Capuchin Franciscans

INAUGURATION POEM - AMANDA GORMAN When day comes we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade? The loss we carry,...Continue reading

Prayer for Inauguration Day Heavenly Father: As our nation undergoes this presidential transition, we pray: Thy Kingdom Come.... May your Holy Spirit instill our president with the values and principles of your kingdom to exercise the sacred trust of administering the nation. Give our new president, his administration, and Congress the ability to honor you by doing what is right, fair, and just for all citizens, especially the poor, hungry, and marginalized. We ask that all the people in our nation, irrespective of race, gender, ethnicity, or religious faith be treated with dignity. We pray for the wholeness, health, integrity, soundness, welfare, security, prosperity, harmony, and justice of all the citizens of our nation. Help our nation develop a foreign policy that fosters peace, justice, equality, and freedoms that can advance the development, rights, and privileges of our global neighbors. Move our nation to provide international leadership in the good stewardship of all the natural resources that you have entrusted to humankind. Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.

BAPTISM OF THE LORD Living and Loving Father, I praise and thank You with my heart for the liberation You have given me from the clutches of sin and Satan. By Your death on the Cross of Calvary, You have put my old life with its sin and judgement to death forever, and endowed me with a new life that is abounding with joy.... Father, I commit this Baptism Day into Your most precious and loving hands. I believe that by Your crucifixion on the Cross, my old self was rendered powerless and I was freed from all sin. You were raised from the dead that I too may live a life victorious and overcoming all evil. Father, this day, I rededicate myself to live in You and live a life for Your glory. I remember the day when I was baptized and washed off all my sins. Lord, it is Your grace that I must be counted worthy to be called Your child. Help me to keep Your commandments. Renew my strength this day that I may be strong in faith and increase in zeal. Preserve me for the glorious day of Your coming. I believe Your Word which says, "He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ". Let this day be the beginning. Lead me into greater spiritual depths even in the coming days. In Jesus' precious name I pray. Amen.

A Prayer to Heal A Divided Nation Dear God, This new day has dawned with this country more divided than it has been since the days of the Civil War. Half of your people are rejoicing while the other half are stunned and sore afraid. What divided us then continues to tear at the seams of the fabric of this nation.... We are a United Divided States. Help us to remember that the experiment called democracy is not over; it is still being tested. After 240 years of existence, the final results are not yet in. We still have work to do. It stretches out before us, across wheat fields and deserts, from the mountains to the prairies, from sea to shining sea. In the midst of our sense of victory, help us to remember your call to us to love one another as you love us. In the midst of our sense of defeat, help us to remember that you still reign; you alone are worshiped; you alone are God. Help us to put aside our own feelings jumbled and confused as they may be at the moment in service of others, our families and friends and neighbors here and around the world. Help us remember your high calling to us to be agents of forgiveness and reconciliation, love and peace, healing and hope in a world made dark by fear and hatred and brokenness. Help us to rebuild this nation by seeking out your image in the face of others, finding the best in us to serve those who are the least, the lost and the lonely. Help us to remember the words of one of your servants of old who reminded us that ‘perfect love casts out fear’. Help us perfect our love. We are your people. You know us by many names. You are our God. We know you by many names. May we find strength in our diversity and seek the courage to live into what is written on every piece of currency in this nation: In God we Trust. In God. We Trust. For only in you can we live in safety. Only in you will we find justice. Only in you will we know the peace that passes all human understanding. Amen.

The brothers are at it again: See this student friars created comedy video from their series Full House of Friars https://youtu.be/99sfCqfpGvM

EPIPHANY Perhaps it is time for an epiphany For a moment when the eyes open And the heart soars... And the soul sings And the mind goes poof! And we go Wow! So that’s it! Perhaps, after plodding along Seeking glimpses of the sacred Catch hints of a star There is a moment when we finally reach that place Where love is born And perhaps, it is a surprise Perhaps when the universe peels open’ And we see the heart of the Sacred We find what we did not expect We find more than we expected Perhaps, as we gaze into the manger of our hearts We find something more powerful More beautiful More profound More grace full More loving Than anything we had ever conceived And in the moment of Epiphany Revelation We fall to our knees Overwhelmed Able to do nothing but receive Until having received we can do nothing but give Epiphany reveals not just the Sacred Not just that God is here Not just that God is love But it reveals who we are Children of God It reveals who we can be People of compassion and generosity People who welcome, and serve Epiphany is not a safe moment For when we see We are never the same We can never go back to the place from whence we came We can never take the same old road We can never be at ease with the old ways The old priorities, and values We can never align ourselves Ever again With the powers that would dominate Abuse Use We can never again enable Those who would harm children Abandon the poor Create inequity Deny justice Of those who would exclude we must go another way the way of servanthood and generosity rather than the way of power and greed So it is time for an epiphany It is time to let God stun us with Sacred Love And Sacred Joy And Sacred Hope And Sacred Peace It is time for us to let the Sacred be so present In us That the darkness is dispelled by the light And we see And exclaim yes See more