Steps toward opening Carrollton Hall on the property of our ministry of the Shrine of St. Anthony (Ellicott City, MD) to the wider public began in earnest in early spring of 2015. As part of the restoration of the building, on August 30, 2016 a replica of the original cupola was placed on roof. The original was used to help ventilate the building with access through the attic. The new one is also lighted – with the same access.
Our Lady of the Angels Province Friars: Minister Provincial – the Most Reverend Fr. James McCurry, OFM Conv. & Director of Carrollton Hall – Fr. Michael Heine, OFM Conv.
Note: In early December 2014, Maryland state officials announced that Carrollton Hall (12280 Folly Quarter Road, Ellicott City, MD 21042) was one of nine statewide recipients of historic preservation tax credits from a fund administered by the Maryland Historical Trust. The program began in 1996 as part of the Maryland Department of Planning and for several years has been made available to religious and other non-profit organizations. In January 2015, Carrollton Hall was officially entered into the National Register of Historic Places!
Friar Tim gets some help feeding the turtle from two of his smallest (and most adorable) parishioners.
St. Ann Roman Catholic Church shares a rich history with the city of Baltimore and a rich present with its sister parish of St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church (parish established on parish in 1872). They two parishes also share a pastor, in Our Lady of the Angels Province friar, Fr. Timothy Dore, OFM Conv.
St. Ann’s Church was erected because of a promise made by Captain William Kennedy, commander of The Wanderer, one of the most famous Baltimore clipper ships, when he was caught in a raging storm off the coast of Vera Cruz in 1833. He made of vow to God that they were able to return safely, he would build a church as a testament of gratitude. The story goes that the captain survived, gave up his life at sea and made good on his vow. In 1872, he and his wife bought the land and paid for the construction of a church, naming it Saint Ann; patron saint of sailors (According to French tradition, Mary Magdalene crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Marseilles, France to spread the word of Jesus’ death and resurrection. She is said to have brought St. Ann’s remains with her. The legend continues that St. Auspice buried Saint Ann’s body in a cave. When barbarians invaded, the cave was filled with debris and forgotten until it was dug out by minors six hundred years later during the reign of Charlemagne. Sailors and minors of France were very devoted to St. Ann. Their devotion spread throughout Europe and eventually to the New World.). The Captain and his wife are buried under the
The cornerstone was laid in 1873, the same year Captain Kennedy and Mrs. Kennedy died. Although neither of them lived to see the church completed, they are both buried under the main aisle of Saint Ann Church. They both died in 1873.
The Church was completed in 1874 and a school and convent were also added. In 1925 the anchor of The Wanderer was restored and placed in a stone cradle beside the cornerstone. The historic, cultural and architectural significance of this church is well documented in the church archives, and the Church of St. Ann’s continues to be a neighborhood landmark,home to a predominately African American welcoming faith community, the continues a rich history of mission in East Baltimore.
Blessed Mother Teresa of Kolkata (Calcutta) will be canonized on September 4, 2016. She was of Albanian decent, born on August 26, 1910 in Skopje (now called Mecedonia) and named Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. As a young missionary sister, she began her work in Calcutta in 1929. Her works of mercy earned her many honors including the 1971 Pope John XXIII Peace Prize, 1973 Templeton Prize for “Progress in Religion,” 1979 Nobel Peace Prize, 1983 Order of Merit (from Queen Elizabeth), 1987 Gold Medal of the Soviet Peace Committee and the 1997 United States Congressional Gold Medal. She founded her Missionaries of Charity in 1950 and her deep and unconditional love for the poor, at risk and abandoned of the city. This beloved saint of the gutter died September 5, 1997, at the age of 87.
On October 19, 2003, she was declared Blessed by St. Pope John Paul II. One of the faithful who will be in attendance at her canonization in Rome will be our Minister Provincial, the Very Reverend Fr. James McCurry, OFM Conv., who shared a unique friendship with Mother Teresa.
The following is an article written by Fr. James McCurry, OFM Conv. in honor of her beatification, with ecclesiastical approval of the Archdiocese of New York (September 5, 2003). Located online: published on September 8, 2004 by Fr. James McCurry, OFM Conv. in Marian Devotion where he also spoke on Militia Immaculatae which St. Maximilian saw capable of transforming the world.
