St. Francis Fraternity

Our May Gathering

We will hold our monthly gathering on Sunday, May 5th, 2012 (please note change from the regular date/time) and will be celebrating our annual Communion Breakfast.

We will meet at 11:00 a.m. in Conway Hall and before attending 11:30 Mass. We will attempt to sit together as a group at Mass and we may have seating reserved. There will be no formation activities.

The Communion Breakfast will take place after Mass around 12:30. We will Crown our Blessed Mother but there will be no rosary. Our speaker will be Fr. Quan Tran.

We will also hold the Rite of Admission for Agnes Iacono and Mary Meade!

Rita Mutter

Our Sister Rita Mutter went to be with the Lord on April 15, 2013. Please pray for the soul of Rita and for her family in their sorrow. Her funeral and Franciscan Wake Service was held on April 19th.

Activity Director

We would like to thank Antoinette Lightman for her many years of devoted service as the fraternity’s Activity Director. We would also like to thank Frances and Francis Urso for stepping forward and volunteering to fill this important role.

Formation Information

Since we will be having our communion breakfast, there will not be any formation activities during our May gathering. However, we will be handing out preparation materials for the June ongoing formation session. In the meantime, here are a few quotes that connect with some the themes we talked about in April.

• • •

Let them individually and collectively be in the forefront in promoting justice by the testimony of their human lives and their courageous initiatives. Especially in the field of public life, they should make definite choices in harmony with their faith. (Rule 15, Rule of the Secular Franciscan Order)

• • •

Rule 15: Secular Franciscans should “be in the forefront … in the field of public life.” They should collaborate as much as possible for the passage of just laws and ordinances.

The fraternities should engage themselves through courageous initiatives, consistent with their Franciscan vocation and with the directives of the Church, in the field of human development and justice. They should take clear positions whenever human dignity is attacked by any form of oppression or indifference. They should offer their fraternal service to the victims of injustice.

The renunciation of the use of violence, characteristic of the followers of Francis, does not mean the renunciation of action. However, the brothers and sisters should take care that their interventions are always inspired by Christian love.

(Article 22, General Constitution of the Secular Franciscan Order)

• • •

The first particular aspect of the Secular Franciscans’ evangelical action is social justice (#15), both on the individual level and on the level of community participation. They must show justice themselves and motivate justice in others, not just in their private lives, but also in the public forum of politics, business, economics, and the like. This mandate for advancing social justice as an organized group overturns previous prohibitions against a public common expression of rights when it is carried out as a means of demonstrating the convictions of faith. (Commentary on the OFS Rule Of 1978, Official Commentary prepared by the USA National Spiritual Assistants’ Commission, Benet A. Fonck O.F.M., Coordinator)

• • •

In line with his or her vocation, the duty of a secular (lay) Christian encompasses the redemption of all human activities: work, science, technology, culture, art, politics, in order to snatch them away from the power of sin and bring them into the transparent light of God’s design. (“Secularity as a Characteristic Element of Secular Franciscan Identity”, Conclusions Of The SFO General Chapter Mexico, October, 1993)

Our February Gathering

We will hold our monthly gathering on Sunday, February 10th, 2012 in Conway Hall. IMPORTANT: Please remember that we now gather at 12:30.

Service Opportunity

Our Fraternity is in need of someone to take the responsibility of keeping our members list updated. Please let council know if you are interested.

Fair Share

There will be an extra small envelope in your January and February newsletter for our Fair Share Contribution to allow you to pay in two installments. The Fair Share will remain the same at $30. The Fair Share is not meant to be a hardship on anyone. If your financial circumstances makes it hard to pay please let a council member know.

Newsletter Production

Terry Ritter has volunteered to stuff the envelopes and mail the newsletter every month using the materials that Marie Gilligan has printed. Thanks so much to Terry and Marie for making sure this communication channel stays open for all of our brothers and sisters.

Formation Information

Our February ongoing formation session will focus on Franciscan poverty and will use the handout that was distributed at our January gathering. If you don’t have the handout but have web access, you can download it from this page on the fraternity’s website:  http://www.stfrancisfraternity.org/ongoing-formation.

In March we are planning on returning to the Cangelosi paper called Profession in the SFO: Gift and Commitment. This is also available on the website and Lee will have copies available at the February gathering.

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From The Rule of the Secular Franciscan Order:

10. Uniting themselves to the redemptive obedience of Jesus, who placed his will into the Father’s hands, let them faithfully fulfil the duties proper to their various circumstances of life. Let them also follow the poor and crucified Christ, witness to him even in difficulties and persecutions.

11. Trusting in the Father, Christ chose for himself and his mother a poor and humble life, even though he valued created things attentively and lovingly. Let the Secular Franciscans seek a proper spirit of detachment from temporal goods by simplifying their own material needs. Let them be mindful that according to the gospel they are stewards of the goods received for the benefit of God’s children.

