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Thursday, February 27, 2014

On the Stoop: Reviewing Summer Joys

Like a candy bar, king-size of course, I share the love of God with a neighbor girl, her twin sister and their friend.  I divide it into fourths—more like thirds and a bit.  I take the bit because it's good to eat with your guests and leave them the fuller share because their eager grins and needful eyes demand it.  We sit on the stoop shoulder to shoulder to shoulder to torso and devour the chocolate treat.  Passing us by in the street, teenagers are deaf to my greetings, blind to the girls giggling, dumb to any offer of a candy bar.  But the girls can't sit still for long and they're up bouncing around like spinning tops asking about the scar on my head or the hair on my arms or my habit—why you dress like that?  Is you really a father?  Do you have any soder to drink?  They carry with them an innocence, a joyfulness that I know will flee from them in a few years when I, seated with another set of kids, will watch them pass us by too cool to talk to the monk, but that can’t stop me from grabbing the soder and some plastic cups.


The girls will come back tomorrow and the next day and the day following that, and I know that one of these days one of them will take the candy bar, and instead of devouring it thoughtlessly, she will put it in her pocket, take it home and cherish it later.  And that little bit of love, that memory, will always be one small string in her heart that Jesus will be able to pluck down the road as he wishes.

+ Br. Joseph Michael Fino, CFR
Paterson, NJ
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Tuesday, February 25, 2014

How Do You Get Close To Christ




Homily video by Fr. James Atkins, CFR,
at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in NYC.
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Friday, February 21, 2014

How Do I Know God?

There is a topic in Philosophy known as Epistemology, the study of knowledge. How do we know what we know? Yes, you can spend an entire semester delving into this question. Experience is one way we come to know things. Phenomenology is a branch of Philosophy which considers experiences, phenomenon (this is a simplification). Are you still with me?

How do I know God? When it comes to the content of faith, we can know God in two ways - and these two ways are related to each other. Firstly, there is the content of revelation, what God has revealed. Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition as interpreted by the Church is how we access this knowledge of God. We could call this knowing about God. Here I would like to point out that knowing about God and knowing God are two distinct things. Secondly, having an experience of God in your life is a way to know Him. Experience has an important role in faith. The Bible is a written testimony of things seen, heard and experienced.

So this is where I am going with these ramblings: In our faith we are told that God is a loving and providing Father. Do you know this from your experience? Can you call to mind a situation when you knew that God was a loving Father? When I hear confessions, sometimes I will give a penance I call "A Rosary of Gratitude." Take up a regular rosary and on each bead call to mind something good in your life. Each bead becomes a moment to affirm and give thanks for knowing our loving Father God.

+ Fr. Luke Mary Fletcher, CFR
Yonkers, NY
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Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Punctuated Silence

My heart longs for silence—not always; let's not get crazy.  But in my more romantic days, it wants to be alone with quiet, to leave the crowed place for the silent.

Now be careful not to confuse silence for loneliness, because I've learned that the quiet heart loves one thing only: company, and with company comes (usually) sound.  Strange, right?  But it can't be an articulate sound like voiced speech.  It must be something more like the low rumble of fire over wood, the thud of gathered snow falling from a branch, the tweet of a bird or even the beat of another heart, tears dropping on a shoulder—a whimper, or perhaps soft-spoken and giggled laughter.  You see silence isn't an end but a means (and certainly not a means to isolation as may often be thought).  It is a means of heightening one's sensitivity to sound and its revealed company.  Thus silence becomes a means to community.

Let's go a step further because the silence-breaking sound most adored by the quiet heart is not heard with the ears of the head but those of the heart itself.  Even when the heart experiences the subtle beating of another heart in a quiet embrace there is still a boundary of flesh between them, but when it is the heart of the living God pressing itself upon the quiet heart, there is nothing to separate their communion.


We love silence because there we experience more fully the other's presence—be it in nature or person—but the greatest achievement of silence occurs when it is punctuated by the presence of the person of God.  This is the longing of every heart and the important role of silence.

+ Br. Joseph Michael Fino, CFR
Paterson, NJ
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Wednesday, February 12, 2014

A Scandal from the Beginning

The incarnation is a scandal.  The incarnation is messy.  God became man.  The Perfect One assumed imperfection.  The Immortal One died.  The Impassible One suffered.  The Unchangeable One submitted himself to change.  The All-Sufficient One had to eat and drink.  He who is the desire of all longed for his hour to come.  The source of all consolation wept, sweat blood, and cried out “my God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”  He who accepts all was rejected by his own.  The Faithful One was betrayed by his friend, abandoned by his disciples, and denied by his chosen successor.  The Eternal Judge of all was placed on trial and condemned.  The Omnipotent God collapsed in exhaustion.  Why?  Why this madness?
 
