This summer, as part of their first visit to the United States from Mexico, our friars had some special visitors who stopped into the Provincial House, in Ellicott City, MD. One of our friars in the post-novitiate stage of Formation studying at the Catholic University of America, friar Luis Palacios Rodriguez, OFM Conv. (center friar), brought his mother Carmel (in white) and his sister Ruth (plaid) to meet our Vicar Provincial – Fr. Brad Milunski, OFM Conv., Provincial Secretary – Fr. Richard-Jacob Forcier, OFM Conv. and Minister Provincial – Very Reverend Fr. James McCurry, OFM Conv. (left to right)
Please keep all families who sacrificially give their sons and brothers to the life of a Conventual Franciscan Friar, in your prayers, as you are all in ours.

On August 15, 2015, Frei Marcelo dos Santos Silva, OFM Conv. was Ordained to the Priesthood, in the city of São Gonçalo – RJ, by Dom Gregório Leozírio Paixão Neto, OSB, Bishop of Petrópolis – RJ. Frei Marcelo shared the day with many friars of our Custody of Immaculate Conception (Brazil), Secular Franciscans, family and friends. His was the last of five ordinations within the Custody this year. In Brazil, August, marks the vocational month and the friars of our Custody raise a thanksgiving prayer for the religious and priestly vocations of all of these, our brothers! Please keep them and all of the friars of Our Lady of the Angels Province, Immaculate Conception Custody, Blessed Agnellus of Pisa Custody and our Costa Rican Delegation, in your continued prayers.

Our friars have been serving the people of St. Philip Benizi Catholic Church, in Jonesboro (GA) since 1991. The parish’s first Mass was celebrated on September 12, 1965 and has grown from 35 to 2100 registered families over these 50 years. This vibrant faith community has over 65 structured organizations, groups and ministries, as well as countless more clubs and activities, producing a strong base for the spread of Franciscan Charism.

One such group is simply known as the “Craft Group.” The Craft Group was formed to not only promote fellowship among parishioners and non-parishioners, but to provide a forum through which members create handmade items such as clothes, blankets and crafts to parish ministries, organizations, and local hospitals. This year, St. Philip Benizi Craft Group partnered with a local chapter of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC), known as the Morrow Civic Woman’s Club, to support a special need of the international medical charity, Operation Smile. When a GFWC member was volunteering with Operation Smile, she witnessed children coming to the hospital for surgery in their best clothes; which would still be worn during surgery and recovery. In 1998 the GFWC began making children’s sized hospital gowns for Operation Smile and this year, the St. Philip Benizi Craft Group was able to sew and contribute 100 colorful and cheerfully designed gowns. These clean gowns brought as many smiles to the faces of the faithful at St. Philip Benizi, as they will to the children who will receive them and will be a reminder to each child that someone out there is thinking of and praying for them. Fr. John Koziol, OFM Conv., pastor of St. Philip Benizi, blessed the gowns and prayed for all those served by and involved with Operation Smile. (photo and information taken form the August 2015 Be-NEWS-Zi article by Mary Harmon & Lois Wolfe)

As the parish gathers for a September 12, 2015 Golden Jubilee celebration, that will include ~ 5:00 p.m. Mass with principal celebrant Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory, the Our Lady of the Angels Province friars who serve the parish, Deacons, and former Pastors ~ a re-dedication of the parish hall to be named Founder’s Hall ~ and a large parish meal, please keep them all, and all who are serve by and through them, in your prayers.

As one of the few remaining parish carnivals in the area, St. Clement Carnival is really a Rosedale community event that included a parade and awards for the best Fire Truck, the best float, etc. Friar Vincent is seated at the judges table, ready to award the table full of trophies.