Mother Teresa and the Miraculous Medal
Mother Teresa of Calcutta, renowned for the worldwide mission of charity that she began in 1946, used a simple “tool” as a symbol of that charity: the “Miraculous Medal.” A common sight it was to watch Mother take a fistful of such medals, kiss them, and hand them out to the poor. Queues of people would form outside her convents when word would spread that Mother Teresa had come to town. One by one she would welcome young and old, the sick and the needy, lay and clergy, the significant and the insignificant. Rarely would any leave without Mother pressing Miraculous Medals into their hands.
On her last visit to the South Bronx of New York in June 1997, sitting in a wheelchair less than three months before her death, Mother cradled a full basket of these medals on her lap. Her sisters kept refilling the basket as Mother gave sizeable quantities to each priest greeting her after Mass. Noteworthy was the reverence with which she handled these religious sacramentals, and the earnestness with which she suggested they be used as tools for spreading the Gospel message of love.
Why did Mother Teresa pass out Miraculous Medals? What are they? What connection do they have to the work of her sisters, the Missionaries of Charity (whom Mother affectionately called MCs)? Since Mother herself oversaw the yearly distribution of tens of thousands of Miraculous Medals in the final decade of her life, and since her MCs continue to circulate 1.8 million Miraculous Medals annually, a brief look at this phenomenon seems well indicated.
Eighty years before Mother was born, the Miraculous Medal had its origin. The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared on the 18th of July and on the 27th of November, in the year 1830, to a young Daughter of Charity, St. Catherine Labouré, on the Rue du Bac in Paris. Our Lady’s parting message to the visionary was that a medal be cast and distributed with a depiction of her Immaculate Conception on the front, and a tableau of Calvary on the back. Within ten years of the apparition—generally regarded as the beginning of the modern era of Marian phenomena—the medal became so widespread and popular, and occasioned such numerous healings and conversions, that people began calling it the “Miraculous Medal”—a nickname which continues to the present day. French missionaries spread the Medal and its miraculous reputation worldwide in the mid-19th century. In 1842, the conversion of the rabidly anti-Catholic agnostic Alphonse Ratisbonne through the use of a Miraculous Medal gained international celebrity. In the first half of the 20th century, the Conventual Franciscan Friar and later Martyr of Charity at Auschwitz, St. Maximilian Kolbe, championed the mass distribution of Miraculous Medals. St. Maximilian called the Medal: “our weapon with which to strike hearts” and “a bullet with which a faithful soldier hits the enemy, that is evil, and thus rescues souls.”
If St. Maximilian Kolbe can be considered the foremost advocate of the Miraculous Medal in the first half of the 20th century, a good case could be made to designate Mother Teresa the foremost champion of the Medal in the second half of the 20th century. She inherited the Kolbean insight that the Medal was an effective tool for evangelization—spreading the Gospel of Love. How does the Medal encapsulate the Gospel message of perfect charity? A look at the symbolism of the front and back of the Medal is like reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Lessons about Jesus Christ, His Church, the Redemption, the Eucharist, the Divine Mercy, Grace, Original Sin, Mary, Death, Judgement, Heaven, and Hell are all to be learned by studying the images impressed on the Medal.
The obverse (front) of the Miraculous Medal depicts the scene from the Book of Genesis 3:15, known as the Protoevangelium, the “first gospel,” where God prophesies that a Woman and her offspring will eventually crush the head of the ancient serpent, who had tricked Adam and Even into committing Original Sin. Standing atop the earth, with her foot on the crawling snake, Mary is depicted as the Immaculate Conception—a doctrine explained by the words of the prayer framing Our Lady in an oval: “O Mary conceived without sin pray for us who have recourse to thee.” Mary, the New Eve, the first of our human race to be freed from Original Sin (at the very instant she was conceived in her mother’s womb), offers us the graces from God to overcome the influences of evil that slime their way though our frail lives. These graces that she mediates from God to us are symbolized by the rays that come from her fingers. Notice that not all of her fingers have rays emanating. She explained to St. Catherine that the absent rays represent graces which God offers but we refuse. All in all, the front of the Miraculous Medal is a mini-catechism about the great struggle between good and evil that engages the human race—a struggle in which Mary stands out as first prize of the victory won by Christ and as our God-given Mother channeling to us the graces necessary to share in the same victory.
