Letters of hope and consolation #21

The desire to establish a “prayer schedule” for your life is one that you will never regret. If you remain faithful to it you will realize the great blessings that come from having a certain structure of prayer in your daily life and those times you have set aside for prayer will be an oasis for you in the midst of your busy life.

Before you embark upon discerning the amount of time you will pray everyday and which spiritual practices you will adopt you must begin by simply asking the question, “Is the thing I’m considering even a possibility?” For example, attending daily mass is an excellent way to grow in intimacy with God, however, for some people, because of their work, family, health, etc it might not be possible. Therefore, to try and force this could cause a great deal of anxiety and unnecessary stress in your life that can become counterproductive in your relationship with God and with other people.

Before you make any decisions about your spiritual life you want to first ask the question, “Is what I am considering possible given my vocation, situation or state in life at this moment?” It would absurd for a married man to attempt to pray as much as a cloistered monk and just as absurd for a cloistered monk to pray like a married man. Hence, it might mean that you will not be able to adopt all the holy and pious practices other people are doing. The good news is that pious practices are not guarantees for holiness, whereas accepting and doing the will of God is.

This principle could be summed up in the phrase, “obedience to reality.” The circumstances of our life, our vocation and the situation we find ourselves in right now reveal to us just how much God requires of us in terms of prayer and meditation. Therefore, as you begin to make some decisions about your prayer schedule begin with the most credible place, reality.

God bless you,
Fr. Jeremiah Myriam Shryock, CFR

St. Felix Friary, Yonkers, NY
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The Transformative Power of the Living Word of God

One thing I must always remind myself before I prepare to read the word of God, is how much of a necessity it is to beseech the Holy Spirit for His help and light. I would like to share short story about an experience that I had early on in my conversion. When I was about 20 yrs. old, I started to come back into the Catholic Church and even went to daily mass when I could. Although I was now receiving Jesus in the Eucharist and even going to frequent confession, every time I went to open up the bible or when I would hear the word proclaimed at Mass, I had absolutely no idea what was going on. At this point I had still yet to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. Needless to say, the next step I took was to get confirmed, to bring my Baptismal grace to completion along with bringing to full operation the Sanctifying gifts of the Holy Spirit. Almost instantaneously after I received my confirmation, the Word of God became absolutely alive to me. It became real, tangible and approachable. I can remember staying up half of the night more than a few times not being able to put down my bible and having no idea how many hours past or what time it was. The Prophet Jeremiah tells us in chap. 15:16 “When I found you words O Lord I devoured them, they became to me the joy and delight of my heart.” Now I could truly identify with this passage. What a treasure I had found, or rather, what a treasure that had been given to me by a loving Father, desiring to lead his prodigal son into His light and truth.

Now, if I could simply highlight a few things in regards to this experience and offer some brief reflections. To acknowledge that when we read the word of God, we must read it with a true hunger. We must seek the face of Christ, listen for the sound of His voice, and desire a real encounter with the living God whom we love through His word. Some things that I have found helpful to aid this are as follows: We should approach the Scriptures with faith, expectancy, & patience. We recognize that when we read the Scriptures using the approach through Lection Divina, we must set aside sufficient time and slow down! When we bring our time of the business of our lives and apostolates into our time of lectio, it could easily be difficult for one to have a fruitful encounter with the Word. We might need to take some prayer time before, to be able to have the proper disposition that is willing and ready to receive His living water. We must also recognize that we might not always feel like we received anything during our prayer time, but any time spent with God and the Scriptures is time well spent. Regardless of what we feel, Christ is always at work when we read His word with sincerity. It would also not be a surprise to me that in our driest time of reading the Word, is often the time in which it is bearing the most fruit for our souls and for the kingdom of God. We can read the scriptures time and time again, and not even in a thousand years would we exhaust what the Word of God offers us.

