From Our December 2013 Newsletter

Our December Gathering

Please note that we will are doing something new and very different this year and will be meeting at a slightly different time and will not be meeting at St. Francis of Assisi Church. Our December gathering  will be held at Central Park Restaurant on Baltimore Pike in Springfield (next to the Best Buy) on Sunday the 8th from Noon to 3:00. We will begin with a brief fraternity meeting before celebrating our annual creche ceremony. This will be followed by a buffet lunch and party. Spouses, children, and grandchildren are welcome.

December Profession Anniversaries

• Marie Bair 1986
• Veda Dugan 1986
• Teresa McHugh 1986
• Regina McGarry 1971
• Claire Quinn 1975

St. Francis Inn Needs:

• Men & Women Winter Hats & Scarves
• Blankets & Quilts
• Winter Coats
• Adult & Children Gloves
• Men & Women Thermal Underwear
• Small Size Toiletries
• Furniture for Thea Bowman Center
• Prayers

Formation Information

Our regular formation activities will resume at out January gathering. In the meantime, here are some thoughts to enjoy as we prepare our hearts, minds and souls for the advent  season and the Christmas miracle.

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It happened in the third year before his death, that in order to excite the inhabitants of Grecio to commemorate the nativity of the Infant Jesus with great devotion, [St. Francis] determined to keep it with all possible solemnity; and lest he should be accused of lightness or novelty, he asked and obtained the permission of the sovereign Pontiff. Then he prepared a manger, and brought hay, and an ox and an ass to the place appointed.

The brethren were summoned, the people ran together, the forest resounded with their voices, and that venerable night was made glorious by many and brilliant lights and sonorous psalms of praise. The man of God [St. Francis] stood before the manger, full of devotion and piety, bathed in tears and radiant with joy; the Holy Gospel was chanted by Francis, the Levite of Christ. Then he preached to the people around the nativity of the poor King; and being unable to utter His name for the tenderness of His love, He called Him the Babe of Bethlehem.

A certain valiant and veracious soldier, Master John of Grecio, who, for the love of Christ, had left the warfare of this world, and become a dear friend of this holy man, affirmed that he beheld an Infant marvellously beautiful, sleeping in the manger, Whom the blessed Father Francis embraced with both his arms, as if he would awake Him from sleep. This vision of the devout soldier is credible, not only by reason of the sanctity of him that saw it, but by reason of the miracles which afterwards confirmed its truth.

~  St. Bonaventure, Life of St. Francis of Assisi

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A certain amazed, astonished, joyful wonder is the spiritual climate of Christmas. We are amazed to see that the birth of Jesus Christ reverses everything that our insecure and acquisitive minds think power and mightiness should mean. The Word of God, through whom all things are created, is born as one of us, born to plain parents, born away from home, born into a people and a place that were considered important by no known criterion of human civilization.

But Christmas is not only astonishing because it is an amazing and even scandalous revelation of God; Christmas also invites us to wonder because it reveals who we really are, what creation really is

~ Fr. Charles, OFM Cap., Reek of Stupefaction.