Because what Christ did not assume, he did not redeem.  To redeem the depths of our depravity the Lord Jesus had to stoop down to us and take it all upon himself.  Having assumed the whole of our humanity He redeemed it through His Cross and Resurrection.  Through Him humanity is transformed and restored to grace.  The end is beautiful, but the process is messy.  It was not a quick-fix.  In fact, it is still being worked out in each of our lives.
 
 
The Church is the continuation of the Incarnation, which is why it is called the “Mystical Body of Christ.”  The Church is the theater and locus in which we work out the drama of our redemption; the place where we receive the grace of salvation by becoming more and more conformed to Christ.  But, just like the Incarnation, it is messy.  The heavenly Jerusalem, the perfection of the Church, is spotless, without stain or wrinkle, but here on earth she is far from immaculate.  In fact, the her sins (which are our sins) often seem to efface her beauty; her sufferings (our sufferings) seem to out weigh her joys; her (our) defeats seem more numerous than her victories.  In this, she resembles Christ who, although he did not sin, bore the disfigurement of sin.  He suffered unjustly, died, and was “defeated.”  But his defeat was the greatest victory, the definitive triumph of good over evil.  His sorrows gave birth to the greatest of joys.
 
Thus, the sufferings and imperfections of Christ's Body on earth are not the end of the story.  Evil does not have the final word, because God's power is made perfect in weakness.  Sin is still sin, suffering is still suffering, weakness is still weakness, but if we unite it to the Cross then it is transformed into good.  Christ's darkest hour was actually the hour of his glorious victory.  The same can be true for us, his Mystical Body.
 
+ Br. Ignatius Pio Mariae, CFR
Bronx, NY
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Monday, February 10, 2014

New Video: A day in the life of the CFR friars in Texas

A day in the life of the CFR friars in Ft. Worth, TX

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Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Thoughts of an Extra-ordinary Eucharistic Minister

Each one comes like a snapshot before me: a moment of eternity paused where man and woman transcend this world and are pressed to the person of Jesus.  And somehow I share that with them, and I set myself to intercede or even just admire that moment when God Almighty stoops so low so as to scoop up and strengthen, uphold and adore, raise up and divinize the poor and helpless soul who may or may not fully know the truth of their encounter with the living God.  Each face bears every hope and every transgression laced beneath the eyes and tucked behind the ears.  And there is that half-second pause when each soul looks upon God, broken and risen, held aloft before a profound or apathetic or distracted gaze (whatever the case may be) when they speak the word amen.   And all the uncreated splendor of the Trinity leaps into their breast through their mouth breaching the soul and all its darkest corners that we try to hide sometimes even from Him; and we stand cleansed by communion.



I often wonder when I see your face, communicant, if you have any idea what’s about to happen.  I often wish I wondered in vain.

+ Br. Joseph Michael Fino, CFR
Paterson, NJ
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Monday, February 3, 2014

The Super Bowl and the Church

Yesterday in New York we were keenly aware of two events: the Super Bowl and the World Day for Consecrated Life (find the Pope's message here). While so many were buzzing around the New York metro area, some of our brothers renewed their vows for one year & some of our sisters became Postulants.

I was thinking about how many people had to work together to make the Super Bowl a reality - from the factory workers who sewed the uniforms to the people who are still cleaning up - there was a massive number of people involved, each doing their own particular part. Each team is composed of a variety of people: offense, defense, special squads, coaches, physical therapists, etc.


The Church is the same, from the Pope to the people in the pews, each person has a special place in God's plan. Those called to the consecrated life - priests, brothers & sisters - have a unique role in the Body of Christ. Saint Paul used the analogy of a body to express the reality of unity and diversity in the Church (see 1 Cor 12). The Church is made up of so many people who all work together in living and proclaiming the Gospel, the Kingdom of God. Blessed Pope John Paul II would often offer this piece of advice to various groups, "Be who you are!" I think that it is time to name and claim our place on God's team & unite for victory over the world, the flesh and the devil (I don't mean to imply that the Denver Broncos represent the enemy ;)


+ Fr. Luke Mary Fletcher, CFR
Yonkers, NY
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