Author: Franciscan

Good morning. 

Today we remember another saint who was both a national leader and a person of faith. Sometimes we don’t think the two go together. We, many times we see the saint is one who is poor, living in humble surroundings and proclaiming the Good News.

But, we know that we have a number of saints who were of royal estate. But they heard the cry of the poor in their land. They were about meeting the needs of their people. Even surrounded by everything that goes with being of royal estate, they lived as one who was poor in spirit. 

St. Stephen, king of Hungary is one of these people. He reminds us today, “Be merciful to all who are suffering violence, keeping always in your heart the example of the Lord who said, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ “

One does not have to be financially in need and living in a cave to live a holy life. It is not what we have, but it is how we use what we have and how we share with those who are in need. 

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer

Good morning. 

Today we remember another saint who was both a national leader and a person of faith. Sometimes we don’t think the two go together. We, many times we see the saint is one who is poor, living in humble surroundings and proclaiming the Good News.

But, we know that we have a number of saints who were of royal estate. But they heard the cry of the poor in their land. They were about meeting the needs of their people. Even surrounded by everything that goes with being of royal estate, they lived as one who was poor in spirit. 

St. Stephen, king of Hungary is one of these people. He reminds us today, “Be merciful to all who are suffering violence, keeping always in your heart the example of the Lord who said, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ “

One does not have to be financially in need and living in a cave to live a holy life. It is not what we have, but it is how we use what we have and how we share with those who are in need. 

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer

Hello, and happy Friday.

Today is one of the more major feasts in our Church. Today we remember the day that the Blessed Virgin Mary was assumed into heave, body and soul.

Other than the Lord Himself she is to only person we know who was taken into heaven body and soul. As the Church would proclaim, that God did not want the Mother of His Son to see corruption. 

Pope Pius XII tells us the following regarding this feast. “The feast of the assumption of our Lady prompts us to acknowledge the basis for this joyful hope. Yes, we are still pilgrims, acknowledge the basis for this joyful hope. Yes, we are still pilgrims, but our mother has gone on ahead, where she points to the reward of our efforts. She tells us that we can make it. And, if we are faithful, we will reach home. The blessed Virgin is not only our model, she is the help of Christians. And as we besiege her with our petitions – ‘Show that you are our Mother’ – she cannot help but watch over her children with motherly care.”

Mary like her Son Jesus, are present to us to show us the way. Where they have gone, we are invited to follow. It hard for us to understand much more to believe. But this is the promise made to the disciples when Jesus said, “Let not your hearts be troubled, believe in God, in my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so , would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (John 14:1-3)

We might say our life is difficult. That may be true. We all have difficulties that we must deal with every day of our lives. But we also have to believe that the day will come, in God’s good time, when we will be taken to the home of the Father where we will be with all those we have loved in this life and who have gone on before us. Here, that good virtue of patience once again comes into play. “Let not your hearts be trouble, believe in 

God .. . .”

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the 

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Good morning. 

Today we turn our thoughts to a Franciscan Friar who gave his life for his fellow man. Maximilian was arrested by the Nazis and put into a concentration camp. One of the prisoners attempted to escape but was caught and was to be put to death by starvation. Maximilian offered to take the man’s place and so ended his life. It without doubt that Maximilian had the words of the Lord in his mind, “No greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

Maximilian leaves us this thought today. “The deadliest poison of our time is indifference.” 

Maximilian when to the full extent of this saying by Jesus, “Grater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (Jn 15:13) Following the words we are left by this saint, we do not have to give our life that another may live, but we do need to look to see if we are among those who do not give heed to the needs of others. 

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Hello. I hope to be able to get this right this time.

The month of Aug. has given us a number of saints to think about. Tomorrow, we remember St. Maximilian Kolbe, a saint from our time who died in 1941 at the hands of the Nazis during WW II. 

How do we view a saint? How do we define one? We might look at such a person as one who had never sinned in any way. Well, that is what we would like to believe or that is the story that has come down through the ages. But we must remember that a saint is a human no more or no less than we.

Robert Louis Stevenson tells us, “Saints are the sinners who keep on trying.” And is that not what it’s all about? TRYING! 

In the Bible, Jesus tells us in the Gospel of Matthew, (5:48), “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Well, we know that is not possible. but what is possible is that we TRY. 

St. Augustine reminds us today, “There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.”

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie cfm and the

Bros and Srs. of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Sorry it will take some time till everything is running – please be patient.