Faith: Throughout scripture we see the need for faith. We see in the gospels Christ healing many people. When we see Him heal, at times He heals with a word. Not just any word but He who is Himself the “Word of God” as we read in Rev. 19:13. God says in Gen. 1:3 ‘“Let there be light”, and there was light.”’ When He heals a leper He says “I will it, be clean”, and instantly he was made clean. He brings back to life the daughter of a centurion by the words “Rise”, and immediately, she arose and walked. He casts out a legion of demons by the simple word “Go”, and they fled. Isa. 55:11 says “Every word of God that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that for which I intend it, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” The thing that I would like to highlight is the fact we must read the word of God with expectancy and mountain moving faith. The belief that it can heal us, teach us, deliver us from evil, illuminate our minds and hearts, increase our faith, and give us perseverance for our life’s journey. We must come to believe and know, like the figures we read about in the gospels, that we too can experience this and become a living witness to the transformative power of Christ through his word. The most important thing of all to remember, is that God himself has a desire to speak to us, to me & you personally, to continue to transform and change our lives, to help us grow in faith, hope, and love, and to lead us into deeper union with His very self, and to share intimately in his very being.

Let us then pray for one another, that with, in, and through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, crying out to Abba Father, along with looking through the eyes of St. Francis and following in his footsteps, we many enter more profoundly into the word of God, with a new faith, a profound hope, a patient gaze and a listening contemplative stance that will continue be drawn by the voice of our Beloved, that is, into the Heart of Christ.

-Br. Roch Mary, CFR

Most Blessed Sacrament Friary

Newark, NJ

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Pope Benedict XVI

I’ve always had a tremendous respect for Pope Benedict XVI’s wisdom, clarity of thought, humility and courage, but today my respect for these virtues of his has increased a hundredfold. It is clear that our Holy Father is so concerned about the good of the Church that he is willing to humbly admit his growing frailty of mind and body, even at the risk of being misunderstood or suspected of ulterior motives.

When our Holy Father passes on to the Lord I will be asking his intercession when I have a difficult decision to make. I hope that at his canonization someday he will be nominated as the patron saint of making tough decisions. To be able to act truthfully, lovingly, courageously, to follow a path where almost no man has gone before, with clear-sightedness and profound trust in God – this is the legacy that he leaves us now more than ever. 

The timing is appropriate for the Church as we enter into the desert of Lent. These 40 days will feel a little more desert-like with this uncertainty before us. In the desert, as Our Saviour experienced in a truly human way for 40 days, we are left without our usual security and comfort. However, we may learn there to rely on the Lord in a deeper way, to listen more deeply to His Holy Spirit and to battle our lack of faith. We may feel alone, but we discover more deeply the fact that He is with us, inviting us to exchange our finite or false securities for the Rock of our Salvation. 

The saintly pontiffs of the past century and so many that went before them remind us that we need not be afraid. The Lord will protect and provide for His people in the desert in unforeseen ways. 

Let us pray daily during this Lenten season in gratitude for His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI and for a new Vicar of Christ who will feed us with Bread from Heaven. 

Happy Lent!
Fr. Richard, CFR

St. Crispin Friary

Bronx, NY

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THE EYES OF FAITH

The “Year of Faith” has arrived!  Beginning this past October and continuing until November 2013, the Church has entered into a year given to deepening her understanding and experience of the life of faith and its witness in our world.  In his apostolic letter Porta Fidei (“The Door of Faith”), the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI has said the purpose of this year will be “to rediscover the journey of faith so as to shed ever clearer light on the joy and renewed enthusiasm of the encounter with Christ.”  Here at our St. Francis Youth Center in the Bronx, we have been privileged to enter into this time of special grace with the helpful assistance of God’s “little ones."

This fall I have been continually reminded of the gifted perspective that our youngest children bring to our youth center, enabling us to see reality as it truly is through the eyes of faith.  I encountered this just the other day during a game of “freeze-tag” when a young boy, new to the Center, kept yelling the name of Jesus.  Turning toward him, I suddenly realized he was talking to me!  He thought that I was Jesus because that’s who he heard he would see when he came to “church” (The fact that we were in the gym was of little importance to him).  He was at “church” and so this must be Jesus who was playing tag with him.  While it was an amusing misunderstanding, the boy’s faith—which was ready to encounter Christ in a very personal and real way within the Church—was something we could learn from.

