How's Your Lent?

A lot of times folks who are serious about engaging Lent find themselves in a real struggle. If they thought that the works of prayer, fasting and almsgiving would be easy, or, if they thought that it might be a good opportunity to practice some kind of pious "diet", I find they are often very mistaken!

Judean wilderness, between Jerusalem and Jericho, near where the Gospels (Matthew & Luke) report Jesus fasting and praying for forty days and having been tempted by the devil.

Lent is a REAL struggle! And it is supposed to be! That's the blessing, though. Not that we are fasting more or praying more or even more generous in our almsgiving. No, rather, that we are allowing the Spirit of God to move through us and to change us more and more into the glorioius image of Jesus Christ!

That is why, on the first Sunday of Lent, in each of the cycles of readings (A, B and C), we find Jesus, just after having had the exhilirating experience of his Baptism in the River Jordan, going up into the desert to pray and to fast, and to struggle.

We know that the desert is the primoridal image in the Old Testament. The Book of Exodus tells us stories of the Israelites fleeing the Egyptians which then leads them into the Sinai Desert where they wander for forty years. It is where God gives Israel the Torah at the hands of Moses the Lawgiver. The Prophet Hosea depicts God affectionately recalling the desert for the People of God as the holy place of their formation as a people belonging uniquely to God!

Like the desert of the first covenant, the desert of our Lent is a crucible in which we are re-formed as God's holy People. We prayerfully accompany those who are preparing for the Sacraments of Christian Initiation (Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Eucharist). We stand together in solidarity with all penitents as we celebrate the Sacrament of Reconicilation, especially favorable during Lent.

The Prophet Moses bringing the Tablets of the Commandments to the Children of Israel from Mount Sinai.

As Franciscan friars, we have donned the "habit of penance", as our holy founder, St. Francis of Assisi, called it. We do so not out of a sense of guilt but rather in the spirit of confident assurance of God's Word which extends mercy "for ever" and "to the thousandth generation to those who fear the LORD."

Our vocation, first as Christians and lived out as friars minor ("lesser brothers") is one of trust in the Lord Jesus. We seek to be in the fire of the crucible of the Lent to be transformed by the hot fire of God's grace into the image of his glorious Son (cf. 2 Corinthians 3:18).

Perhaps the challenges of Lent 2009 have involved famiily disputes, or loss of employment or some other significant financial loss, or the loss of a friendship, or the visit of death to a loved ones. All these can be such difficult situations for us and for those whom we love and care.

Maybe it's time, then, to take stock of our Lent. Have we been looking at our Lenten penance superficially or more deeply as growing into Jesus. Maybe standing in prayer with and for those who are struggling -- in Darfur, in the Middle East, in central Africa, in our own cities and towns -- and who are suffering -- maybe this is the kind of penance (or, better, conversion!) the Lord is calling us to as our Lenten journey is drawing to a close next week. Maybe we can review the First Reading from the Friday after Ash Wednesday, Isaiah 58:1-9 and do a "check-in" with the Lord as to how we are responding to this "great season of grace" (Preface II of Lent).

Franciscan Friars Gather to Prepare for the Order's 800th Anniversary

The Franciscan family around the world is gearing up to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the Rule of St. Francis of Assisi this coming 16 April 2009. That's the traditional date given for the vows of our holy founder in 1209 before Pope Innocent III at the St. John Lateran Cathedral in Rome.



San Damiano outside the walls of the city of Assisi where St. Francis heard the Lord Jesus call him to repair his home.



Members of the various American provinces of the Order of Friars Minor have gathered in Las Cruces, NM at Holy Cross Retreat Center for a week-long retreat being given by Fr. Michael Blastic, OFM of Holy Name Province in New York City.







The US provinces represented are Our Lady of Guadalupe (Albuquerque, NM), the hosting province, Sacred Heart (St. Louis, MO), Holy Name Province (as above), the Commissariat of the Holy Land (Washington, DC), St. John the Baptist Province (Cincinnati, OH), St. Barbara Province (Oakland, CA) and my province of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Franklin, WI). There's also a friar from the St. Mary of the Angels Province in Krakow, Poland who is studying in Washington, DC!



It's a good refresher for all of us Franciscan friars, both young and old, veterans and newly professed friars to consider their respective vocations as friars minor ("lesser brothers"). Fr. Michael Blastic recommended and provided gratis for the friars a relatively small book called, A Study of the Rule of 1223: History, Exegesis and Reflection. It is published by the Holy Name Province of Franciscan Friars.



The San Damiano Cross (now housed in the Basilica of Santa Chiara within the City of Assisi), about six feet tall, which spoke to St. Francis of Assisi calling him to repair his house.

