St. Francis Retreat

We received the following invitation to a virtual celebration of the Transitus of St. Francis. Greetings! You are cordially invited to a Zoom Transitus of St. Francis on Saturday, October 3rd, 2020 at 7 PM Pacific Time. The event registration may be found at Eventbrite. The link to register is: https://www.eventbrite.com/x/transitus-of-saint-francis-of- . ... This event is sponsored by the Forming St. Francis Secular Fraternity in Sacramento, California, and Region 6 of the Franciscan Federation. The Transitus of St. Francis of Assisi is a remembrance of the life, and passing into new life, of St. Francis celebrated by Franciscans worldwide. The transitus takes place on the Vigil, or night before, the Feast of St. Francis which is October 4th. Our prayer service will take place on the evening of Saturday, October 3td, 2020 at 7:-00 PM Pacific Time (GMT -07). Readers will narrate scenes from the life of St. Francis as depicted in the Bardi Dossal of St. Francis. Please register for only one ticket per viewing site. The Zoom link will be emailed to registrants closer to the date of the event. For a bit of background on the Bardi Dossal of St. Francis, see the 5 minute video at Smarthistory.org: https://smarthistory.org/inventing-the-image-of-saint-fran/ For the Transitus of St. Francis, we are adding a Meet-And-Greet after the transitus prayer service. We found that people stayed around to say hello after the Transitus of St. Clare, and are planning for community time. After the sending forth song, those who wish to stay and meet other members of the Franciscan Family from across the country (and maybe across the European continent) may participate in a breakout room. Breakout rooms will be set up randomly for those who wish to continue the social celebration in Zoom. We will leave the breakout rooms open for 30-45 minutes after the servuce. Feel free to go or stay as you wish. We are limited to 300 participants, and used only 150 for the Transitus of St. Clare. Please feel free to share this invitation. There is room for more at the table! So, registration is first-come-first-served. If we think we may overflow the 300 participant limit, we may be able to purchase more seats from Zoom. If you have questions, please call (805.574.0441) or email Debbie Clingingsmith ([email protected]). We hope to see you all there for our virtual Transitus! Peace and all good, Members of the Forming St. Francis Secular Fraternity and Region 6 of the Franciscan Federation

Are you or a friend in Recovery? Here is an opportunity to spend time with Fr. Tom Weston SJ on a special ZOOM Retreat. It's less than a month away, so now is the time to register. Just go to our website www.stfrancisretreat.com and click on the link at the top of the page.

Life in the age of SIP and ZOOM. The Nisbet Retreat happens this Saturday, we have Fr. Murray Bodo OFM lined up for another retreat in September and today we are announcing a third ZOOM Retreat. This one is with Fr. Tom Weston, SJ who is well known and respected in the Recovery Community. The flier for Fr. Tom's retreat is here. I will get Fr. Tom's info on our website ASAP since it happens Labor Day Weekend -- the other two are already there. Contact me if you have any questions -- Ed DeGroot [email protected]

We continue to celebrate mass in the outdoor amphitheater at the retreat on Sundays. Care to join us? Just come on up.

Now we have 2 exciting possibilities for you. The retreat with Fr. Nisbet is just around the corner, but there is still time to register. And just added, a two day retreat with Fr. Murray Bodo OFM, a well known and respected Franciscan author and poet. Check out the fliers! Join in the events! Refresh your Spirit!

Something New for us -- a ZOOM Retreat Opportunity with Fr. Jim Nisbet. Coming up Soooooooon! Registration is now open on our website: stfrancisretreat.com Check the red banner on the home page for a link

Indoor church services have been closed in San Benito County once again. Please remember that you can come up to the Retreat for an outdoor Mass Sunday morning at 9:30am.

This about sums up our status 14 years ago this week. The fire that destroyed the main building happened on June 23, 2006. Thanks to our generous benefactors and the Province we recovered from that disaster. Now we face another as we lay off most of our staff and wonder when we will be able to reopen. With a PPP loan and our accumulated savings we kept all of our team members on the payroll up until now. But the bucket is dry. A few of us will be here part time to keep up on maintenance and correspondence and pay the bills. Keep us in our prayers.

Outdoor Masses to continue at St Francis Retreat

CORRECTION -- Sunday Masses start on Sunday the 14th! sorry for the confusion.

An open letter from our Provincial about today's conditions.

Starting next Sunday -- Mass outdoor at the Retreat.

Life is rather quiet not only at St. Francis Retreat, but all our other Franciscan centers as well. One of them, San Damiano, is offering some on-line retreats you might find interesting. Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/pg/SanDamiano/events/?ref=page_internal