Author: Franciscan

Peace and All Good!

In some places this day is known as “Fig Tuesday”. This is the day we recall the time when Jesus is on His way to the Temple and was hungry. He sees a fig tree full of leaves but cannot find any fruit and he curses the tree which withers up. There are a number of interpretations about this story which we find in the Gospels of Matthew (21:18-22) and Mark (11: 12-14, 20-25). 

Most will say that Jesus is using this experience to tell his disciples that their lives must bear fruit in what they do and speak. They cannot be like the pharisees.  

St. Maximus the Confessor tells us, “Holy Tuesday is a day of judgement upon hypocrisy and a call to authentic discipleship.”

Our actions must not be just so others will consider us holy. Our actions are not for show, but for God’s glory. 

As we approach Easter, let us clear our hearts and minds to be ready to experience the unbelievable. But most importantly, let us keep in mind that what we see in the Resurrection of the Lord is a promise that we also will be brought to a new life in Christ.

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Hello.

Well, I hope I get this one correct. Yes, it is Monday of Holy Week.

Here we are opening another Holy Week. For us who are a little older than others, this is not our first rodeo as it is said. But regardless, of how many Holy Weeks we have walked through, we need to treat it as if it were our first. Yes, we have read and heard the Gospels and readings before, but we need to allow ourselves to clear our minds and hearts as if it were the first time. (I remember walking the Way of the Cross in Jerusalem when I was a student. A very moving experience.) 

As someone wrote, “Monday of Holy Week is a call to remove the clutter of the world and make room for the Divine.”

We may hear the story of Jesus cleansing the Temple. This was done because the people saw it as a place to line their pockets with money rather that a place to worship God. Their stalls, money changing tables, and the selling of animals for sacrifice took over this sacred space. There was no room for God and the worship that this building was created for.

So, let this Monday of Holy Week be an opportunity to clear away what may be standing in the way for us to truly enter into these Holy Days, and experience the Love the Father. 

As we look up Calvery Hill, at the cross this Holy Week, let us not forget to turn around and view the tomb which once held the body of Jesus, and from which Christ. the Promised One, will come forth in all His Glory.

Peace and All Good, 

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Hello. Happy Palm Sunday.

Today we open the most holy days of our year. This week we will walk with Jesus through His triumph entrance into the city of Jerusalem to the shouts and joyful waving of palm branches. The people’s welcome even moved them to lay their coats on the grown for Jesus to travel over. 

Depending on which Gospel we read, we will see that each story is altered. Regardless, we see the enthusiasm of the people calling “Welcome to the Son of David.”

As we continue to read this story, we will see the people turn from shouts of welcome to demanding Jesus’ death.  

The well known author and speaker Garrison Keiller tells us ” . . . and people are to march around the church to commutate the event. Palm Sunday, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem and was greeted with applause and with palms. People thought he had come to overthrow the Romans, but . . . no . . .  he had come to change THEM . . .  and that led to things turning bad.”  

And so it begins. Our Lent is over. Hopefully we have ready ourselves for these days ahead of us. 

We all should try the best we can to put some time aside to read our Bible, spend time in prayer, and most important spend some time in silence to allow the Lord to speak to us 

May the Lord give us the grace of these days to draw ever closer to Him. 

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer. 

Hello. 

Well, we have just about made it through another Lent. Soon we with our brothers and sisters throughout the world will be celebrating the great feast of Easter. The unthinkable becomes real. One who was once dead and buried has broken the seal of the tomb and vanquished Old Death who thought he had the upper hand. But the Lord had another idea in mind. As the angels said to the women, “He is not here, He has risen as He said.” (Matt. 28:6)

As the Gospel writers say, this took the women by surprise. I’m sure it would take anyone with any sense by surprise. I am sure that it took these women a few moments to recover from their shock to run with the message of the angel.

As someone once wrote, “Lent. A time of reflection, sacrifice, and spiritual growth. Let us journey together in faith, fining strength in our shared humanity.” ‘Finding strength in our shared humanity’. Such an event is not something that one can keep to themselves. It is something HAD to be shared. 

Over two thousand years later the event still needs to be told. Now it is not up to those women who went to the tomb to complete the required burial rituals. Rather it is up to us to run and tell others. That does not mean we have to run down the street screaming “He has risen” but more important is that we now must begin to live the risen life of the Lord in our own lives. 

As is the custom in the Eastern Church when greeting another, one will say “He has risen.” the response to that greeting is “Yes, He has risen indeed!”

We may not use such a greeting, but the truth is expressed. He has risen INDEED!!

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the 

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.  

Hello. I hope all goes well.

We all have heard of stories of how “love conquers all”. We have heard that people will put themselves in danger to protect the ones they love. I guess that is why people will say that “Love knows no bounds.”

We just need to look at the volumes of works that give us examples of how love makes people do things that they would not ordinarily do. Even our Bible gives us story upon story of what love can do. And we may continue to question how someone or more important how we can do what we do for another?

Our friend, Henri Nouwen, tells us, “To be rooted in love is to flourish even in trials and challenges.”

I would say the most outstanding story on this topic is the one that we read in the Gospels. How a loving Father sends His Son to tell others of the love He has for them and then would allow these creatures of His to treat His Son the way they did. And, most importantly, to FORGIVE those who committed such a horrible crime. BUT, as we have been saying all along . . . 

                                                “LOVE DOES SUCH THINGS!!”  

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the 

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer

Hello and happy feast.

Today we remember the time that the Angel Gaberiel appeared to Mary to inform her that she had been chosen by God to be the Mother of his Divine Son.

And to keep in mind, that nine months from today is Christmas. Just thought you would like to know.

If our story of salvation had opening lines, it might be, “Once upon a time . . . ” It is in that eternal YES that Mary spoke that the entire mystery of God’s love began. It was a yes for all eternity. Mary had no idea what that yes would entail, or where it would take her. Surly, she had no idea that it would take her up that hill outside the gates of Jerusalem known as “the place of the skull” where those condemned to death for crimes against the Roman Empire were crucified.

Many years ago in the year 1531 our Lady appeared to Juan Diego, a local Indian man. The place the apparition took place is known as Tepeyac Hill. Mary told Juan that day, “Listen, and let it penetrate you heart, my dear little son; do not be troubled or weighted down with grief. Do not fear any illness or vexation or anxiety or pain. Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? In the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else to you need?” 
(Mary to St. Juan Diego)

I may guess that like most of us, Mary may have had a plan to the days she would share with her husband, Joseph. But as most of may have come to know, those plans may be far from the ones God has in mind for us.

As we celebrate this great feast just before Easter, let us keep in mind that all this is intertwined and part of the story of God’s plan of salvation. 

Let us 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.   

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.