Author: Franciscan

Hello.

As we speed through the Season of Easter, we need to keep in mind just what it is that we have celebrated.

When we have these seasons after great feasts like Christmas or Easter, they are given to us so that we might continue the celebration long after the calendar day. Seasons give us the joy of that feast so that we might be able to rejoice and continue to contemplate the mystery of that feast.

We are asked to live these feasts out in our lives, to make them real that others may come to know and rejoice as well. When we make these feasts real in our lives they become, as it were, a foundation upon which we can build our Christian lives.

But we know that these foundations can be a little shaky because we may have not laid the foundation as well as we should.

Charles West tells us, “We turn to God for help when our foundations are shaking only to learn that it is God shaking them.” And if that be true, maybe God is telling us that we need to take a good long look at them, and maybe spend a little more time to reexamine these foundations as the ones that God needs to establish His Kingdom here on earth. 

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer. 

Greetings. I hope your weekend went well. 

I am sure that each of us have had those, “WHAT IF” moments. What if I did this or if I did that. I know I have. 

“What if is would have stayed in New Jersey?” What if I had not worked in hospice, and instead worked in a parish or taught in a school??? There are always those “WHAT IF” moments.

When I have those moments in my life, I reflect back on what I have done. I think of the number of people that I have ministered to as a chaplain in hospice, The number if people I counseled over the death of a love one, or the 21 years of holding a hand as the person transitioned from this life to the next.   

The American Christian pastor A. W. Tozer tells us today, “It’s not what you did, but what you could have done if you allowed the Lord to work His will in your life.” 

I have often told others that God draws straight with corked lines. The Lord puts us where He wants and NEEDS us to be and when we need to be there. We just need to allow ourselves to allow God to work His miracles in our lives.

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the 

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.  

Hello. Happy Third Sunday of Easter.

In my reading, I came across this saying by C. S. Lewis and I thought of a Broadway play called, “With eyes wide shut.” I have often used that expression for some people who cannot or will not see the reality that is right in front of them.

I sometimes wonder if it is because that they just are not looking in the right place or that they just don’t want to see what is really before them.

As C. S. Lewis remarks about the two disciples who do not recognize Jesus who walks with them. Lewis says, “Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, we often walk through life with our eyes closed to the presence of God.” 

Many of our prayers ask God to give us the sight to see His present in creation all around us, even in the house fly that has been bothering us.

We need to remember that God asks of us to bring His presence to all we meet on our “road to Emmaus” wherever that may be. 

So, do we go through our lives with “eyes wide shut” or do we open our eyes to the Glory of the Lord which is all about us, and present in all we meet.

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the 

Bros and Srs of the

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Hello, happy Saturday.

Well, once again I have to say that it seems that we are just flying through these days of the Easter season.

I find myself having to keep a calendar near me so that I can know what the date is or what day it is. It just seems that no matter how early I get up, the day just flies by and then it is time to take my nighttime meds and head for the bed. 

I have mentioned to you before that we should put some time aside to meditate on what we have just celebrated. When we do, we find ourselves pondering on the reality that our faith calls us to proclaim the fact that Jesus has put death to flight, has walked out of the grave in all His holiness. And let us not forget that what Jesus has done is to give each one of us the gift of Hope that we also will, one day, come forth from our grave to the Glory of God!!

Cardinal Basil Hume, ” The great gift of Easter is Hope – Christian Hope which makes us have that confidence in God, in His ultimate triumph, and in His goodness and love, which nothing can shake.”

This is the truth that has kept Christians together for centuries. It is this Hope that has enabled them to give up their lives. It is this great Cloud of Witnesses that stand before us calling us to let the light of Christ’s resurrection shine forth in our lives. As someone said many, many years ago, “Behold these Christians, how they love one another.”

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fmc and the

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Greeting and peace to you all.

I think it would be safe to say that we all have had those dark moments in our lives when everything seems to be falling upon us all at once. 

We sit and wonder how we are going to get all we have to do done. So much to do and so little time to get it done.

One would think that as we have just celebrated the core of our faith, even the light of the Resurrection just does not seem to come into our lives. 

Pope Francis reminds us today “We proclaim the resurrection of Christ when his light illuminates the dark moment of our existence.” 

In those dark moments, we may need to just take a moment, place ourselves in the presence of the Lord and ask for that light of His resurrection. His light can shatter the darkness that seems to surround us and enable us to see what is before us. In that light we may have ability to come to the answers that we did not see in the darkness that is shattered by the light of Christ’s resurrection.

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the 

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Greetings, hope all goes well.