It's been a good reflection, as I stated above, to consider our vocation -- our call from the Lord to be lesser brothers in a viiolent world fraught with greed. Fr. Michael has been juxtaposing the reality of 13th century Assisi with our own reality of early 21st century USA. Lots of similarities! Human life deals with the same or at least similar realities and challenges.

Br. Jason Welle, OFM Runs 2008 Chicago Marathon

Beginning of Chicago Marathon 2008 on Sunday, 12 October in Grant Park

by Bro. Jason Welle, OFM

Bro. Jason recently professed solemn vows as a friar minor on the Solemnity of the Assumption, 15 August, in the parish church of Pulaski, WI, Assumption BVM. He is current ly a student at Catholic Theological Union (CTU) in Chicago

On October 12th, I joined 33,000 other athletes for the 2008 Chicago Marathon, the fourth marathon I have run as a Franciscan friar. Doing a marathon a year is quickly becoming a tradition for my younger brother Scott and I; we have run four together, shoulder to shoulder, start to finish. This year, we completed the 26.2 mile course through twenty-nine Chicago neighborhoods in 3:45.

Chicago Marathoners running through the streets of the City of Chicago, Sunday 12 October 2008

The unusually hot weather slowed down the field on this flat, fast course which starts and ends in Grant Park. Runners weave through the downtown Loop three times total, after jaunts as far north as Lincoln Park and as far south as U.S. Cellular field.

Great crowds in areas like Pilsen and Chinatown lift the runners’ energy, as do playful signs encouraging us that “Oprah did it, you can too!” and to “find your inner Kenyan.” Running for charity also gave me a boost. For the second time, I ran on behalf of St. Coletta’s of Illinois Foundation, an organization founded by Franciscan Sisters to work with developmentally-disabled children and adults.

I think I’m a little different than many of last Sunday’s fitness gurus. I own neither an i-pod nor an mp3 player. When I train, I usually don’t even wear a watch. I just go out and run, to breathe fresh air and immerse myself in the world around me. I’m often struck by how many people ceaselessly try to escape from their surroundings, hiding behind a cell phone, headphones, a newspaper, or any other means they can find to insulate themselves from the world. I find the true value of aerobic exercise in re-connecting with the world, attentively looking at the trees, listening to the birds, and becoming more conscious of how I interact with it all, through my steps, my heartbeat, my breathing, etc.

Our house of studies is just two blocks from Lake Michigan, so I do most of my training out on the lakefront running/cycling trail, where many Chicagoans come for a bit of peace. Getting out into this world for a time clears my head and refreshes me for our other daily tasks: prayer, housework, ministry at different sites around Chicago, and the perennial tasks of reading and paper-writing that mark a house of studies. In time, I have come to see running as a form of prayer, because it renews me, leaves me in better touch with who I am, and better able to face the challenges of each day.

Of course, running a marathon is a quite different from a daily jog by the lake…and I wouldn’t continue to do it if these rather painful days hadn’t taught me an additional, different lesson about myself. People often tell me that they’re impressed with the determination it takes to complete a marathon, that they don’t think they could do it themselves.

It obviously does require discipline, building up one’s mileage over the course of months to prepare oneself for race day. But honestly, running three marathons in Chicago and one in Austin, Texas, has taught me more about relaxing my discipline than how to build it up.

Many people, especially endurance athletes, seek out new and bigger challenges for the sake of having a new challenge, and can’t live with themselves if they fail to complete these challenges, to meet their self-imposed goals. I hear many runners say with pride that they couldn’t imagine not finishing the race. No matter what happens, they have to finish. Marathoning has taught me that my goals for myself are not God’s goals for me. If I miss my goal time or drop out, God still loves me. That might seem obvious, but the way we often fixate on our goals in school, in work, in athletics, in our finances, or other things demonstrates that many people don’t internalize it.

I entered Sunday’s race intending to finish but knowing that if I failed to, God and my ego could accept it. This gave me the freedom to run hard, to do the best I could, and enjoy the race for the graced moment that it was. Even though we ran our best (I’m still rather stiff and sore…), this was the first race when Scott and I missed our goal time, and that was fine on a very hot Sunday morning.

Right: An obviously relieved and rejoicing Bro. Jason after having completed the 2008 Chicago Marathon -- "thumbs up!"

Left: Bro. Jason (R) with his brother, Scott, after having ocmpleted the 2008 Chicago Marathon!

We did what was ours to do, we ran the good race, and we did it together. And God willing, we’ll probably do it again somewhere next year!

Dear Jason Welle, Congratulations from Bank of America for finishing the2008 Bank of AmericaChicago Marathon! Your recorded finish time was3:45:43 and you placed 3925out of 31,401 finishers.