Good Versus Bad

One of the biggest themes in most Superhero movies is the battle between good and evil. What a great and important theme. In terms of bad news, it has been quite a summer. Does evil have the upper hand? It sure feels like it sometimes.


While stuck in traffic on the New Jersey Parkway (parking lot more like it), I was listening to a discussion on the radio. The host made a reference to a recent study. Allegedly they found that for every bad situation, we require twenty-six good situations to achieve a mental balance. You may recall the old phrase, "One bad apple spoils the bunch."


The truth is that there is a battle between good and evil happening on planet Earth. The reality is that there is a tremendous amount of good happening. If the news wanted to report all of the good things there would not be enough time, paper or gigabytes to cover it all!


What will we be doing in eternity? We will ponder and praise the workings of God's good grace in history - especially our own personal history. Goodness has the last word. The victory of the risen Jesus is permeating and echoing throughout the cosmos. Jesus rises! And now so can we no matter what.


God bless you,
Fr. Luke Mary Fletcher, CFR
Saint Joseph Friary
Harlem, NYC

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Letters of hope and consolation #9

Beneath every desire there is a greater desire that cannot be avoided; the desire for God.  It is often hidden and buried beneath a whole list of other seemingly important things.  If you simply lived your life without any reflection it would go unnoticed and you would enter the grave without ever realizing what your desires were trying to teach you.  Yet once you realize what you really desire is God all your other desires become signs pointing towards heaven.


What do you really desire in food, money, clothing, a spouse, a job, popularity or anything else that is in your heart at this moment?  These desires point to a fundamental need in our life for happiness, truth, acceptance, security and peace.  Each one of these desires, however, cannot satisfy our ultimate desire, which is for God.  After an expensive and delicious meal you are hungry again in a few hours.  After a raise at work you buy what the world has told you that you need and yet in a few days you are still restless with the urge to buy more and more.  After marrying who appears like the perfect spouse there is still a part of your heart that he seems unable to touch.

Are your desires misleading?  No, they are just trying to tell you that your need in life for happiness, truth, acceptance, security and peace can only be fulfilled by God.  Taking a vacation, enjoying a nice meal or receiving a raise at work are all good things.  The problem is when we look to those things to satisfy us or use them as ends instead of means to something or someone much greater.

The next time you desire a nice meal it will be because you are most likely hungry.  The next time you desire a vacation you are probably tired and deserve it.  But don’t be fooled!  There is something more, something much greater here in these desires.   Do not stop here in this world where your desires seem to end.  Follow them, for they will lead you to heaven, where all the things you once thought you really desired will disappear and you will stand face to face with the One who was hidden behind all these other things.  When that day comes you will not be disappointed.  Your desires will finally be fulfilled!



God bless you,
Fr. Jeremiah Myriam Shryock, CFR
St. Felix Friary, Yonkers, NY

Letters of hope and consolation #8

Letters of hope and consolation #7

Letters of hope and consolation #6

Letters of hope and consolation #5

Letters of hope and consolation #4

Letters of hope and consolation #3

Letters of hope and consolation #2

Letters of hope and consolation #1

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Like Living in the Wild West

So the other night Br. Roch and I were coming back to the friary in Newark, NJ, and as we come down Ninth Street Br. Roch exclaims “Woah, did you see that car!?”

 And I say “What car?”

I look back to only see what I thought was a big dark dumpster.  Brother throws the car in reverse and I quickly realize that its’ actually a big truck, flipped on its side sitting right in the middle of the sidewalk right beside St. Antoninus Church.

Immediately Br. Roch says, “Is anybody hurt?”

I look around and no one is in the car and there’s no police around.  We both kind of scratch our heads and wonder what happened.

As we head a few blocks down the street I see one of my friends from the neighborhood, a real good guy, sitting on his front steps with some friends.  And I ask the Brother to stop the car and then get out and say “Hey, Abdul!  What happened!?”

As we walk over he begins to tell us. “Man, these young kids about 4 or 5 hours ago came barrelin’ round the corner and they flipped it!...Then they kicked out the back, they all crawled out and stole the one that was parked beside it and took off!  Then the fire truck came and they powered it down so it wouldn’t explode and then these young kids had the audacity to come back!  They talked to the fire fighters, crawled inside the truck…” 

Jamal, Abdul’s friend interrupts to say… “Yeah, probably to get their gun…hahaha”

Abdul finishes by saying “and then they took off again.  Man, all the neighbors were all upset….saying ‘Why didn’t they stop them! Why didn’t they stop them?’  “That’s because,” Abdul says to them, “their fire fighters!  They fight FIRES….they’re not going to fight these young dudes.”

We didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, maybe we did a little of both, but as I reflect on the story the first concern of my brother wasn’t the car, but the human person.  He immediately wanted to know first of all that everyone was OK.  Perhaps justice wasn’t ‘served up’ right away to the young thieves, but no one got in a gun fight like we often hear as sunset falls over our poor neighborhood.  And we trust and pray that God in his infinite and sometimes incomprehensible mercy will bring these young men back to an even better road unto their salvation which may have been at stake if they were to have died either in the accident or in a gunfight.  In the meantime we keep doing our best, by trying to bring a seed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ who is both Lord and Savior, to one person at a time.  May we all flourish as He intends and desires.

Br. Nicholas Joseph, CFR

Most Blessed Sacrament Friary

Newark, NJ 

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Letters of hope and consolation #8

Your relationship with God is not just one of many relationships in your life; it is the relationship that gives meaning to all others.  Without this primary relationship with God life as a whole becomes scattered.  Instead of a profound sense of unity your life will feel like a collection of random and isolated events and circumstances and all the people in your life will appear like strangers from some mysterious place.


Be passionate therefore about your relationship with God.  He is the missing piece to the puzzle we call life.  Seek him with enthusiasm, listen to him with expectation and speak to him from a heart that is burning with desire.


If your relationship with God is mediocre you will spend most of your life yawning because of the apparent boredom you perceive from life.  It is time to wake up, let your heart catch fire and begin to burn with passion for the God who burns for you!


God bless you,
Fr. Jeremiah Myriam Shryock, CFR
St. Felix Friary, Yonkers, NY

Letters of hope and consolation #7

Letters of hope and consolation #6

Letters of hope and consolation #5

Letters of hope and consolation #4

Letters of hope and consolation #3

Letters of hope and consolation #2

Letters of hope and consolation #1

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