The reverse (back) of the Miraculous Medal depicts the scene from the Gospel of John 19:25-27, where the Cross of Jesus Christ, with Mary at its foot, stands uppermost in the mystery of Divine Charity—redemptive love without limits. Surrounded by an oval of 12 stars, symbolizing the 12 Tribes of Israel from the Old Testament and the 12 Apostles of the New Testament, the Cross on the Miraculous Medal represents hope—a hope which Mary understood and which Mother Teresa conveyed each time she pressed the Medal into the hands of the poor. At the base of the cross is a horizontal bar, and this is regarded as a symbol of the Altar; for it is on the Altar at Mass that the Sacrifice of Calvary continues to be present in the world of today and down through the ages. The initial M at the foot of the Cross and the Altar indicates the way in which Mary gathers the faithful to receive the graces of Redemption and partake of Holy Communion with her attitude of faith and stance of total consecration to Christ and His mission of charity.
Beneath the Marian monogram are the two hearts—the Sacred Heart of Jesus encircled with thorns and the Immaculate Heart of Mary pierced by a sword. The covenant of these two Hearts in the blood of suffering and sacrifice would ultimately become an alliance in glory. The glorified Jesus, ascended into Heaven, and the Immaculate Mary, assumed body and soul to the same abode, live now united in one eternally synchronized heartbeat of love for humanity—called to share someday in the fullness of life and love.
On the Cross, Jesus said to his beloved disciple (and to all of us until the end of time) “Behold your Mother” (Jn. 19:27). He then cried out “I thirst.” Mother Teresa did not fail to see the connection between those phrases. Jesus thirsted for His love to be received and spread. Mary on Calvary understood her Son’s thirst, received His love, returned his love, and spread it. The motto of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity is precisely “I thirst”—their mission to satisfy the thirst of Jesus as He cries out to them in the poorest of the poor—their goal to return Jesus’ love by their love the way Mary did. As simply as she could, Mother Teresa adopted the Miraculous Medal as a beautiful tool to symbolize the return of love for Love: Love is repaid by love alone.
Taking a Miraculous Medal in her gnarled and toil-worn fingers, Mother Teresa often would ask the sick person “Where does it hurt?”; then she would gently press the medal on that spot. “Let Our Lady kiss where it hurts,” she would be heard to say. Then she would tell the sick person: “Repeat after me: ‘Mary Mother, be a mother to me NOW.'” She would stress the word “now,” and repeat the phrase, as she caressed the sick with Our Lady’s medal. For Mother Teresa, this was a “medal of charity”—a sign of God’s single interest in each and every person at each and every moment “now” of life. She gave to the Miraculous Medal a new apostolic thrust, and refocused the Medal’s spirituality and theology through the prism of her holy mission of charity.
O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee, so that the thirst of Jesus might be satisfied, and His world become something beautiful for God, a kingdom of love, where you, O Mary Mother of Jesus, can be a mother to me and to all, now and forever. Amen.
Father James McCurry, O.F.M.Conv., is also the past-president of the Mariological Society of America, former National Director of the Militia Immaculata in the United States, a recognized Kolbean scholar, and Mariologist, as well as a published author and guest speaker who appears regularly on EWTN.
There are many special celebrations happening in honor of Mother Teresa’s September 4th Canonization, throughout our province. At one of our newest pastoral ministry locations, St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church, in Baltimore, MD, they will welcome Fr. Jack Lombardi who worked with Mother Teresa in India many years ago, to celebrate the 11:45 a.m. – September 4, 2016 Mass, at the site of the convent of the Missionaries of Charity, with refreshments to follow. The next weekend, Saturday, September 10, 2016, the canonization will be again celebrated as the Missionaries of Charity will host the 11:00 a.m. Mass to be celebrated by Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore. The sisters, invited clergy, friends and parishioners will celebrate the special Mass of Thanksgiving follwed by a luncheon and short film on the life of Mother Teresa. This event is open to all. Please call the sisters at Gift of Hope Cenvent (410-732-6056) for more information.