A Franciscan brotherhood presence is not limited to the witness of those who are members of a Roman Catholic congregation, school or other ministry. As St. Francis stated in a letter to the friars (The Writings of St. Francis of Assisi, tr. by Paschal Robinson [1905], at sacred-texts.com, p. 112.4), ” He has sent you through all the world that by word and deed you may bear witness to His voice, and you may make known to all that there is no other Almighty besides Him.” The friars of Our Lady of the Angels Province strive to share a Franciscan presence throughout the greater communities surrounding each ministry site. Friars working in the high schools and universities take students on mission and service trips. Friars ministering through our shrine ministries open up the facilities for use by local organizations and groups, and have events promoting fellowship and community life. Friars serving in healthcare and social outreach ministries care for all those who need their aide, regardless of religious affiliation. This community presence is not only witnessed through service. It is important for our friars to walk WITH God’s people, living as an example of God’s love for all, as a daily reflection of the Gospel.
One of our Baltimore parish ministries, which also includes its own elementary school and whose friary is home to two friar pastors of area churches, St. Clement Mary Hofbauer Church, joins each year with the local fire department for a community Carnival and Parade, supporting the school and the Rosedale Volunteer Fire Department. This year was the first for new pastor, Fr. Vincent Gluc, OFM Conv., who felt that the event provided “the chance to meet the wider Rosedale community. We will have tons of folks walking our property and supporting St. Clement School and the Rosedale Volunteer Fire Department. It’s a great opportunity to evangelize and to promote St. Clement School.” He invited his parishioners to “come and spend some time ‘meeting and greeting’ those who will be visiting us.” The event was supported by local organizations and churches from several denominations, who provided their own strong clergy presence. This annual event does not rely on a financial boom to be considered a success each year. It is always a successful endeavor for the mutual support and collective benefits for the entire Rosedale Community at large.

Please keep these and all of the friars of our province in your prayers, as well as all of those with whom they come in contact through their ministries and daily encounters.

Some of our friars of the Immaculate Conception Custody – Brazil

Included under the authority of the Our Lady of the Angels Province, is the Delegation in Costa Rica and two Custodies: Blessed Agnellus of Pisa (Great Britain / Ireland) and Immaculate Conception Custody (Brazil). During the week of July 27-31, 2015, at Casa Abel, in Araruama, RJ (Brazil), the friars of our Immaculate Conception Custody gathered for a time of study. In accordance with the 2015 Custodial Project for the quadriennium, the main focus was parish pastoral ministry. The presenter from the Arquidiocese de (Archdiocese of) Niterói (in Brazil) talked about the issues related to recent documents of the Church, especially the 2013 apostolic exhortation by Pope Francis, “Evangelii Gaudium” (The Joy of the Gospel). It was an enjoyable time of fraternity, prayer and study.

Frei Luiz Fernando Lima Rangel, OFM Conv. (a friar from the Immaculate Conception Custody) has been in the United States this summer to further improve his English skills. While here, Our Lady of the Angels Province Friar Maximilian Avila, OFM Conv. (Post-Novitiate student) took Frei Luiz and Fr. Edward Mulwa, OFM Conv. (a Conventual Franciscan Missionary from Uganda, here to preach Summer Mission Appeals) on a tourism day in Washington, DC.

On our Province Feast Day, the Feast of Our Lady of the Angels (August 2nd), Friar Chris Dudek, OFM Conv. (kneeling right) professed his Solemn Vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, at a Mass held in his home parish and a large ministry of our province, the Basilica of St. Stanislaus, Bishop and Martyr (Chicopee, MA). His vows were received by our Minister Provincial, the Very Reverend Fr. James McCurry, OFM Conv. (seated) and witnessed by Fr. Marek Stybor, OFM Conv. (standing right) and the Very Reverend Fr. Michael Zielke, OFM Conv. (standing left – Provincial Minister of the St. Banaventure Province and former Rector/Pastor of the Basilica). Serving at the Mass was friar Luis Palacios Rodriguez, OFM Conv. (kneeling left), a friar in the Post-Novitiate stage of formation.
Several hundred guests, including around 50 friars, were hosted by the welcoming generosity of Br. Michael Duffy, OFM Conv. (Guardian of the friary and coordinator of the day’s liturgy), Fr. Joseph Benicewicz, OFM Conv. (current Rector/Pastor of the Basilica), the friars of St. Stanislaus Bishop & Martyr Friary, and the volunteers and staff of the Basilica.
Friar Chris joined our order in 2008 and professed his Simple Vows in 2011. Our Province is sending him to Rome for his study of theology, at the Pontifical Theological Faculty of St. Bonaventure – International College Seraphicum, for the next stage of his 10 year path to ordination as a priest in the Order.

