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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Letters of hope and consolation #7

Many of the early Christians who lived as monks and nuns in the desert often spoke of hearing or receiving a “word from the Lord.”  This “word” was not necessarily a single word but could often be a short phrase or even a sentence or two.  This “word” received by the monk or nun could be described as a lesson the Lord was teaching them or a direction the Lord was guiding that person towards.  Some examples of “words” from the Lord could be, “Do not be afraid,” “Trust in God’s love,” “Pray more,” “Persevere,” “Believe in the goodness of God,” etc.

Though this hearing from the Lord appears like a simple process there is one prerequisite.  In order to hear from the Lord you must be listening to your own heart and bringing it before him.  If you discover that you are afraid to trust people, that you feel alone, inadequate, insecure about the future or that you feel like God is asking too much from you, the only logical step is to speak with him about it.  Too often people cover over their hearts and their experience with nice “pious” language because they think those are the words God really wants to hear, meanwhile they miss an opportunity for the Lord to speak a powerful and often times healing “word” into their real, concrete situations of their daily life.

God calls you to pray as you are with your life, your struggles and your joys and not somebody else’s.  There are no two people who pray the same way because there are no two people who are identical.  Each one of us is unique.  If you truly want to hear a “word from the Lord,” then you must take the risk of being yourself before God.  After all, the only person you are fooling praying in any other way is yourself.


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

Letters of hope and consolation #6

Letters of hope and consolation #5

Letters of hope and consolation #4

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Letters of hope and consolation #6

One of the many humorous yet sad aspects of human nature is that we often seek a finite solution to a problem whose only answer is the infinite.  In other words, we seek God in places, people and situations that are imperfect and passing, rather than seeking God himself who is perfect and eternal.

Before Jesus gives us the great commandment to love God with an undivided heart (Mk 12:30) he tells us that “The Lord our God is Lord alone” (Mk 12:29).  A modern translation could read, God is God and nobody or nothing else is God.  Therefore, you are not God, your spouse and children are not God, your friends are not God, your career is not God, money is not God and anything or anybody else in this world is not God.  Only God is God.  Why waste your time looking for Him elsewhere?

Since are hearts are made for God and are continually restless until we find him we can’t help looking for him everywhere.  The problem is we search for him among earthly things and wonder why at the end of the day we are tired, frustrated and feel alienated from ourselves and everybody else.  If we listened more attentively to the experience of our hearts in our search for God maybe then we could comprehend that the tiredness, frustration and alienation we often feel is the result of seeking a finite solution to a problem whose only answer is the infinite.

What you can do regularly is examine your heart and ask the Lord to cast out any idols you may be worshipping in place of Him.  What things or people have I placed above God?  The list could be extensive and can easily include things like people, certain relationships and attitudes that seek to find my identity and self worth entirely in this world and not in God.


The ironic thing is that once you place God above everything else in this life, then and only then, are you able to love life and others appropriately because you are now free from trying to “possess” others and from forcing them to satisfy our deep existential need for a Savior.  There is only one Savior, and nobody, no matter how smart, rich, beautiful or talented they appear can fulfill that role.

“The Lord our God is Lord alone!”  What freedom these words can bring to your heart because they set us free and point us in the direction where we find true happiness.

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

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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Letters of hope and consolation #5

The beauty and grandeur of life is this simple; God is calling you to an intimate relationship with him.  He who is almighty, all powerful and all knowing invites you to walk “hand in hand” with him through your life.  There is no thought you have, no suffering you endure, no confusion you feel and no happiness that you experience that is not important to God.

Could anything be better than this?  Even when all the things of this world grow old and fade away your relationship with God continues to grow and increase.  It is the one thing that will not disappoint you and prohibit you from thinking that you are alone in this world.

No matter where you travel in life, no matter how many friends you have, how much money you make or how influential you are, you can never experience anything better than what you already have; this profound invitation from God to a deeper union with him.  This fact alone makes life worth living to the fullest.


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

Letters of hope and consolation #4

Letters of hope and consolation #3

Letters of hope and consolation #2

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It is all about the Yes

The word yes is very important in the spiritual life. It all began when God said yes to creating the universe. Mary's yes to the message from the Archangel Gabriel opened the door to welcome the Creator into creation in the Incarnation. The yes of Jesus saved us. Our own yes to God is very important.

