is hard to believe that Easter is just around the corner. It just seems as though we just celebrated Christmas.

As we head toward the great feast of Easter, we cannot forget what Lent has meant to us. Let us keep in mind what we have experienced and how far we have come in our conversion of our life. This does not happen overnight. As a monk of St. Benedict, one of our vows was the Conversion of Life. It is a like long process.

The great preacher, Billy Graham gives us this thought today, “God’s holiness demands that sin be punished – but God’s love has provided the way of redemption through Christ.”

So often in the past we have view Lent as a time of penance. We viewed ourselves as sinners and must beg God for His forgiveness. But as Billy Graham reminds us “God’s love has provided the way of redemption through Christ.” Yes, God’s love is greater than our sins. This does not mean that we have the right to sin and do as we please. We are still called to live a life of holiness, of following the teachings Jesus has given us and has called us to follow. 

Lent is just the beginning. But like so many things in our lives, we need another beginning. As that song from Sound of Music goes, “Let’s start at the very beginning.” 

Happy Lent!!

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the

Bros and Srs of the

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Hello. Hope your week has gone well. It seems time is just running away with itself. 

In a very short while, we will come to the end of our Lenten season and with Christians worldwide, well celebrate Christ’s rising from the tomb. 

Like our New Year’s resolutions, we may not have done all we have set out to do at the beginning of Lent. Well, we still have some time. And remember as I have said before, conversion is just not a Lenten thing. 

Our old friend, Thomas Merton, (Fr. Lewis, OCSO) tells us, “We are not converted only once in our lives but many times and this endless series of conversations and inner revolutions leads to our transformation.”

Again, Lent is just the beginning. Conversion is a lifelong process which Jesus is standing just ahead of us calling out, “Come on, you can do it!!”

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the 

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Good morning, I hope all goes well with you.

Many years ago, I remember having a discussion with Sr. Margaret who was one of the pastoral associates at a parish I was assigned. I don’t remember the full content of the conversation, but I do remember her saying to me, ” Vinnie, it’s a mystery to be lived, not to be solved.” 

I never forgot this and have told it many, many times to others because it does put the matter at hand into a better way to deal with it. Everything we encounter in life does not always have a solution to get hold of. We just have to live out the mystery before us and allow God to work His miracles in our lives. 

Soren Kierkegaard the Danish theologian and philosopher tells us today, “Life is not a problem to be salved but a reality to be experienced.”

Life, many times, is much more exciting when we live the mystery of life rather than having everything laid out in right order. Let us “experience the reality” that God has placed before us.  

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Hello and a Happy St. Partick’s Day. 

During my time in different parishes, I lived with a number of Irish priests. They would tell me that in Irland, St. Patrick’s day was a day of going to mass, visiting the sick and spending time with family. 

In America, St. Patrick’s Day has turned into drinking green beer, corned beef and cabbage dinners and a good deal of parting. And even in Chicago, turing the Chicago river GREEN!! 

If you get a chance, read the life of St. Patrick’s life it is very interesting read. As a youth during a raid by the Roman army he was captured and  sold as a slave and labored in the Roman Empire for many years and it was there he found Christianity, was converted, after being freed, he was ordained and went back to Ireland as a missionary and preached the Gospel. 

Patrick gives us this thought on his feast, “Behold, I give my soul to my faithful God, whom I serve as his ambassador.”

To serve as God’s ambassador. To be present to others as a representative of God. That is really something. But in all reality, we are all called to be representatives of God. That is when we meet others, they should  meet God. That is what it means to truly be a Christian. This thought of Patrick should give us something to think about in the days left of our Lenten season.

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the 

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Hello, hope all goes well with you and yours.

During these holy days of Lent, we have been speaking about the fact that Lent is not just 40 days out of the year when we do just a little more praying, giving up things that we should give up all year long, or maybe not doing much more than we would ordinarily do. 

C. S. Lewis gives us this thought as we come close to the end of this holy season, “If conversion makes no improvement in a man’s outward action, then I think his conversion was largely imaginary.” 

Conversion, improvement, or repentance does not happen overnight nor during one season of Lent. This season only gives us an opportunity to take a good look at ourselves and begin the work. This transformation of self may take just a little more they 40 days. But that is OK. As least we have begun. Remember, God is not interested on the level of holiness we reach, but rather that we have we tried.

At the end of our Lent, we may not be able to walk on water, and find that we get our feet wet, at least we have tried.

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the 

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.  

Greetings.

Well, we are about halfway through the Lenten season. It seems like it came upon us so fast and now we are looking next Sunday at Laetare Sunday.  which means “rejoice”. 

This day was established to be held on the fourth Sunday of Lent. It gave a little reprieve from the harshness of the Lenten season. Even the Mass vestments are of a lighter color, not using the deep purple we see during this season but the use of rose color (No, it is not pink!!!!).

The author, Morgon Harper Nichols gives us this thought today, “Hold on dear friend, for this is not the end. You have traveled so far, and you have worked so hard. Carry on with courage and do not give up. And not because this will be easy but because these seeds you are sowing matter, and they will grow in time, if you do not lose heart.”

We need to remember that what we do during Lent, Advent, or ordinary time has eternal significance if done in the name of the Lord. Yes, it may be difficult now but, in the end, it will be well worth it. And keep in mind that we do this in the name of Jesus who did so much for us. As Morgan tells us, “This is not the end.” What awaits us is an eternity of bliss beyond all our imaginings. 

The work of a Christian may be very difficult, but the benefits are out of this world.

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the 

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Greetings. I hope you all have a restful weekend ahead.

As we quickly move towards the great feast Easter, let us not forget that the Lenten experience we have gone through. It is so easy for us to return to that which is “normal” for us rather than the “new normal” we attempted to establish during the last 40 days.

It would seem that we feel like we have completed a required task and now that it is done, we can return to what we are comfortable with. But what about all we did during this holy season?

The Russian TV presenter and propagandist gives us this thought about what can happen in this Holy Season.  Vladimir Solovyov,  in his writing, ” The Meaning of Love” tells us,  “True spiritual love is not the feeble imitation and anticipation of death, but a triumph over death, not a separation of the immortal from the mortal, of the eternal form the temporal, but a transfiguration of the mortal into the immortal, the acceptance of the temporal into the eternal. False spirituality is a denial of the flesh; true spirituality is the regeneration of the flesh, its salvation, its resurrection from the dead.”

It will be at the end of this season we call Lent that we will come to experience the core of our faith. Not even death can dominate the Love God has for each of us. That which He created, and called “Very Good” cannot return to the clay from which it was made. Remember, God said “Let us make man in Our image.” The tomb could not contain the body of the Lord and the grave will not be able to contain us when it is time to return to our Creator.  

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Good day. 

It is hard to believe that we are almost halfway through the season of Lent.

I remember as a kid I felt that Lent would never come to an end. But as my mother told me once, wait until you get older, time goes by a lot quicker.

As we have been looking at, Lent is more than “giving up” something we like. It is a time of evaluation, of personal reflection. A time to evaluate my relationship with God and with my neighbor. 

Dallace Willard, the American philosopher once said, “During these 40 days, let me put away all my pride. Let me change my heart and give up all that is not good within me. Let me love God with all that I am and all that I have.”

Maybe this Lent we will all come to know that it is a time of growth. Growth towards a deeper relationship with the Lord. One that does not come to an end on Easter but becomes part of us that will carry us and will grow stronger every year for the rest of my life.

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.