Franciscan Friars Conventual (OFM Conv.) are one of the three First Order Franciscans (Order of Friars Minor) which also includes Friars Minor (OFM) and the Capuchins (OFM Cap).  Each branch is rooted in the original charism of Francis, through which they find a shared sense of brotherhood. Friars from our Order care for the Papal Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi (Assisi-Italy), which houses the tomb of St. Francis. The friary for the Basilica is the Sacro Convento, where two Our Lady of the Angels Province friars live and work. (Special thanks to Fr. Martin Breski, OFM Conv. who works at the Basilica and was able to capture these great photo moments to share)
This summer, friars from all three branches of the First Order, who are at the solemn vow stage of formation, traveled on a pilgrimage retreat to Assisi. They explored the rich Franciscan history of the area, accompanied by veteran friars including Our Lady of the Angels Province Minister Provincial, the Very Reverend Fr. James McCurry, OFM Conv. and Vicar Provincial, Fr. Brad Milunski, OFM Conv. Six of the participants were Franciscan Friars Conventual.

The friars visit the vast library of the Sacro Convento, which houses ancient works.

Friar Chris Dudek, OFM Conv. enjoys the view from the Porticato of the Sacro Convento. Friar Chris is an Our Lady of the Angels Province friar who will profess his Solemn Vows on August 2, 2015, the Feast Day of our Province.

Fr. Brad Milunski, OFM Conv., Vicar Provincial of Our Lady of the Angels Province concelebrates Mass for the friars and other pilgrims at the Tomb of St. Francis of Assisi, below the Basilica, joined by Our Lady of the Angels Province friar and University of Notre Dame Doctoral Fellow, Fr. Ed Ondrako, OFM Conv. (seated next to altar)

The church of Santa Maria di Rivotorto, known as the “Sanctuary of Rivotorto”, a few kilometers south of St. Mary of the Angels and the Portiuncula, is under the care of the Conventuals and was founded to preserve the structures of the Sacred Hovel or Tugurio (in which Fr. James and the friar pilgrims are pictured), the place where St. Francis gathered his followers before settling at the Portiuncula.

The pilgrim friars with Fr. James, on the grounds of Rivotoro, with the ancient city of Assisi on the hills behind them.

Some thoughts from Fr. James’ time in Rivotoro with the friar pilgrims: 

1. The Choice: Hut or Palace? (1 Celano 14) – Beginning fraternity in the abandoned farmer’s hut, Francis and the first few friars marveled that “The Lord gave me brothers.” They hardly had food, and were content with the turnips they begged. [One of my mother’s favourite phrases was “Oh what a turnip I am!”] Mind you, each of these early friars freely chose the lot of a poor beggar of turnips. Francis taught them: “It is easier to get to heaven from a hut than from a palace.” One day, with great pomp and circumstance, the Holy Roman Emperor Otto passed the friars’ hut at Rivotorto. Francis and the brothers stayed inside, except one who without wavering boldly proclaimed to the Emperor that his glory would be short-lived. We still have such prophets in our midst today, as our fraternity sorts its priorities and chooses the hut over the palace. With such choices each of our vocations began.

2. The Focus: Christ Crucified (LM, 4) – Since the early brethren at Rivotorto were too poor to have liturgical books, their daily prayers, which were constant, focused on the Cross. The Cross was their psalter. Francis was fixated on the Cross, and spoke constantly about it to the growing Fraternity. The legacy of Rivotorto was to be a brotherhood whose stillpoint would always be the Crucified Jesus. In fact, it was at Rivotorto that Francis taught the brothers to invoke Christ Crucified in the famous Adoramus prayer: “We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you in all your churches throughout the world, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.” [cf. LM, 4]

3. The Chalking: Haecceitas (Legend of the Three Companions, 13) – When the manky shed for one or two donkeys became the protoconvent of the Order, so close and pent was the living space that Francis sought a way to respect the dignity of each of the brothers. They were no mere donkeys. He thus delineated space for each by chalking the rafters with the names of each friar. Each name bore a uniqueness; each person joining the fraternity would be chalked on the beams and celebrated in silence and prayer. Each friar would contribute his own “this-ness” to the fraternal life – his haecceitas (to use a Scotistic term).

