St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Parish is here for you.  Sunday Mass is at 12:00 noon at St Francis of Assisi Independent Catholic Chapel: 195 Ridgewood Avenue Glen Ridge, NJ.  Please call the parish office to arrange for the sacraments and please join us at our weekly mass.

“So that none might be Lost.”

 

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time C
August 8, 2010

PRAYER:

Lord,
you tell us
to wait for your return.

Help us
watch for you. Let us
meet you in the Eucharist.
And look for you in the ones we love,
in strangers that we meet, and in all those in need.
Come into our work, into what we read and into our sleep.
We’ll watch for you within our laughter and tears,
within the deep inside of everything.
In the dusk, in the dark of night;
We wait for you
to knock.

MEDITATION:

Life’s Key Question
 
“You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come” (Lk 12:40).

Several years ago, at retreat, an elderly monk shared with me about the ups and downs of 50 years of monastic life. At the end of this he said to me: “Give me some hints on how I should prepare to die! What should I do to make myself more ready for death?”

The heaviness of such a question is enough to intimidate a person with spirituality deeper than my own, and when it’s asked by someone twice your age whose heart seems already deeply charitable, faith-filled, and wonderfully-mellowed through years of quiet prayer, then perhaps the best answer is silence. I wasn’t so naive as to offer him much by way of an answer, his trust in me notwithstanding.

But it’s a good question. How do we prepare to die? How do we live so that death does not catch us unaware? What do we do so that we don’t leave this world with too much unfinished business?

The first thing that needs to be said is that anything we do to prepare for death should not be morbid or be something that distances or separates us from life and each other. We don’t prepare for death by withdrawing from life. The opposite is true. What prepares us for death, anoints us for it, in Christ’s phrase, is a deeper, more intimate, fuller entry into life. We get ready for death by beginning to live our lives as we should have been living them all along. How do we do that?

John Shea once suggested that the kingdom of heaven is open to all who are willing to sit down with all. That’s a one-line caption for discipleship. In essence, the single condition for going to heaven is to have the kind of heart and the kind of openness that makes it possible for us to sit down with absolutely anyone and to share life and a table with him or her. It that is true, then the best way we can prepare to die is to begin to stretch our hearts to love ever wider and wider, to begin to love in a way that takes us beyond the natural narrowness and discrimination that exists within our hearts because of temperament, wound, timidity, ignorance, selfishness, race, gender, religion, circumstance, and our place in history.

We prepare to die by pushing ourselves to love less narrowly. In that sense, readying ourselves for death is really an ever-widening entry into life.

John Powell, in his book, Unconditional Love, tells the story of a young student who was dying of cancer. In the final stages of his illness, he came to see Powell and said something to this effect:

“Father, you once told us something in class that has made it easier for me to die young. You said: ‘There are only two potential tragedies in life, and dying young isn’t one of them. These are the two tragedies: If you go through life and don’t love and if you go through life and you don’t tell those whom you love that you love them.’

When the doctors told me that I my cancer was terminal, I realized how much I’ve been loved. I’ve been able to tell my family and others how much they mean to me. I’ve expressed love. People ask me: ‘What’s it like being 24 years old and dying?’ I tell them: ‘It’s not so bad. It beats being 50 years old and having no values!’”

We prepare ourselves for death by loving deeply and by expressing love, appreciation, and gratitude to each other. Jesus says as much. When the woman at Bethany poured an entire bottle of expensive ointment on his feet and dried his feet with her hair, he commented on her lavish expression of affection and gratitude by saying: “She has anointed me for my impending death.” What he meant should not be piously misinterpreted. He wasn’t saying: “Since I’m soon to die, let her waste this ointment!” He was saying rather: “When I come to die, it’s going to be easier because, at this moment, I truly taste life. It’s easier to die when one has been, even for a moment, fully alive.”

What makes it difficult for us to die, beyond all the congenital instincts inside of us that want us to live, is not so much fear of the afterlife or even fear that their might not be an afterlife. What makes it hard to die is that we have so much life yet to finish and we finish it by loving more deeply and expressing our love more freely.

Had that old monk cornered Jesus and asked him the same question he asked me, I suspect, Jesus might have said: “Prepare for death by living more fully now. Work at loving more deeply, less discriminately, more affectionately, and more gratefully. Tell those close to you that you love them and death will never catch you like a thief in the night.”
 