Good morning. Hope all is well.

Yesterday I watched a news article on TV about the melting of the glaciers in Switzerland, as well as in other parts of the world. The scientists tell us that this is the result of global warming.

Besides the water runoff, and the sea level rising, we those near these glaciers are subject to landslides and other destructive events.

Some would say that this “warming” is just part of a cycle in the weather pattern. Well, they may think this to be true, but scientists are telling a very different story. 

The effect of our carbine admissions is causing the world to become warmer, and the results is the melting of the polar caps and the glaciers. 

St. Francis of Assisi, in “Canticle of Creation”, called the earth our Mother when he said, “Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and produces fruits with colored flowers and herbs.”

Pope Francis’ Encyclical Letter “Laudato Si” (Praise be to you.) states the following, “This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on by our irresponsible use and abuse of the good with which God has endowed her.  . . . This is why the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she ‘groans in travail’ (Rom 8:22). We have forgotten that we ourselves are dust or the earth (cf. Gen 2:7); our very bodies are made up of her elements, we breathe her air and we receive life and refreshment from her waters.”

There is an old saying, of which the origin is questionable, says “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.”

What kind of earth do we wish to pass on to those who will come after us? Will there be an earth to pass on? Each of us play a part in this event. We are the ones, the only ones, how will be able to give answer to this question. Let us pray that we make the correct answer.

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the 

Bros and Srs. of the

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Good morning. I hope your weekend is going along well.

Our gospel reading is from the Gospel according to St. Luke. These words of our Lord are spoken to give peace and courage to the “little flock” who are following Jesus. In the opening words, we read that we need not be afraid, for it pleases the Father to give us the Kingdom.

St. Peter Chrysologus tells us today, ” The flock is little in the eyes of the world, but great in the eyes of God. It is little – because he calls glorious those whom he has trained to be the innocence of sheep and to Christian meekness. ‘The little flock’, not as the remnant of a big one, but as one which has grown from small beginnings. This little flock denotes the infancy of [Christ’s] newborn church and immediately he promises that through the blessings of heaven this church will soon have the dignity of his kingdom.”

For those who followed Jesus in the infancy of the Church faced persecution and death. They were rightly afraid to be “outward” followers of Jesus, but they had faith in the words that Jesus uttered, “Fear not, the Father is pleased to give you the Kingdom.” Those who followed the Lord were the poor and marginalized in the society of the day. The promise of a kingdom gave them hope that what they would receive was to be much better than what they now had.

Those poor and marginalized are still among us. They are still the ones who the Lord calls His “little flock”. We need not worry that we are to rich or powerful to enter the Kingdom. It is how we are willing to share what we have with those who have not. May the words of this Gospel reading today open our ears to the “cry of the poor.”

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the

Bros and Srs of the

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Good morning. I pray that your weekend was restful. I know from experience that weekends wind up being time to catch up with all that you were not able to do during the week.

Today we celebrate the feast of the “co” founder of the Franciscan Order. Clare was a resident of Assisi and a member of one of the more noble families. Clare knew Francis. She knew him when he was the “toast of the town” and was inspired after his conversion. 

As the story goes, Clare left here home in the middle of the night, as to be able to follow Francis and engage in his works of mercy to the poor. In those days a woman was not able to decide their future which was in the hands of her father or the oldest brother. So, it was not easy for her to just walk out of her home to follow this “fool for Christ”. But you can read her life story at another time. 

St. Clare tells us today, “We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become. If we love things, we become a thing. If we love nothing, we become nothing. Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ, rather it means becoming the image of the beloved, an image disclosed through transformation. This means we are to become vessels of God’s compassionate love for others.”

Clare’s response to the call of the Lord to “follow Me” was one that was one that was very clear and commanding. She did not allow anything to stop her from answering the call.

Here again, we have a person who stands before us as an example of what we are called to do. Hear the call of the Lord, follow where He leads and with all our hearts answer YES and be steadfast in that YES. 

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the 

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Greetings, and may the Peace of the Lord be with you.

Throughout the eight centuries of Franciscan Spirituality, prayer has consistently remained the cornerstone for those who walk in the footsteps of Francis.

With this sentiment in mind, the brothers of the House of Prayer cordially invite you to share your personal petitions with us. These requests will be cherished and remembered in our daily community prayer and good works. Moreover, once a month, a Mass in honor of Our Lady of Mercy will be dedicated to your intentions..