One of the great tasks of this “Year of Faith” will be to rediscover the intimate, and indeed, indivisible relationship between Christ and his Church.  Society today, both secular and Christian, often tends to approach Christ and the Church as two very separate entities.  With a growing trend to see faith as something private without a communal dimension the question is raised, “What does Christ have to do with the Church?” 

The letters of St. Paul reveal a man who very much wrestled with this mystery and came to a profound understanding of the relationship.  In the fifth chapter to the Ephesians he tells us that Christ and the Church are in fact “one body,” a unity so profound that it can only begin to be understood through the intimacy of marital love.  As man and woman are joined together in a deep communion of body and soul, so ever more fully Christ and his Bride the Church are “one flesh.”

Still, this communion of Christ and his Church is not always easy to perceive.  Even St. Paul says, “This mystery is a profound one” (Eph 5:32), but to understand this union is to know the full depth of the Lord’s fidelity and love and our greatest means to encountering Him.  As Pope Benedict writes, the Church’s history—“marked as it is by the unfathomable mystery of the interweaving of holiness and sin”—reveals her to be “the visible community of his mercy…and a sign of definitive reconciliation with the Father” (Porta Fidei);  it is His mercy and grace that has sustained her.  This union, which has endured the storms of every time and place, gives us the unshakable certainty of being known and loved by a God whose mercy and power knows no limits.  To enter into this mystery is one of the great calls of the Christian believer.

More than a simple tenet of belief, Christ’s union with his Bride the Church is something we must actively participate in if we are to experience its transformative power in our lives.  Just as the beauty of light streaming through a church’s stained glass window can only be fully enjoyed from within, so too only within the Church can we come to know the joy, peace, and strength that faith gives to our daily life.  But have we experienced this?  Are we willing to truly participate in the life of the Church so as to know the “the unutterable and exalted joy” (1 Pet 1:8) that is meant to mark our lives as believers?

Let us pray for the eyes of faith…that we might enter in.

-Br. Isaiah Marie, cfr

Our Lady of the Angels Friary

Bronx, NY

Hope for Victory

We have just returned from a tremendous trip to Washington D.C. We had the privilege of participating in the annual March For Life. This year was the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. There are many other beautiful events which take place before and after the march - it has developed into quite an experience.

I have attended the march every year since 1993. I was so discouraged after that particular march because it was the first time I had a first hand experience of the blatant bias in the media coverage of the event - distortions and lies. A good bit of media coverage this year was the same - distortions and lies. Yet, somehow this year the media coverage had the opposite effect on me.

The march was so massive, positive and youthful that I couldn't help but be happy. As I was marching and praying a thought came to me, "Truth always defeats lies. Good always defeats evil. Beauty always defeats ugliness. Right always defeats wrong. And because of Jesus, life defeats death."

"Jane Roe" of Roe v. Wade is now a pro-life Catholic. "Mary Roe" of Roe v. Bolton is now a pro-life
Christian. Dr. Bernard Nathanson, a doctor who was instrumental in getting abortion legalized in the US, died a pro-life Catholic. I con-celebrated his funeral Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

It is only a matter of time until abortion is ended. Until then we pray, witness and do what ever we can to promote the Gospel of Life and the Civilization of Love. It is only a matter of time.

God bless,
Fr. Luke Mary Fletcher, CFR
Saint Joseph Friary
Harlem, New York City

Must see video - 1 Million Hits For Life!
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Epiphany

Traditionally Epiphany celebrates three events in Christ’s life. The adoration of the Magi, the baptism in the Jordan, and the wedding feast in Cana, Galilee, yet in all these, the message is the same: this is the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One. It is a message highly important both then and now.

