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.

The Wearin' of the Brown!

When Galen Osby, from Howards Grove, WI decided to embark upon the journey of becoming a Franciscan friar, he probably didn't guess the various challenges that lay ahead. He had an unusual postulancy program (the first year when a candidates begins to explore, or "postulate", becoming a friar minor), mostly because he was the only one!

Galen Osby as a postulant to the Franciscan Friars (OFM) of the Assumption BVM Province.

After his varied experiences and ventures -- from Milwaukee, WI to McAllen, TX to Greenwood, MS and then to our senior friar residence of Queen of Peace Friary in Burlington, WI, Galen "took up his cross daily" to follow the Lord Jesus and encountered several surprises along the way.




Last May 2008 Galen applied to and was accepted to be received into the novitiate, when a man entering our brotherhood becomes a novice, or "new man". It is what St. Francis of Assisi calls in our Rule, the "year of probation", or a time of testing. The novice is tested by life in the fraternity to help in the discernment if this is the right life for him; the novice tests the community to ascertain if this is the correct community or way of life for him. That information can be found in a previous blog.




This past 26 September 2008 Galen and his classmates were invested in the "habit of penance", the brown habit of the Franciscan Friars of the Order of Friars Minor (OFM). It consists of a long tunic, a brown habit, or "capuche" and a woolen cord. Novices have no knots in their cords -- that is reserved for their first profession when they make temporary vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.



Bro. Galen Osby, OFM, novice and newly invested with the habit of penance, the Franciscan habit, at San Damiano Friary, Cedar Lake, IN


The novitiate is located in Cedar Lake, IN, south of Hammond and about one hour or so southeast of Chicago, IL. The Assumption BVM Province hosts the novitiate and shares its leadership and membership with two other provinces, Sacred Heart Province (headquartered in St. Louis, MO) and St. John the Baptist Province (headquartered in Cincinnati, OH).



The team for the novitiate is Fr. John Stein, OFM (SJB Province), Fr. Larry Nickels, OFM (SH Province) and Fr. Camillus Janas, OFM (ABVM Province). Fr. John is the Novice Director, Fr. Larry is assistant and Fr. Camillus is the Guardian (local superior).

You might ask, "Why 26 September?" In the calendar of the Catholic Church of the Roman Rite, 26 September is the memorial of the holy brother and doctor martyrs, SS. Cosmas and Damian. It was at the chapel in honor of St. Damian (in Italian, San Damiano) that Francis of Assisi heard the Lord's call to him, "Francis, go repair my Church, which you see is falling into ruins!" And, the house of the novitiate is called San Damiano Friary. So, it's their friary's patron saint's day!

Fr. Camillus Janas, OFM, Guardian of San Damiano Friary (Novitiate) and Bro. Galen Osby, OFM, newly investied novice

Welcome to Lent 2008! It's More than "Giving Up"

"Have mercy on me, O God, according to your goodness; in your abundant compassion blot out my offense." Psalm 51:3 (The "Miserere" Psalm)


How many of us plan to "give things up" for Lent? Maybe we've been thinking about chocolate, or soda pop, or snacks between meals. Maybe we've thought it's a good time to actually fulfill those New Year's resolutions we were so determined to do on 31 December!


However, it seems to me, this misses the point of Lent. Lent is the time the entire Church -- East and West, Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox (although on a different calendar) -- journey together prayerfully toward the great celebration of the Lord Jesus' Paschal Mystery. It all aims toward the Sacred Triduum (Three Days) of the end of Holy Week toward Easter.

The Roman, or Western, Tradition solemnly begins Lent on Ash Wednesday with the marking of ashes on the forehead or sprinkling ashes on the top of the head (as is done in parts of Europe). The Byzantine Tradition begins on the evening of Cheese-Fare Sunday (this past Sunday) with Forgiveness Vespers, a penitential ceremony at the end of which the priest and congregation mutually ask forgiveness of one another and embrace one another in peace.


It is the time of the Great Fast, a time to refrain from regular life and to purposely prepare to deepen one's relationship with the Lord together with the entire Church. What a great retreat -- and we get to do it together with all our brother and sister Christians around the world! Praise God!


