Author: Franciscan

Greetings, I hope you all had a good weekend.

How many masks do we wear? How many different people reside within us? We present one person to our boss, our significant other, and our friends. But do we ever really present our true self?

Nathaniel Hawthorn once told us, “No man for any considerable period can wear one face. To himself and another. To the multitudes, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true.”

So, how many people reside inside you, me?? Maybe we need some quiet time to reflect on who it is God created and are we truly the one that God created out of love? 

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Greetings. Hope all is well.

In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus using the analogy of a farmer sowing seed on his field.  In Jesus’ day, the plot of ground a man would have to grow his corps would be no where near the size of the farms we have today. Depending on where you lived, the ground could be rocky and not a lot of flat area to plant anything. I remember when I was studying in Israel, it is hard to believe that someone would grow anything on such a rocky small piece of ground. But they did what they have to do.

The author,  James D. Wilson tells us, “You can’t instantly reap what you sow today, it does not work like instant grits, no matter what you sow in life it takes time to grow and be ready for harvest.”

So, what does this mean to us if we live in the city or know nothing about farming. For many of us, “farming” means going to the grocery store and selecting what vegetables we feel like having. 

Regardless, we are all sower of seeds. The seeds we sow do not come in convenient little packages but are contained in our actions and attitudes toward others. We sow seeds of kindness in our children, and in those we deal with every day. These are the seeds of acceptance and forgiveness we extend to others we live with or encounter in our lives. We may not live long enough to see the result of our “sowing” but if we have sowed our seed upon good ground, the result of our work will result in a yield of thirty, fifty, or a hundred fold. 

Peace and All Good

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the

Bros and Srs of the

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Hello, hope all is well. 

Today we remember the founder of Western monastic life. St Benedict wrote a rule of life for monks and nuns which is still practiced today.

As a former monk, this feast is special. Even though I left the monastery I believe the life I lived there taught me many important elements that I have held onto in the years as a priest. 

There is a motto that St. Benedict taught his brothers and sisters which goes, “Ora et Labora”. “To pray and work.” He goes on to tell his brothers and sisters “He who labors as he prays lift his heart to God with his hands.”

Though early monastic life would seem to us today to be extreme, Benedict always reminded his monks and nuns, “Be careful to be gentle, let in removing the rust, you break the whole instrument”

Those words could very well apply to us today. As we attempt to better ourselves, we sometimes can overdo it. As a physical therapist once told me “be careful not to overdo it, because that is when you get in trouble.”

Maybe we can ponder these words of St. Benedict today to work and pray. Yes, the most meaningless tasks can be the most beautiful prayer.

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the

Bros and Srs of the

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Hello, I hope your week went well. 

It has been said that some traits we see in others rub us the wrong way. We tend to avoid these people because we find it difficult to deal with them on a regular basis. But we find there actions to be so difficult because we see them play out in our own lives. Their traits are a reflection of what we find unacceptable in our own lives.  

C.S. Lewis has this to say about that. ” There is a someone that I love even though I don’t approve of what he does. Ther a someone I accept through some of his thoughts and actions revolt me. There is someone I forgive though he hurts the people I love the most. That person is . . .ME”

Jesus tells us to remove the plank in our own eye before trying to remove the splinter from the eye of another. We have to make sure our house is clean before we criticize another’s messy home.

I hope you all have a safe and blessed weekend. 

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.  

We all have heard others say something about fate. “Oh, it is fate that made this happen or that happen.” 

We all know that we do not really know what will happen within the next few hours or days. We walk into the future trusting that whatever we encounter we will be able to handle  it.

The Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca tells us, “Fate, leads the willing and drags along the reluctant.”  We all have to move into the “tomorrows” of our lives. 

But along with fate we have something we call FAITH. We believe that our Father in heaven knows what is ahead and is there to give us the strength and grace to handle whatever it is that we encounter.

Fate happens no matter what, faith is part of who we are and that which gives us the strength to take that next step into the tomorrows of our lives. We need not be the reluctant ones who are dragged but the ones who walk knowing we are not alone, that the Father walks with us. 

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer. 

Hello, hope all is good.

As we get nearer to the mid-terms, the news stations are filled with political messages, vote for this one, vote for that one. As was said, “Vote for me, I’ll set you free!! Ride on brother, ride on. . .”

We all hope the one we vote for will live up to the promises made. Our world will be made better, and we all can take a sigh of relief and “live happily ever after.” Unfortunately, life is not like that. We know that all that is promised does not come to pass. 