As the magi arrive in Jerusalem we hear them saying, “where is he born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East and have come to worship him.” And so following the star they come to the manger hoping to find the new-born king, and as they draw near, I would like to put the words of Christ’s heavenly Father at the baptism on the lips of St. Joseph, his earthly father spoken to the approaching Magi, “Behold, my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” The magi, who for us symbolize the gentiles or the non-Jewish people of the world, found the king of the Jews in the son of Joseph, the son of David, and they paid him homage with gifts. Yet doing so they must have looked to the woman holding the child, to Mary, with great reverence knowing her to be the mother of the new-born king, and if we were to hear her say to them those words that inaugurated our Lord’s earthly ministry at a wedding in Cana, we would surely find the Magi repeating them in silent wonder, “do whatever he tells you…” And like any devoted subject of a true king, they would. In fact, a tradition tells us that they were among the first Christians of the early Church.

Its true that a linear timeline is unique to the experience of the material world, and if we bend the rules with the Church to encounter these three moments at once in a hyperbolic scene as beautiful in its encompassing grandeur as it is potent in its tender intimacy, we find ourselves at the heart of the mystery of this special feast: God has broken into our history. The magi came from afar to adore a baby born, the beloved son of the Eternal Father, the son of Mary, who in turn implores us to be obedient to the always present in-breaking of God in our world. And so we rejoice because Jesus, in his birth, in his assuming of the human experience, in his ministry on earth has given us new access to the life of God, and we like the Magi before us must go to him in gratitude and humble adoration.

May his Holy Name be praised.

God bless you,

Br. Joseph Michael Fino, CFR

Most Blessed Sacrament Friary

Newark, NJ

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God’s Romantic Love

Love is a word that is bigger than mere romance. And yet there is something in romantic love that more keenly captures the heart. Paternal or maternal love, filial or fraternal, even spousal love—which cannot always be romantic—are more enduring kinds of love. They’re loves that walk us through life, foundational and structural loves, highly important in practice and reception.

We know that God loves us paternally, like a father. Jesus is our friend and brother, and so we experience his steadfast support and presence. Even the Holy Spirit loves us, encouraging and inspiring us over the long haul. But do you ever encounter God’s romantic love? If not, I have to say, it’s important that you do. Romantic love is quicker, more sudden, shorter lasting but more impacting. It is the love that pierces the heart and captures the imagination. This encounter is behind all those overbearing converts that won’t stop talking about Jesus and the Church and the Eucharist, and they wont do it because they simply cannot, because they’ve fallen in love, and when we do that, we want everyone to fall with us! And I would suggest that this romantic love is the revealing love of Christmas.

The scriptures give us no shortage of evidence that God will pursue us, that he will court us, and the word seduce us is even used. Christmas is the story of a lover decidedly throwing himself into the life his beloved. God puts himself in a position of radical closeness to the one he loves and begins to woo, to seduce by his presence, by his words and his life. He now touches us, speaks closely to us and desires to take us unto himself so that we may live together forever.

He is anxious to love you romantically, to surprise you and win you; you have only to let him do it. If you’ve not yet experienced this side of him, I would say, ask for it, expect it, and don’t be afraid when it actually happens. For then you will learn two very important truths: Jesus is real and alive, and he loves you personally, whoever and wherever you are, and he loves you a lot. And if you allow it, this will change your life.

God bless you,
Br. Joseph Michael Fino, CFR

Most Blessed Sacrament Friary
Newark, NJ
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Letters of hope and consolation #20

As we approach the last of these letters I am left wondering how I can summarize all that it is we have been discussing. We have talked about prayer, forgiveness, God’s love, listening for God’s voice and so many other things. Yet perhaps it comes down to this simple conclusion; Jesus Christ is your deepest source of hope and consolation.

The world will promise you much and even if you conquered the world it would still not be enough. You would still be restless and you would still be yearning for something greater than this world. Why? Is it because the world is bad? Absolutely not! The world is very good. In fact that is part of the problem. The world is good, but not good enough to satisfy your soul. Your soul is like an ocean and there is nothing in this world that can fill that sacred space except Him who “summons the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the surface of the earth” (Amos 9:6).