But, as I stated above, it's more than "giving up" something. It really is a matter of growing in Christian maturity, letting Jesus Christ genuinely be who he says he is in our lives. He is Lord, he is Savior, he is Master, he is the Good Shepherd, he is Son of God, he is Bread of Life, he is Resurrection and Life, he is the Way, the Truth and the Life -- and the list, of course, goes on.


So Lent is not a matter of taking advantage of a church time to lose weight, or exercise, or other such practices about us. It's about focusing on the Lord Jesus.


This is what St. Francis of Assisi and St. Clare of Assisi both understood intuitvely and practiced. The earliest Franciscans were known as the "Penitents of Assisi". Penance was a popular devotion in the Middle Ages, even into the Modern age. Some of the physical rigors we would consider odd or even bizarre today.

But the overall purpose of the penance that Sts. Francis and Clare practiced was to turn their minds and hearts to the Lord. That's the purpose of Franciscan penance; that is the purpose of Christian penance! It is to deliberately rid ourselves of unnecessary distractions (TV? ipods?), that which can separate us from the Lord, at least for the period of this retreat of forty days. And it is to face the temptations in our lives, by God's grace, and know the victorious power of the Lord's love over them. Even when we fail!

St. Francis of Assisi, as a young man, praying before the San Damiano Crucifix: "Lord, who are you . . .? And, who am I . . .?" His prayer in this run down chapel was pivotal in his conversion to the Lord. This was where he heard the Lord Jesus speak to him from the Cross and say, "Francis, go repair my Church, which you see is falling into ruin!"

As we turn to the Lord we are changed! The fruit of the Spirit (cf. Gal. 5:22-23) become more evident in our lives. The image of the Lord Jesus becomes more manifest and visible in our attitudes, our ways of speaking, our ways of acting and interacting.

This was what was so attractive about St. Francis and the Francisans, both men and women. Although quite imperfect, they were willing to grow in holiness as men and women of penance. It is about becoming conformed to the Lord Jesus.

In a word, we are undergoing conversion! Conversion from our selfishness to the Lord's own selflessness through acts of generosity and almsgiving (outreach to the poor); from self-preocupation to concern about what the Lord wants for us through self-abnegation (fasting); from vanity and self-absorption to deeper love of God and neighbor through prayer.

The Poverello of Assisi: St. Francis and his feastday, 4 October 2007

Most High, glorious God,

bring light to the darkness of my heart

and give me true faith, certain hope and perfect charity,

sense and knowledge, Lord,

that I might carry out your holy and true command.

Amen.

St. Francis composed this simple prayer apparently early on in conversion experience. He would pray this before the Crucifix of San Damiano on the hill outside of the city of Assisi. San Damiano was a hostel for pilgrims en route to Rome, but had fallen into disrepair from neglect. It was before this Crucifix that Francis heard the Lord Jesus speak to him and say, "Francis, go repair my Church which you see is falling into ruins!"

Francis initiated his church-rebuilding campaign shortly afterward, thinking originally that it was to this chapel and a couple others that he was called to physically renew and repair. However, it wasn't till later on, as he reviewed his life, that he realized that the Lord had called him to a renewal of the People of God, not just stone and mortar!

Above I used the word "conversion" -- what was that all about? Francis (Giovanni Baptista Bernardone) was reared in a Catholic household, the elder son of the Bernardone family. He was known to be generous to the poor; he was also known to be lavishly generous to his friends for parties! So, you can imagine that he was popular.

But after his excursion into warfare (Assisi v. Perugia -- Perugia won), he became a prisoner of war in the dungeons of Perugia, where he apparently contracted a form of tuberculosis and nearly died. After being ransomed from the prison by his father, Pietro, Francis returned to Assisi a changed man. He tried another venture in warfare, but turned back after a disturbing dream. He began to reconsider the direction of his life. That is when we began going to San Damiano to pray before the Crucifix, alone in a lonely place -- to confront his inner self and to meet the Lord. Such is the stuff of discernment.

It was out of this interior struggle and encounter that eventually led Francis to renounce the world and to become the poor man, the poverello of Assisi, a "fool for Christ", who wanted to live for Jesus alone. And so he embarked on the greatest adventure a human being can do -- to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Crucifix of San Damiano

"Francis, go repair my Church which you see is falling into ruins."