Our Lady of the Angels Province friar and Parochial Vicar of our pastoral ministry at Holy Cross Catholic Church (Atlanta, GA),
Fr. Abelardo Huanca Martinez, OFM Conv has become a citizen of the United States of America!!
Congratulations, Friar Abelardo!
Father of all, Look upon your servant Abelardo and help him to grow in Your love. Be pleased with his work and service. Bless our flag and let it always remind him of the principles for which it stands. Give Your peace to all, and help us to work together in harmony. We ask this through Christ, our Lord! Amen
Saturday, August 20, 2016: Three Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Assisi (wearing flower corsages) celebrated milestone anniversaries of their religious profession at a Mass of Thanksgiving at our pastoral ministry of Our Lady of the Cross Church, Holyoke, Massachusetts, where Our Lady of the Angels Province friar, Rev. Albert Scherer, OFM Conv. serves as pastor and Sr. Christine Mumbi, FMSA (a Franciscan Missionary Sister of Assisi) serves as Bookkeeper and in Ministry of Care. Bishop Mitchell Thomas Rozanski, of the Diocese of Springfield, (center top) was the Principal Celebrant, and the Very Reverend Fr. James McCurry, OFM Conv. (Minister Provincial of Our Lady of the Angels Province – pictured far left) was the Homilist. Included among the many diocesan clergy and friars from as far away as California, New Mexico, Chicago, Atlanta, New York, and Shamokin was Fr. Noel Danielewicz, OFM Conv. (Our Lady of the Angels Province friar serving at the Basilica of St. Stanislaus, Bishop & Martyr and as chaplain of the Franciscan Sisters of St. Felix of Cantalice in Enfield – pictured at far right). The three jubilarian sisters were: Sr. Clare Maione, FMSA (50 years), Sr. Claudia Kim, FMSA (25 years), and Sr. Sophia Lee, FMSA (25 years). The Superior General of the FMSA, Sr. Julianna, journeyed from Assisi, Italy,to participate in the festivities. A lively reception in the parish’s Pope St. John Paul II Social Center, followed the Liturgy.
On the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord (August 6, 2016) Friar Maximilian Mary Martin, OFM Conv., a friar of our Custody of Blessed Agnellus of Pisa in Great Britain/Ireland, was ordained to the Deaconate in his home Parish of Our Lady, Queen of Peace in Braintree, Essex. The Most Reverend Kevin McDonald, Archbishop Emeritus of Southwick, England presided. More information is available on the Custody’s website, along with even more pictures from the event. While you are there, take a moment to see the other news from Blessed Agnellus of Pisa Custody as well as a great overview of the ministry sites and history of our friars in England, Scotland and Ireland.
Please keep Friar Maximilian Mary and all of our friars in your continued prayers.
One of our pastoral ministries has a very unique yearly tradition. On the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary parishioners from Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church (Seaside Heights, NJ) process from the church to the beach, carrying a statue of the Blessed Mother to the boardwalk, in order to bless the ocean. This blessing is in honor of Our Lady and is continued each year to bless all those who use, work on, swim in or visit the ocean. This year, the event began at Mass concelebrated by Fr. Bartholomew Karwacki, OFM Conv. (pastor), Fr. Terence Pescatore, OFM Conv. and Fr. Emmett Carroll, OFM Conv. After Mass, some men of the parish lifted the statue covered in the stipends of the faithful and led a large procession of parishioners on Grant Avenue and down the Boardwalk where Friar Bart stopped for the Blessing.
The following excerpt is from the reflection and homily delivered by Our Lady of the Angels Province Minister Provincial, the Very Reverend Fr. James McCurry, OFM Conv., at the August 15, 2016 Solemn Profession of Vows of Friar Emanuel Vasconcelos, OFM Conv. (left) and Friar Maximilian Avila, OFM Conv. (right) in the Chapel of our ministry of the Shrine of St. Anthony, in Ellicott City, MD:
The Franciscan movement began in Assisi, Italy over 800 years ago, when St. Francis founded our Order – the same Order of penitent “lesser brothers” in which Friars Max and Manny today will be solemnly professing their vows. Last month Max and Manny joined several other “Friars Minor” from the Order’s various branches (Conventual, Observant, and Capuchin) for a month…, centered in Assisi and the other Italian sites of our Franciscan charism. I had the privilege of conducting the final week … at Rivo Torto, the first friary (“proto-convent”) of the Order.