So, what do we have to do to make our world better? Maybe the words of the great spiritual writer, Victor Frankel who once said, “When we are no longer able to change a situation – we are challenged to change ourselves.”

 Just maybe that which is said can be true, “if you are part of the solution, you just might be part of the problem”.

It seems so easy to sit back and wait for someone’s promise to come to past.  And should it not, oh well, not my fault. So, could the change come about by what I can do to change the situation, instead of waiting for someone else to come along, make more promises and see if they cay live up to what they say. Maybe this time the change can come about by what I can do. . . So, if not maybe there may be something else I can do to bring about a positive change. The Kingdom of God is built one brick at a time. 

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Hello, hope all goes well,

We have often spoke about this thing call FAITH. It can be truly elusive and many time we just do not know what it is. Yes, it is “believing” in something. We have faith that when we flip the light switch, the light will go on. Or, when we turn on the faucet water will flow. We know that there will be times when what we believe in will not take place, like in a storm and the power go out or the plumber is working on the pipes, the water is turn off. 

But what about faith in our religion? We are asked to believe is some rather remarkable things, Bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. A person we know as Jesus, being raised from the dead to new life?  

We are not asked to explain it, or to have some mathematical formula to come up with an undisputable explanation, we are asked just to believe

St. Augustine once said, “He asks for our faith and offers us salvation. What He offers us is so precious that what He asks for us, is as nothings.” As Augustine goes on to tell us, “If you understand God what you understand isn’t God.”

Remember, it is a mystery to be lived not solved. Have a blessed and safe day.

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.

 Greetings, hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July celebration.

Now that we have had our little break in ordinary time, it may be good to pick up where we left off. 

As I have said before, this time we are in is in no way ordinary. It is a time to live in the truth of what we believe. It is a time to put into practice what we say we believe. And we do this not because we are getting ready for Christmas or Easter, but rather having celebrated these great realities in our faith, we now have the opportunity to live out what we have celebrated. 

St. Angela Marici reminds us the following. “You will accomplish more by kind words and courteous manner than by anger or sharp rebuke.”

We may have heard this from others we call saints. The fact is that these words are at the basis of what Christ taught and died for. “Love on another.” 

Let us use this “Ordinary Time” to the best use by living out what our faith calls us to be before we have to worry if we are going to have enough seat at the dining room table at Christmas or Easter.

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Hello, I hope you all had a great 4th of July. I know that those in the East had to contend with the extreme heat. Be safe.

Today’s Gospel tells us of Jesus’ discourse to the people being like sheep without a shepherd as we read in Matt.9:36. 

Today Jesus invites the people to “take His yoke upon you. . .” This might seem odd to a people who were burden by the yoke of the law which the religious leaders put upon their shoulders.  But He tells them that “. . .my yoke is easy and my burden light.”

The biblical scholar George Buttrick says. . .. when Jesus says ‘Take my yoke upon you; He is offering a transformative partnership: a life guided by His love and humility, where the burdens are shared and the soul finds true rest.” 

So many of our brothers and sisters, day after day labor to the point that in some cases have forgotten what it is like to “find true rest”.

The yoke that Jesus invites us to take upon ourselves, is the yoke of his love. Jesus is ever present to assist us to carry whatever burden we are given to carry. This yoke is truly “easy” and His burden is truly “light”. 

Here we are invited to rest in His presence as He wipes our brows with the waters of His love. 

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the

Bros and Srs of the

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Hello and a Happy Birthday to us all.

Much can be said about 250 years. We have known good time as well as not so good times. We were told that this thing called DEMOCROCY was an experiment. Like all experiments, sometimes it just does not work the first time and many times one has to go back to the “drawing board”. 

But the important issue is that each time we put this experiment to work we learn more and more about what this thing called democracy is all about.

The former president, Barack Obama once said, “The freedom which so many Americans have fought and died for come with responsibility as well as rights. And among those are love and charity and duty and patriotism.”

Yes, we have come to our 250th birthday. But when placed against the other countries in the world, we are still fledglings. But because we are still young, we have the capacity and the ability to continue to experiment until we get it right. Then we will have a land as our forefathers intended, where all people are created equal, each has the right to pursue happiness, and to live in freedom. May God give us the grace and fortitude to live out these principles in the years to come.

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the 

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer. 

P.S. Thank God, my computer is now working and my printer and the computer have made up and are able to play together in the sandbox again.