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Good morning. 

Today we remember yet another title given to the Blessed Mother. Today we commemorate the title of Mary, Queen of Heaven.

We in America sometimes do not relate to some of the titles given to our saints. The words King and Queen don’t have the same effect on us as some other titles. But the word MOTHER does resonate with us all. 

St. Theresa of Lisieux. the ‘Little Flower’ tells us today, “What a joy to remember that she is our Mother! Since she loves us and knows our weakness, what have we to fear?”

What do we have to fear? Yes, God is the Almighty. God is the All Just. He is the Righteous Judge. But God is also our loving Father. He is the one who created us just the way we are. He made us the way we are because from all eternity, we are the most perfect and most beloved. In His mind we are just what He wished us to be. The only thing we have to fear is that we do not respond to the Father with our love in return.

We are yet children in His sight. He knows that we still need a Mother to guide us and to give us comfort as only a Mother can, And as Theresa says, “. . . Since she love us and knows our weakness . . .”

“Pray for us now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the 

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer

Hello, I pray that your week is going along well.

Today we remember a Pope who is known as the Pope of frequent communion. Up until Pius was pope, people would receive Holy Communion only once or twice a year.

We have heard that the responsibility of the Christian is to serve those in need. Jesus often told his disciples as He tells today that we must hear the cry of the poor and be attentive to the needs of those who are on the margins of our society.

St. Pope Pius X reminds us today “To heal the breach between the rich and the poor, it is necessary to distinguish between justice and charity.”

Jesus told his disciples that the poor we will always have with us. Our job is to hear their cry and do what we can to assist them in their needs.

Peace and All Good, 

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the 

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Good day to you all.

We know what it feels like to be joyful. Joy gives us that feeling of wellbeing and of a sense of security. Unfortunately, joy is one of those feelings that does not last for a long period of time. 

It would be great if we could feel joyful all the time. But that just does not happen. There are days and sometimes weeks that it seems we just move through life as if we were in some kind of cloud, one day melting into another. Then, something happens, we get a phone call from a friend, we run into someone we haven’t seen in a long time, Whatever it might be and there it is; joy.

The author Fr. James Martin, SJ. gives us his thoughts. “The closer one moves to God, the more one experiences a sense of deep joy. So, for those following their heartfelt desires and living out their vocation, there will be joy. For those following God’s call to care for the least of our brothers and sisters, there will be joy. And for those following God’s invitation to love one another, there will be joy. 

    Joy is often an outgrowth not simply of following our vocation in life, but of helping those in need and of loving one another. So, joy is not a selfish thing to seek, but a selfless thing to find.”

So maybe joy should not be that tingling feeling. Maybe it is just knowing that we are following the vocation the Lord has set out for us, whether that be marriage, religious life, or the single life. Knowing that we are comfortable in our chosen life’s vocation, then we can be sure that we have the Joy of the Holy Spirit within us.  

Following in one’s father’s footsteps does not mean that we will be happy and have that deep sense of joy within us. We all have a road we have been put on and are called to follow. That road may not always lead us to where we think it is going to, but if we follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance, then joy will be that secure feeling down deep in our soul.

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the 

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer.

Good day to you all.

There is a story about St. Pope John XXIII that goes that when he would be getting ready for bed, in his night prayers he would say, “Lord, it’s you turn to watcher over the Church, I’m tired and am going to bed”.

When each of us awake in the morning, we all are faced with a number of tasks. They may be as difficult as running a company, head of an office, getting the kids off to school, or having to celebrate morning Mass. Some of these responsibilities may be difficult or as simple as feeding the goldfish. Whatever the task may be, we all have something that needs to be accomplished that day.

The great French author, Victor Hugo, says to us, “Have courage for the greatest sorrows in life and patience for the small ones, and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake.”

St Benedict says in his ‘Rule for Monasteries’ “Ora et Labora” “To work and Pray.” No matter what task is before us, know that The Lord is next to us to assists in the task at hand. 

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the 

Bros and Srs of the

Franciscan House of Prayer. 8

Good morning. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I.

 During the last few weeks, we have been reflecting on men and women that have been named “Saint” in our Church. 

A saint is someone we believe has gone to heaven. If that be the case there are any number of persons who are in heaven, we do not know but are saints. 

Our view of such persons are those who always seemed to have a serine look on their faces, and hands clutched together as in prayer. Well, we would hope that be true. But these saints were human as you and I are.

That is to say they had their good days as well as bad days. The were not all very kind to their fellows. Some could be very hard to live with as their life stories would tell. Just read the life of St. Jerome. It is said that he was the first member of the “He Man’s Women Hater’s Club.”

‘Lori Dechene, writes, “You don’t have to be positive all the time. It is perfectly okay to feel sad, angry, annoyed, frustrater, scared, or anxious. Having feelings doesn’t make you a ‘negative person’, It makes you human.”

Being a saint is being fully human with all the dings and dents, warts included. It is recognizing these faults and the many failures but seeing them not as being less than human, but to come to believe that God loves us with all our faults and failures, and yes our warts. It’s what we do these imperfections that makes all the difference. 

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the 

Bros and Srs of the 

Franciscan House of Prayer

Hello, happy Sunday.

Church, we may feel, is a place where we go to feel good. We want to see friends, we what to hear scriptural readings that touch our hearts, and we want to go home feeling “good inside”. 

Well, today we just may go home and not have that “warm and fuzzy” feeling. Today, Jesus, as it were, takes off the gloves and enters the fight.

In the 12th chapter of Luke, we hear Jesus not holding back about the calling it as He sees it. We hear him, in the verses just before our reading we have for today, calling the religious leaders hypocrites. This is because they live by the code, “Do as I say, not as I do.”

When we see someone who lives by this code, it is because they believe that they are right. When someone is “stuck” in their own righteous thinking and way, it is very hard to change their minds. “I’m right, you are wrong, and that is the end of it.” That is why they say there are two subjects you never want to speak about at the dinner table at a holiday, religion and politics. 

Growth is listening to one another, evaluating your position, and changing, and growing in that new understanding.

The author Chelsey Harmon writhes, “Knowledge is power. Knowledge is understanding. Knowledge allows us to act in appropriate and necessary ways. For instance, ‘What does the Lord require of you?’ Scripture says, ‘ To do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.’ (Micah 6:8). And Scripture says, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And love your neighbor as yourself. (Mk 12:29-31).

But (and there is always a BUT) putting these scriptures into practice may very well cause some consternation in our lives. It just might very well result in a rift in a relationship with another member of our family or friend. 

What we cannot become is like one who is struck in their way of thinking and condemn others for not thinking the way we do.  We have to understand that we all do not learn as the same pace, and we have to allow others to grow in time. What we have to be is a member of what St. Paul says in the second reading, ” . . . great cloud of witnesses . . . ” Calling others to follow the Lord, not by what we say, but by how we live. 

Remember, the humble rabbi of Nazareth ushered in the greatest revolution the world has ever seen by asking his followers to “Love one another as I have loved you.” (Jn 13:34)

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

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.