I found this book that I had “put away” for safe keeping and it was so well put away, that I forgot where I put it. At long last, I found it. The book is a prayer book from the Iona Community. This is an ecumenical Christian community established by George MacLeod in 1938 on the small island off the cost of Scotland in the inner Hebrides. This community established on the island in the remains of an ancient monastery long empty. This new community of lay persons was established there as a sanctuary of peace and quiet for anyone who would what to spend some time in a place of prayer. 

The following is a prayer for the evening. A thought that we might want to ponder after an especially hard day.

EVENING.

“I sit down, Lord,

to watch television,

to write a letter, 

to mend clothes,

to rest my feet,

 to listen to music, 

to read a paper,

 to shut my eyes and forget

You sit down, Lord,

to wait for me

to be ready for you.

Help me, among other things

for which I sit,

to remember you 

waiting for me.”

(From “Pray Now”)    

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Hello, I hope your week is going well.

We all have experienced a death in our families or among our friends. And as we get older, this thing death, seems to visit a lot more.

But as believing Christians, we are called to believe that our loved ones are now with the Lord and are at peace in the Heavenly Kingdom. So what is the fear, the pain we experience when we hear of the death of someone we love?

Our faith holds out the truth that our loved ones are with the Lord. The pain and grief we experience comes from the fact of SEPARATION. We know that we now must live the rest of our lives without this special person and that is where the pain and grief comes from..  

The famous preacher Billy Graham reminds us today “The resurrection of Christ changed the midnight of bereavement into a sunrise of reunion.” The sunrise of reunion. What a moment that will be. Being united with all those who have gone before us will welcome us to this new and unending life. 

As I often said to those who mourn the death of a loved one, as we put up black bunting in our mourning, our loved ones are handing sighs of WELCOME HOME.

This is the Joy of the Easter season. We once thought life would come to the end in death, Easter Joy says to us, “Not so, life has changed, not ended.

Peace and All Good,

Fr Vinnie, fcm and the

Bros and Srs of the

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Greetings.

As we move further away from the great feast of Easter we still bask in the Light of the Resurrection.

I have often wondered why some people stay on that lonely hill outside the city of Jerusalem. And as they stand there, they focus on the empty Cross. We need to understand that the Cross was a means to an end. That end, or should I say, that beginning, is down the hill at the tomb which is now empty as well. 

Is our first thought like that of Mary Magdalene who thought someone came and stole the Body of the Lord? Do we, in our grief, look around for someone to give us an answer. Mary’s mind is not quieted until she hears the Lord call her name, “Mary”. It was then that she comes to realize that the Lord has done as He said He would. He has risen from the dead.

Someone once wrote, “The cross is empty, but the thorn is occupied.” The cross, the tomb, are both empty. The Lord will once again take His place at the Right Hand of the Father.  

“All Glory and Praise be Yours, O Lord!!”

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Greetings. Hope all is well.

I guess we all have asked the question to ourselves or to others, “What is heaven like?” I am sure we all have our own idea of what it may be like. But then the words of St. Paul come to mind when he writes in his first letter to the Corinthians, chap. 2 v. 9 “Eye has not seen nor ear heard nor has it entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love him.”

The writer Carl Knudsen tells us, “The story of Easter is the story of God’s wonderful window of divine surprise.” 

So, we all can ponder what heaven will be like, and that is ok. But like little children at Christmas hope and wonder what Santa will leave under the tree for them, we also will have to wait until that day we are welcomed home and the Father takes us by the hand to give us a personal tour of the Heavenly Kingdom.

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer

Good Day. Hope all goes well with you all. If you would, please keep in your prayers our Brother Richard who is in the hospital.

Well, here we are starting the second week of our Easter season. As I said before, this season of joy will be with us for some time. Our Mass readings will tell us about the various encounters Jesus will have with the disciples before He takes His leave to return to the Father.

The Resurrection has ushered in a new life for the followers of this seemingly simple Rabbi from that little “back-water town” in the north of Israel. This new life ushers in a new hope and a new reality in the relationship between God and His children. As the author Kate McGahan tells us, “The very first Easter taught us this: that life never ends and love never dies. 

This “new” way of thinking about God takes us away from the slaughter of countless numbers of animals to appeases a God who lusts after blood, to a personal relationship, one which is closer than any relationship between a father and a child.  

Yes, the Resurrection of Christ invites us into a relationship with the Father that up until now had not been experienced except by some very specially chooses people. In the raising of Jesus from the grave, The Father has invited us into a relationship He has longed for since He had breathed the breath of life into a lump of clay at the dawn of time.

As we read in the Canticle of Zechariah, upon the birth of his son, John who would come to known as The Baptist, “In the tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide our feet on the road to peace.”

Is it any reason we should not celebrate this feast for weeks to come? This is our “home coming”. This is the  call of the Father saying to us, “it has been way too long, come over here, I need a hug.”

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fem and the

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.