Author: Franciscan

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.

Good day to you all.

As I have mentioned before, Lent is a time to reevaluate our relationship between God and ourselves, ourselves and others. 

In the days past, Lent was always seen as a time to do penance for what we have done or have not done.  But today we see that type of thought does not challenge us to become someone new in Christ. Lent should be a time that enables us to reevaluate our relationships with others for it is when we encounter others we encounter Christ. 

Deitrich Bonhoeffer offers this thought today, “The Church is the Church only when it exists for others . . . not dominating but helping and serving. It must tell men of every calling what it means to live for Christ, to exist of others.”

With these words in mind, let us continue our Lenten journey towards that great experience of Easter. Holy Saturday is not the end of the story, it just the beginning. 

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Hello. Hope your week is going well.

As we have been saying during this Lententide, it is not just a season that we are going through, but it is establishing a new way of life. We are divesting ourselves of the old so that we may be ready to put on the new. During this period, we are learning that what we thought was so important to us, we find out that we are able to live without it and in doing so we become freer to come closer to the Lord.

Pope Francis tells us today. “Lent is a favorable time for letting Christ serve us so that we in turn may become more like Him.” In freeing ourselves of so much baggage, we are free to become a new person in Christ. We all are called to be “Alter Christus” Other Christs and therefore are able to serve others in His name.

Again, as Henri Nouwen prayed, “O Lord, make this Lent season different from the others. Let me find you again.”  

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the 

Bros and Srs of the

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Hello, hope all is well with you and yours.

I need not tell any of you the unrest we are experiencing in our country these days. We need only to turn on the news.

I am saddened that all this unrest should be happening at this time of year when we should be reflecting upon the suffering and death of the Lord, not so we become depressed, but that we are able to experience what He underwent that we may have eternal life.

The Chirstian author Joni Erickson Tada reminds us today, “All life is created in the image of God and worth our greatest efforts to preserve and protect and He alone is the one who should order the length of days.”

The reality of our faith is that we are ALL created in the image and likeness of God. It was into you and me that God breathed life into a clump of clay and brought it to life. And afterward, He looked on all He had made and said, “It is Good, it is VERY GOOD.!”

Just a little something to keep in mind during these days of REPENTANCE. 

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the 

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.