4. The Balance: Grapes and Fasting (Assisi Compilation, 50) – Calling themselves “Brothers of Penance,” these earliest friars embraced the life of conversion with a gusto and zeal that sometimes ran the danger of being excessive. Hunger was their welcome companion. One night, however, the silence was pierced by the cries of a brother, “I’m dying; I’m dying.” Francis told everyone to get up and he lit a lamp. The Brother who had cried identified himself, and explained, “I’m dying of hunger!” Francis, gently sensitive to the brother, and not wanting him to be embarrassed, had the table set and served grapes to everyone. The gentle father of the fraternity admonished that we must practice balance in our lives, that we must be respectful of our own bodily constitutions, that virtue lies in the middle between excessive indulgence and excessive abstinence. Moderation and charity are the watchwords.

5. The Flies: Upsets and Challenges (Mirror of Perfection, 24) – All was not hunky dory in the growing fraternity of Rivotorto. Now and again a dodgy character would try to insinuate his way into the community of brothers – the proverbial fly in the ointment. Francis did not hesitate to dismiss one of the chancers who refused to work, pray, and display charity towards his mates. “Away with you, Brother Fly!” Francis inveighed. Ironically, our poor friars on this Solemn Vow retreat have been plagued by the summer flies and mosquitoes. As they swat them away, they endeavor to see them as symbols of all the vices that we need to banish from the authentic living of the charism.

6. The Poor: Solidarity and Joy (Assisi Compilation, 92) – The first two friars occupying Rivotorto with Francis were Bernard of Quintavalle and Peter of Catanii. It was from Rivotorto one day that Francis took the two to the Church of San Nicolo, where Francis opened the Missal three times to find the gospel passages about poverty, which would become the core of the Friars’ Rule of Life. The third vocation to join the brotherhood at Rivotorto would be Giles. Dressed for a bit in secular clothes, postulant Giles soon encountered a poor man shivering in the winter cold. Francis told Giles to give his secular mantle to the poor creature. Without hesitancy, Giles did so and immediately experienced, as did all of the brothers, an overwhelming joy. Nearby the Protoconvent of Rivotorto was the leper campsite where the brothers ministered. The apostolic works of the early friars established a bond of solidarity with the poor which became foundational to the Franciscan charism. The poor taught the friars how to be joyful.

7. The Chariot: Supernatural Communion (LM, Prologue & 4) – Just as the Transfiguration of Jesus confirmed for the early Apostles the supernatural reality of their lives with Christ, so too the brothers of Rivotorto would experience a similar moment of epiphany. One night, while Francis was away from Rivotorto, at prayer in the Cathedral precincts of the city, his spirit appeared to the brothers in the form of a “Flaming Chariot.” The friars immediately understood that the “Chariot of Fire” was God’s sign to them that their new way of life was supernatural. Francis, enflamed with heavenly brilliance and transfigured with divine grace, would unite the brethren in a new supernatural communion with God and one another. Bonaventure would reference this image of Francis as the new Elijah, whom God had made both chariot and charioteer of a new movement in the Church. For the early 13th-century formation community of Rivotorto, this epiphany moment brought with it the simple realization that the Spirit of the Lord had come to rest upon Francis and the Friars. Their squalid donkey shed had been transformed into the “Sacro Tugurio” (sacred hut).

The Franciscan Charism of Sanctification of the Intellect, with due diligence in the study of our faith, is uncommonly evident throughout many of our ministries. Franciscan Friars Conventual (OFM Conv.) are known for scholarship and study for the sake of evangelization; the spread of the Gospel in all aspects of the life of society. Our friars work with parish elementary schools, high school youth ministry and instruction, as well as young adult ministry and instruction at the university level; all with the ever present exploration of individual continued education.  Through our ministries, our friars strive to portray Franciscan Charism, not only during instruction, but through our daily example. Friars working as instructors do not only teach in religious and philosophical areas, but also in fields such as Nursing, Foreign Language and English.
This summer, Friar Douglas McMillan, OFM Conv. was awarded the 2015 St. Frances Academy Teacher of the Year Award for outstanding instructional leadership. Vice Principal and 1992 graduate of St. Francis Academy, Torena Brown, calls Friar Douglas “a great asset to the St. Frances Academy faculty,” and states, “His wealth of experience as an educator has helped  him become an excellent teacher. We are so grateful to have him as a part of our family.”

Congratulations to Friar Douglas!

Please keep all of our friars’ ministries in your continued prayers.