Recently I witnessed some profound yeses. Our five novices professed first vows. One of our friars was ordained a priest. Five of our friars were ordained to the deaconate. One of our friars was ordained to the sub-diaconate in the Maronite Rite. A grandmother breathed her last yes as she entered eternal life. A beautiful family brought a new baby to the baptismal fount. This weekend five of our sisters will profess final vows.

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta would tell people to "Give God permission." It is all about the yes! What is the Lord asking you to say yes to today?

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

One Priest and Five Deacons Ordained

Five Novices Make First Profession

www.franciscanfriars.com

Afraid of God

Walking down the street in Harlem is always an interesting opportunity. Seeing my Old Testament style beard and robe, a baby-carrying woman flagged me down. I learned that she had almost become a nun when she was a girl in Haiti. After a long series of unforeseen events (good and bad), she found herself a single mom in New York City.

After listening to her story I simply asked about her relationship with Jesus. She shared that she was afraid of God, "If I get close to Him, He will test me and I have more suffering than I want already."

It is so strange how we can get things exactly backwards sometimes. The God revealed in Jesus doesn't want to make us suffer. Rather, Jesus talked about and revealed "the perfect love which casts out all fear" (1 John 4:18). Suffering will come. It is precisely a close relationship with God which provides us the grace and strength to weather the storms of life.

Please pray for all of the wandering sons and daughters of Adam & Eve, still running and hiding from the One who loves us more than we can fathom.

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

www.franciscanfriars.com

Fridays in Jail

Every Friday we go to the local jail, Essex county, and it’s mostly guys from our neighborhood;
so we fit right in.

That night after finishing visiting with  the polish immigration criminals, we were scheduled to go down to the infirmary, which I was looking forward to since I had never been, and it was all-Mother Teresa style: the poorest of the poor, because it doesn’t get much worse than being sick and in jail.

So after checking in with a guard who is really compassionate and kind, where I think to myself ‘that must be why he is stationed here’ we turn around immediately to see a man in his orange jumper sitting down with his head against the wall letting out a groan.  I think to myself “hello Jesus” as we approach and we pray with him and he tears up a bit and it is a real encounter with Christ, it was beautiful. Then we go inside, and there is armed  guards and a nurse’s station and two sections behind bulletproof glass and steel doors.  I look thru the glass and a young man with long dreadlocks sees us and is waving us over with what seems like a joyful confidence.  So I think to myself “I think were supposed to go in there…”, so I tell the guards “were going in there” and they ask “you wanna go in there?” and I say “were going in there!” So in we go and right away the young man says:

“Wasup my brothers, we are all God’s children!” and I say “amen!” and I ask him “how you doin tonite?” And he says “o, pretty good, but I got shot B!... and stabbed” and he pulls up his shirt to reveal stiches that go from his sternum to his belly button, along with 2 bullet holes and a stab wound with no stiches on it in his stomach.  And I exclaim “(Dang). Where did you get shot?!” and he says “In New York. I got shot in New York.” And I say “Manhattan?” and he says “nah, in the Bronx” and I say “I used to live in the Bronx!” Then I say “wow, they opened you up just to pull the bullets out right?” and he says “yep.” And I say:  “wow, I am glad you made it out of that one.” And he says “me too….but somethin’ happened.”  And I say “what happened?” And you could see the love of God in his eyes and could tell he was sincere and he says “I was in heaven for a second Bro. I was in heaven.” and I say “well tell me about that!”  And he says “There were these huge walls, with these huge gates and all of these flower petals were pouring over the walls, and I heard everybody say ‘let ‘em in Father, let ‘em in!’ and there were all of these huge mansions, they were beautiful, all white and gold with roads made of pearls. (The mansions) They were huge and beautiful.  And then I saw Jesus.  His face was bright white, a little like yours and he had a little beard, like yours, and his skin was dark  like mine, and his hair was like wool, and it was long, son! I mean long! And then I saw his face.”  And at this point the young man recollects and looks into the distance as he remembers and says “Everything’s in that face brother, everything’s in that face...”