While in Assisi, (they) spent a good bit of time inside the great Basilica of St. Francis… Surrounding the tomb of St. Francis are four niches holding the mortal remains of four early friars – Leo, Giles, Angelo, and Masseo – who were among his dearest and closest followers. One floor above the sacred crypt is the Lower Basilica, well reputed for its frescos by Cimabue, Giotto, Lorenzetti, and Martini. My favorite pastime in Assisi is to pray in that Lower Basilica underneath the Giotto frescoes on the vaulted ceiling depicting in allegory the three vows (which Max and Manny are about to profess perpetually). There is one particular spot beneath the vow allegories where I most often position myself. It faces the side wall graced by Cimabue’s brilliant fresco showing Our Lady of the Angels, patroness of our Province. Standing ever so humbly in the Cimabue fresco is poor little St. Francis himself, diminutive beside our Lady, Her Son Jesus, and all the Angels. Based on a real-life description, his face is so un-comely that only a mother could love it.
Directly beneath the homely Francis, is an intriguing grate covering five more entombed friars – another group of Francis’s early followers. Three years ago, during our Order’s General Chapter, those old bones in Assisi were really rattling – not because of an earthquake, but because they had been exhumed from the alcove niche where for nearly eight centuries they had peacefully reposed beneath Cimabue’s famous fresco. The names of these five friars were: Bernard of Quintavalle, Sylvester, William of England, Electus of Assisi, and Valentine of Narni. Once exhumed, these bones of the close companions of Francis were recognized, honored, preserved, displayed, and venerated. During their (time in Assisi, Friars) Max and Manny prayed in front of those old bones.
Today we add the names “Maximilian” and “Emanuel” to the elenchus of names like Bernard of Quintavalle, Sylvester, William of England, Electus of Assisi, Valentine of Narni, Leo, Giles, Angelo, Masseo, and thousands upon thousands of other Franciscan Friars who have professed Solemn Vows through the centuries. Today… we add the names of our two young (friars) to the (list) of hundreds who have actually professed vows in this very chapel (Shrine of St. Anthony) during the past 90 years. Today we reflect with Max and Manny about the earliest friar-followers of Saint Francis and their successors. Today we pause to think on what it means – not just to be a follower of Saint Francis, not just a subject, and not just what it means to be a brother of Saint Francis. We reflect on what it means to be, like those earliest lads of Assisi, privileged “companions” of Saint Francis. The early “companions” of Francis were his most intimate associates and deepest of friends on a common journey of Gospel life. Today, our Max and Manny are professing before God their desire to walk as companion-friends of Francis on the same Gospel journey.
No two friars are alike. Max and Manny are as different as chalk and cheese. Max with his famous tattoo “Made in Honduras” brings to the Gospel life his vibrant, ebullient, joyful, hyperactive, and ever generous spirit. Manny, with his kind, cheerful, inviting personality, and beautiful singing voice, helps us experience anew the voice of Francis “troubadour of the Lord.” Their “companionship” with Francis enriches our whole Franciscan community.
Today they are professing to live for the rest of their lives “in obedience, without anything of their own, and in chastity. Their three vows mean that these friars want to belong totally to God as poor, chaste, obedient men for others. To be obedient means they want to live with unveiled minds – focused on God’s will, not their own. To be poor means they want to live with unclenched hands – not grasping for belongings, but belonging to God. To be chaste means they want to live with undivided hearts – loving God all inclusively. Max and Manny, we are all here today to support you, dear brothers, in your humble and noble Franciscan calling…
… So, dear Max and Manny – Your Franciscan hearts are bursting right now with love for Jesus. Your hearts mirror the consecrated heart of our Founder – your humble, little, companion-friend Francis of Assisi … Jesus’s Mother Mary lived as our Lord’s humble companion. She too knew the life of humble companionship with God. Now assumed into heaven, she enjoys that companionship for eternity. Our Lady inspired Francis to found an Order of humble itinerants – companions and friends of Jesus, Francis, and the poor of the world. May she inspire the both of you to keep your holy vocations ever humble and ever joyful, in companionship with Jesus, Francis, our community, and the poor of the world. For the glory of God – we celebrate with you today. May God bless you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