My prayer for you is that each day you will discover more deeply the love that you already have in Jesus Christ. Though you don’t realize this now you lack nothing because of Him and with the apostle Paul you can proclaim, “I can do all things in Him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). There is nothing you did to deserve His love; it is His free gift to you, just as there is nothing in life that can take His love away from you, since His love reaches down from heaven into your little world. Hence, the love that you have been experiencing is the beginning of eternal life. If I can encourage you to do anything else it would be to run toward that love that lasts forever since it really is your only hope and consolation in this world.

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


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THE GENEALOGY OF JESUS

I was remembering the chorus from that old Pink Floyd song, “You’re just another brick in the wall.” Like so many things in popular culture, there is some truth to this but it doesn’t get it quite right. While it is true that we are all bricks in the great structure of human history, it isn’t true that any of us is insignificant, unanimous or faceless.

Human history is unfolding and each of us has a role. When we are born none of us knows what this role will be. When we die most of us still won’t know the significance of our role. Day by day, we are paving the path to the future. One brick allows the next to take its place. Each brick (that is each person), if looked at alone may truly seem insignificant and expendable. But when looked at from the eyes of eternity, each brick contributes to that tremendous edifice of humanity. Each life, like a single stroke of a masterpiece, contributes to the magnificence of the whole.

Every stoke adds to the beauty. Perhaps we do not recognize this, especially during times of suffering or in a life that seems filled only with miseries – or more strikingly when a terrible tragedy occurs. Each person is indispensable and adds a unique element to the whole drama. Each one affects so many others, even without knowing it. So many unknown people have affected our own lives: the people that made the bridges we drive over every day, the soldiers that died alone and unknown on a battlefield that turned the course of human history, the teachers that affected our teachers, the people that influenced our parents and grandparents, those who preserved and passed on the faith throughout the centuries. Even seeing, or knowing about a destitute homeless alcoholic does something to each one of us (that hopefully changes us for the better forever).

This is something that the genealogy of Jesus teaches us. Each person on that list had a role to play, was a brick that paved the way for Jesus Christ. But none of them knew it. Each one just lived their lives. I am sure that many, if not all of them, at some time or another, wondered what their lives were all about, if their suffers would produce anything good, if their lives had any meaning beyond drudgery and misery. Remember, that genealogy included some not so glamorous or holy things. There was infidelity, fear, betrayal, intrigue, murder, foreigners, and a prostitute. God used all these things to accomplish the greatest thing that was ever done – using all these people without them ever knowing it.

As the New Year approaches, let us take a moment to wonder at the grandeur of our own lives – not that we have such a dramatic contribution to make but to marvel at the fact that we are part of the marvelous work of art that the Almighty God is composing.

May we recognize that every life has an irreplaceable contribution to make. May we be filled with wonder and gratitude. May we be a magnificent stroke on God’s canvas by beautifully living the lives that the Lord has given us.

God bless you,
Fr. Giuseppe Siniscalchi, CFR
Most Blessed Sacrament Friary
Newark, N]
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Letters of hope and consolation #19

Quite honestly it seems that what you really want, what you think would take away all of your problems is somebody else’s life because the one you already have doesn’t appear good enough for you. You are always speaking about somebody else’s job, somebody else’s family, somebody else’s house, a different style of clothes, a different climate and a constant surplus of new friends who can pull you out of these funks and make life once again fresh and exciting.

What about your life, your job, your family, your friends, etc? What about all the blessings and opportunities that are already a part of your life? Instead of constantly desiring other things maybe you should begin by thanking God for what you already have, which, if you took time to consider, would realize is actually a great deal. The problem is you are always admiring other people and the happiness you think they have and never realize all the great blessings God has already given to you.

The moment you begin to be grateful for what is already yours it is as if a new world appears, or rather the fog from your current world disappears and you are able once again to see the freshness and excitement of life that has always been present to you in your life. You do not need somebody else’s life to be happy. God has already given you all the ingredients you need for a happy and fulfilling life, if only you can open your eyes to all that is before you.

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