-Fr. Ron Rolheiser

Greetings and Peace!

Hello Everyone and Peace!

Thank you all for your commitment to the parish as evident by the great attendance at Mass these past several weeks, especially in the heat. I am humbled by your faithfulness. Thank you for your generosity to our parish.

You may have noticed that Anthony and Geety have different Sunday clothes; they were invested last week in the habit of our Order. The habit is and outward sign of Brother Anthony and Brother Geety’s desire to conform their lives to the Gospels. These two people from our parish have begun the Canonical novitiate, and for the next year they will be studying our Rule, and the Franciscan traditions with the goal of pronouncing the evangelical counsels, that is, their vows to follow the Gospel values of Obedience, Simplicity of Life, and Chastity or purity of heart. We as a parish are fortunate to have Geety and Anthony in our midst as a witness to the Gospel. Please pray for them.

Visit our parish website for some pictures of the clothing ceremony at stfrancisnj.org. Br. Geety is also uploading some pictures of his admission to Candidacy and some videos of the Chapter. There you may see pictures of two other people who have formally affiliated themselves with our Religious community as candidates; John Gallus from St. Jude’s parish in Bethlehem, and Fr. Michael Baremore of Texas.  The two founding members of our Secular Franciscans of Mercy are Estela and Oscar Reyes, who will add a international dimension to our community in Dubai and the Philippines. They will be our vocations resource and ambassadors for our community in the international community.

Last Sunday Br. Geety was admitted to Candidacy for Holy Orders. This is the Church’s recognition and permission of those seeking to serve God as a deacon or a priest, and generally follows the seminarians first year of theology. Br. Geety has completed two semesters at the Newark School of Theology, and will continue with some course work there while be enrolled in the American National Catholic Church’s seminary, St. John the Beloved. Br. Geety’s admission to Candidacy is supported by his parents, his Religious community, the Franciscan Community of Mercy and by us his parish family. Let’s continue to pray for God’s guidance as our parish gives witness to the love of Christ in the world.

As our parish continues to grow and discern God’s plan for us we become attractive to others who want to share in the joy of our journey. Fr. Michael Baremore, who was with us last Sunday from Texas, has prayfully discerned a two-fold call to join our Religious community, and to incardinate (canonical process whereby a priest or deacon is released from one jurisdiction and admitted another) as a priest in the American National Catholic Church. We joy in God at Fr. Michaels’ decision and are blessed with the many gifts and talents he brings to us. Fr. Michael has developed a program to the poor called “Vacations with a Mission”, this dedication to the poor will help us focus on our mission to God in the world. Fr. Michael has also made the decision to re-locate here to the Northeast, so we will be including him more in our efforts.

Br. Anthony and Geety have agreed to lead us in some parish activities such as, Movie Night discussions, the celebration of the Transitus on the night of October 3rd, a parish retreat day, and more liturgical functions.

During our Chapter last week the Community established the Secular Franciscans of Mercy with two members. This dimension of our community is open to all who feel that they have a call to follow Christ more closely in the Franciscan tradition. The SFM’s will follow an established Rule of Life and gather with us for regular retreat, days of reflection, and our community’s chapters. Fr. Jason Lody, FCM will be the Animator for the SFM. Please let me know if you are interested and I will put you in touch with Fr. Jason. Please join us it is truly a joyous way to follow Christ.

Jane, ToniMarie, Br. Anthony, Kathy, Br. Geety, Kathy, and Ally are organizing our parish involvement in the Jersey City Pride festival to be held on August 28, 2010 in Jersey City. Anyone interested in helping please let them know after Mass.

My sincere apologies for all the confusion about the Parish Council meeting and the Holy Groundz; I think my return from the retreat left me a bit disoriented. In any case, thank you for you patience. I think it is safe to schedule or parish council meeting for Tuesday Aug. 31 at 7:00 at the friary on 22 Mellon Ave. I know some of you will be away, and we can catch you up, but hopefully many of us will be home. If you are not able to be here, can you put something in writing and we can put it on the agenda? Please send your agenda items for the meeting to the parish council secretary, Br. Geety Reyes at geetyoscar@gmail.com. We can discuss the possibility of a day long parish council retreat at the meeting. We have a robust agenda and I know we will not get thought it all, yet I think we should begin. Some agenda items for the meeting are: ratifying our parish constitutions (sent out via e-mail), educational program of the parish, and the establishment of pastoral care committee, financial committee, development committee, liaison to Foundation House, liturgy committee, and outreach committee.