I ask him “was there music?”
“OH, beautiful music, like AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!”
“What like chanting?”
“Yeah like chanting”
“was there light?
“yes, beautiful bright light, but you could look at it.”
I then ask, pointing to my habit “was there anybody up there dressed like this?”
And he laughs and looks away and looks back and says:
“The Catholics Bro!  and Jesus IS CATHOLIC!...He’s got a long white robe, long and it never gets dirty, there’s no dirt in heaven Bro, there’s no dirt in Heaven!”
He goes on to say “the people were praising God and even had signs that said ‘The God of Nazareth!”


He then says “Let me in Father.”
And Jesus says to him “Not yet my son, for there are battles yet for you to win for me on earth.” And he said to him “but, why?” and our Lord said to him “don’t question me, you’ll wake up now” and bang! He  was back in the emergency room!


The young man then goes on to say “Brother, before,  I wanted to kill people, commit adultery, lie, cheat, steal, you name it. But not now Brother…I have seen the light! I have seen the light!”
“This life is not what we always think it’s about…we’ve got to Love!”
At this point he witnesses to me by telling everyone good night and that he loves them, and giving the guy in the infirmary a big hug and telling him he loves him and pushing him into his hospital/cell.

This life is about love.

God bless you,

Br. Nicholas Joseph, CFR
Most Blessed Sacrament Friary
375 13th Avenue
Newark, NJ

www.franciscanfriars.com

25th Anniversary

April 28, 2012, is the 25th anniversary of the founding of our community. We give thanks to God for His many blessings over the years and pray for His continued guidance as we strive to follow in the footsteps of St. Francis.

Please continue to pray for our community!

PRESS RELEASE – April 25, 2012

Also of note...

A Drama of Reform is the story of the new order founded by Fr. Benedict Groeschel and seven other Capuchin friars, and of the first two decades of a reform in religious life begun in 1987. United in the desire to be authentic disciples of Jesus Christ and following in the footsteps of Saint Francis, they want to encourage the army of Christians of all denominations who are discouraged by the erosion of Gospel values in our culture.

This inspirational volume combines more than 100 dramatic photos from the interesting and varied aspects of their daily lives. Along with the wonderful photos, members of the two independent communities of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal provide short essays on their life, which will enable others to experience the earnestness and enthusiasm of this young and fervent group. More than one hundred sisters and friars from a dozen countries have come together with the common desire to follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ after the example of Saint Francis and the tradition of the Capuchin reform.

Well-known for their work with the poor and homeless in the South Bronx and other deprived areas, these Franciscans communicate a deep sense of the joy and love of those trying to be totally committed to living the Gospel in an increasingly de-Christianized world.

FIND A Drama of Reform HERE

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Letters of hope and consolation #4

It seems that more and more today people are suffering from boredom.  People are bored with school, work, marriage, family, religion, politics and society in general.  When something doesn’t immediately stimulate us or appeal directly to our senses we move on to the next thing. There seems to be a written rule in the minds and hearts of people today that equates pleasure with fulfillment.  Therefore, if I am not experiencing consolation and pleasure in what I am doing than I am allowed to look elsewhere despite any previous commitments I have made.


This attitude is not only a tragedy on a human level but on a spiritual level as well.  Prayer, meditation, growing in virtue and other exercises in the spiritual life can at times be “boring” and often leave us feeling dry and lacking in consolation and affirmation.  We are not always go to feel God’s love, prayer is not always going to be a consoling and beautiful experience and trying to grow in virtue is rarely ever going to be an easy and wonderful experience on a natural level.


When this dryness or boredom occurs the temptation is usually to flee.  If prayer is difficult then quit or at least reduce it drastically.  It some person in your life is not easy to get along with and they don’t seem open to your attempts at love then ignore them.  If you find it hard to spend time in silence and reflection then immerse yourself in noise and activity.


Boredom is not always a sign that you should be doing more but that maybe you should be going deeper where you are.  When you are board there are always the opportunities for growth in patience, acceptance of God’s will, loving others, progress in prayer and a million other things.  Yet none of this can happen if you are constantly running away from things because they are not immediately stimulating you.


In order for a person to truly appreciate a work of art, a sunset and even another person they must allow themselves to stop, be silent and wait for some time in order to grasp more fully what it is that is before them.  The same is true in our relationship with God.  We must be patient and wait through experiences of apparent “boredom” in order for us to grasp more fully the greatness and beauty of God.  After all, it is we who are probably boring.  God is the most exciting and interesting person in the entire universe.

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

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