Thus, in the spirit of “the Beatitudes”, and as pilgrims and strangers on their way to the home of the Father, they should strive to purify
their hearts from every tendency and yearning for possession and power.

12. Witnessing to the good yet to come and obliged to acquire purity of heart because of the vocation they have embraced, they should set themselves free to love God and their brothers and sisters.

Our January Gathering

We will hold our monthly gathering on Sunday, January 13th, 2012 at 12:30 p.m. in Conway Hall. IMPORTANT: Please note that we begin with our new schedule at this month and we will now gather at 12:30. A detailed outline of the new schedule is to the right. The ongoing formation session that was previously optional is now a regular part of our gathering and everyone is expected to attend.

Important Schedule Changes

Beginning in January, we will be changing the schedule of our meetings as follows:

• 10:30 to 12:30 Initial formation for inquirers and candidates
• 12:30 to 1:30 Mandatory ongoing formation (includes those in initial formation)
• 1:30 to 2:00 Social time (light snacks)
• 2:00 to 3:00 Communal prayer & announcements
• 3:00 to 3:15 Break & move to church for benediction
• 3:15 to 3:45 Benediction
• 3:45 to 4:45 Council meeting

In Loving Memory

Our dear sister Mary Ellen Gontaryk OFS went to be with Our Lord on December 21, 2012. A Mass and Franciscan Wake service was held at St. Alice Church in Upper Darby on December 29, 2012.

Formation Quotations

Please note: There will be some changes made to our ongoing formation program beginning in January.

First, as you may have noticed from the new schedule on the previous page, our gatherings now begin at 12:30. Ongoing formation will now be considered an integral part of the meeting rather than an optional preface to the meeting.

Second, we are going to shift gears a bit and begin the new year by reviewing, over a few months, selected readings from a really powerful presentation called Profession in the SFO: Gift and Commitment by Fr. Felice Cangelosi OFM Cap.

Copies of this presentation will be available at our January gathering and is also be available on our website’s Ongoing Formation page (follow link on the menu on top of each page of the site).

• • •

I, N.N.,
by the grace of God, renew my baptismal promises
and consecrate myself to the service of his kingdom.
Therefore, in my secular state
I promise to live all the days of my life
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Secular Franciscan Order
by observing its rule of life.

~Rites for Entering the Secular Franciscan Order

• • •

They, by promising to live the gospel life, make themselves entirely available to God and place their own bodies (persons) on the altar of Christ’s sacrifice as a holy victim pleasing to God.

~Profession in the SFO: Gift and Commitment, Fr. Felice Cangelosi OFM Cap

Our December Gathering

The annual Christmas Celebration will take place beginning at 1:30 p.m. (setup will begin at 12:30) in Conway Hall.  We will begin with the Crown Rosary followed by our Creche Service and a Franciscan Feast (one that we provide for each other!!).  Many thanks to Antoinette Lightman for heading up the Party Committee.

Important Schedule Changes

Beginning in January, we will be changing the schedule of our meetings as follows:

• 10:30 to 12:30 Initial formation for inquirers and candidates
• 12:30 to 1:30 Mandatory ongoing formation (includes those in initial formation)
• 1:30 to 2:00 Social time (light snacks)
• 2:00 to 3:00 Communal prayer & announcements
• 3:00 to 3:15 Break & move to church for benediction
• 3:15 to 3:45 Benediction
• 3:45 to 4:45 Council meeting

December Profession Anniversaries

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

IMPORTANT ONGOING FORMATION INFORMATION

Please note: There will be some changes made to our ongoing formation program beginning in January.

First, as you may have noticed from the new schedule on the previous page, our gatherings now begin at 12:30. Ongoing formation will now be considered an integral part of the meeting rather than an optional preface to the meeting.

Second, we are going to shift gears a bit and begin the new year by reviewing, over a few months, selected readings from a really powerful presentation called Profession in the SFO: Gift and Commitment by Fr. Felice Cangelosi OFM Cap.

Copies of this presentation will be handed out at our December gathering and is also be available on our website’s Ongoing Formation page (follow link on the menu on top of each page of the site) if you want to get a head start.

Formation Quotations

From the General Constitutions of the Secular Franciscan Order (Article 44):

Begun by the preceding stages, the formation of the brothers and sisters takes place in a permanent and continuous way. It should be understood as an aid in the conversion of each and everyone and in the fulfillment of their proper mission in the Church and in society.

…

Ongoing formation – accomplished by means of courses, gatherings, and the sharing of experience – aims to assist the brothers and sisters

•  (Rule 4) in listening to and meditating on the Word of God, “going from Gospel to life and from life to Gospel;”
•  in reflecting on events in the Church and in society in the light of faith, and with the help of the documents of the teaching Church, consequently taking consistent positions;
•  in discerning and deepening the Franciscan vocation by studying the writings of Saint Francis, Saint Clare and Franciscan authors.