“If we knew from the beginning the difficulties we would have to cope with before we could bring something to a good end, would we have had the courage to begin the work? And even then we fail at times. Yes, we would have done it and do it again if we had faith and hope and strength of character. That is what faith and hope are all about: to do what we have to do, to go on even if we are working in the dark, for if we have faith we know we are not alone. God is with us, there is a promise and a future, and the dawn will come. In this Eucharist we ask the Lord to sit with us at table and to give us strength”.

Our parish is the “Cathedral” parish of the American National Catholic Church; a new non-Vatican jurisdiction within the Catholic Tradition, our jurisdiction has created a charitable arm called Foundation House. This charitable arm is in need of some definition of how we might incarnate Christ’s love in one of the corporal works of mercy. We have been exploring several ideas for example, a St. Francis Table model for a restaurant for the poor, a social gathering center for the homeless, transitional housing for the mentally ill, establishment of our own run away shelter, food co-operative, thrift store, involvement with Ecclesia. In order to do any of this we will need to plan and organize, and develop spiritual and financial support, etc. I think that the parish and our talents can play an important role in establishing the ministry of our Foundation House. Let’s pray about this as a parish and bring it to our parish council meeting.

Several members of our parish have agreed to provide pastoral care to skilled nursing facilities and hospitals where they live. This pastoral care will be enhanced by having the pastoral care ministry team admitted to service as Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist. There will be a liturgical training for all those who are interested after Mass on August 22 at 12:30 with the formal induction at our community Mass on Sunday Sept. 5th. Those who are interested are encouraged to purchase a pix (container for the Holy Eucharist) they can be purchased from Autom.com. Also please read the Guidelines for the Pastoral care of the Sick at:

http://www.rok.catholic.net.au/Policies/Guidelines%20for%20Pastoral%20Care%20of%20Sick%20and%20Frail.pdf

Please identify the facilities you would like to visit with the name, address, and telephone number of a contact person, so the parish can reach out to introduce you to them for service.

On September 19 at our Noon Mass we welcome all those couples who were married or going to be married back to St. Francis to celebrate and give witness to the love at the heart of our relationships. I hope many of you will join us. I often tell our parishioners about the couples who have asked me to witness their vows, and now it would be nice if the parishioners could put a face to a name, as it were. You will be getting an E-vitation soon and I hope you can join us.

Please Mark your Calendars:

August 11        7:00 P.M. Holy Groundz at Café Eclectic
August 15        12:00 Mass and Celebration of the Feast of the Assumption
August 22        Liturgical training for healthcare pastoral care team.
August 28        All Day: Parish Participation in Jersey City Pride.
August 29        12:00 Mass and parish brunch- Fr. Jason main celebrant.
August 31        7:00 P.M. Parish Council meeting at the friary.


Let us pray, with the fullest trust, to our kind and faithful God, and let us say:
R/ Lord, we place all our trust in you.

That the Church may bring the light of faith where there is darkness and indifference, hope where there is fatalism and despair, and love where there is hatred and strife, let us pray:
R/ Lord, we place all our trust in you.

That leaders, prophets, witnesses of faith, and all those whose task it is to keep hope alive toward a better world may be guided by the Holy Spirit, let us pray to the Lord:
R/ Lord, we place all our trust in you.

That those who are discouraged by trials, by their troubles and fears, may keep believing and hoping in a God who brings everything to a good end, let us pray:
R/ Lord, we place all our trust in you.

That all of us may grow in the certainty that our commitment to justice and love, and our dedicated service in everyday life are needed to make God’s promises come true, let us pray:
R/ Lord, we place all our trust in you.

That we may learn in our communities to share with one another what we have and to bear witness to our living hope, and thus prepare the return of the Lord, let us pray:
R/ Lord, we place all our trust in you.

Lord, we know that you love us and that you care for us. We trust in you, our living God for ever.
R/ Amen.

See you Sunday.

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Blessings,
Most Rev. Dr. George Lucey,  DD, FCM
Presiding Bishop of the American National Catholic Church

A parish community of the American National Catholic Church Jurisdiction