Our February Gathering
We will hold our monthly gathering on Sunday, April 10th at 12:30 pm in Conway Hall. We will participate in ongoing formation, recite the Franciscan Crown Rosary and, after our regular meeting and prayers, we will proceed to St. Francis Church for Benediction.
If you are unable to fulfill your obligation to attend the monthly meeting, please call Pat Simon at 610-352-5390
“And we will be involved in the monthly meeting as an act of worship and a building of community.â€
–from The Lay Franciscan Monthly Pledge
Communion Breakfast
Our annual communion breakfast will be in May. As usual, it will be the first Sunday of the month instead of the second to accommodate Mother’s Day. We will meet at Conway Hall at 11:00 to set up then and proceed to the Church for 11:30 Mass. We will sit together as a group. There will be a pot luck breakfast after Mass around 12:30. Be sure to bring your special dish to share. We will sing a hymn and crown the Blessed Mother. Our speaker will be Fr. Quan Tran.
Pastoral/Fraternal Visit
The regional leadership’s pastoral/fraternal visit during our March gathering was a great success and we are now on target for holding elections again this Summer. Thanks to all of you who had to make a special effort to attend this important gathering.
Prayer Petitions
Please contact Antoinette if you would like to include a petition in the newsletter. A new list will be generated each month.
- Conversion of children and grandchildren
- Mary: Pain in legs and back
- Mary: Job offers, financial help
- A good job for my son
- Walt: Healing of physical and mental health and ability to keep job
- Monsignor M: Melanoma
- Ray: Breast lump
- Emma: Breast cancer
- Marylou: Diabetes
- Kathy: Conversion of family members
- Bernadette: Continued healing of cancer
- Dennis: Positive check-up
- Patricia: Bipolar medications
- Karen: Peace and employment
- Frank: Infection
- Celina: Infection
2016 Fairshare
Please remember that this year’s Fairshare contribution of $30 was due at our March meeting.
St. Francis Inn Needs
- Oatmeal
- Coffee
- Sugar
- Baby Diapers (especially size 4)
- Disposable Razors
- Deodorant
- Powdered Milk
- Presweetened Drink Mix
- Ketchup
- Toilet Paper
- Men’s Underwear
Ongoing formation
Marie Gilligan has graciously agreed to lead April’s Ongoing formation session. It may or may not be related to the quotes below.
Food for thought
I have come to think that care of the soul requires a high degree of resistance to the culture around us, simply because that culture is dedicated to values that have no concern for the soul. To preserve our precious hearts, we may have to live economically against the grain, perhaps so as not to be forced into soul-maiming work just to place bread on the table or put our children through college. We may not want to be plugged into electronic media and have our thoughts laundered daily with biased news, superficial commentary, and “lite†entertainment. We may not want to contribute to disastrous pollution of nature or participate in the current value-empty philosophy of education. This comtemptus mundi is not a misanthropic, superior rejection of life’s pleasures but, rather, a compassionate attempt to find more grounded pleasure and communal fulfillment in deep appreciation for life relieved of ambition and control.
~ Thomas Moore in the introduction of Thomas Merton’s classic Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander. Merton was a Secular Franciscan before becoming a Trappist monk.
• • • • •
Our [Secular] Franciscan vision, understood and embraced, brings a particular spirit to the Church and the world. Our lives will show that spirit in all areas of human life both in our service in the Church and in our mission to the world. Our profession of the SFO Rule consecrates us. Though we are in the world we choose not to be influenced by its non-gospel values, attitudes, or policies. In that sense secular Franciscans ‘leave the world.’
~ Lester Bach, OFM Cap, The Franciscan Journey: Embracing the Franciscan Vision
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