California Franciscan Vocation

The Franciscans are the champions of the Immaculate Conception. St. Francis gave the order a foundation and devotion to Our Lady. As the National Spiritual Assistant to the Militia Immaculata, begun by St. Maximilian Kolbe, I offer you this video. Fr. Thomas Czeck OFM Conv. https://youtu.be/G_f0Xw9UHgU

Dios siga bendiciendo nuestra amada Orden! #soyfranciscano #OFMconvColombia #serfranciscano #ofmconv #Pazybien #franciscanosConventuales #franciscanos

Lockdown Yes there is fear. Yes there is isolation. Yes there is panic buying.... Yes there is sickness. Yes there is even death. But, They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise You can hear the birds again. They say that after just a few weeks of quiet The sky is no longer thick with fumes But blue and grey and clear. They say that in the streets of Assisi People are singing to each other across the empty squares, keeping their windows open so that those who are alone may hear the sounds of family around them. They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound. Today a young woman I know is busy spreading fliers with her number through the neighbourhood So that the elders may have someone to call on. Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples are preparing to welcome and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way All over the world people are waking up to a new reality To how big we really are. To how little control we really have. To what really matters. To Love. So we pray and we remember that Yes there is fear. But there does not have to be hate. Yes there is isolation. But there does not have to be loneliness. Yes there is panic buying. But there does not have to be meanness. Yes there is sickness. But there does not have to be disease of the soul Yes there is even death. But there can always be a rebirth of love. Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now. Today, breathe. Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic The birds are singing again The sky is clearing, Spring is coming, And we are always encompassed by Love. Open the windows of your soul And though you may not be able to touch across the empty square, Sing. March 13th 2020

I am back to my ministry in Uganda, today we visited one of our sub-parish schools.

HAPPY FEAST DAY OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI!!! On October 4th, the church honors St. Francis, the Founder of the Franciscan Order! This is the 1st time our Novices... get to celebrate this day as FRIARS! DO YOU, know a Franciscan Friar or Sister? You should write them, call or message them and wish them a happy Feast Day, for it's a very special day for us Franciscans. Do you know one of our Novices? You should write them and wish them a happy feast day on this special day! If not, then please pray for them as they discern their vocation. May God Bless you and St. Francis intercede for you. Conventual Franciscans Conventual Franciscan Postulancy USA Conventual Franciscans Franciscan Friars Conventual of the Our Lady of the Angels Province

Happy Feast of St. Francis This reading and short homily is from our remembrance of the passing of St. Francis. Fr. Paul shares memories of one of his first Transitus miracles and the significance of the stigmata of St. Francis.

Nuesta dia del santo San Jose de Cupertino

Happy Feast of St. Joseph of Cupertino

On September 8th, the church celebrates the Feast Day of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary (this year it fell on a Sunday so we celebrated the 23rd Sunday) a...nd this is the day when the Novices receive their Franciscan Crowns. The Franciscan Crown is a 7 decade rosary of the 7 joys of our Lady. This is a Franciscan devotion that Friar may choose to wear on their habit. Please continue to pray for our Novices in formation. See more

On September 17, Franciscans celebrate the Feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis, to recall Francis's being marked with the wounds of Christ. A modern biographe...r, Andre Vauchez, says: "What happened on La Verna on an undetermined day in September 1224?. . . It is difficult to say with any precision, as Francis [himself] did not mention it in his writings, and he forbade from speaking about it those rare persons who came to observe the traces of the wounds. It is thus only after his death and before his burial that a certain number of witnesses were able to actually see them on his flesh." Whatever the source of the physical wounds, however, they marked a profound interior reality -- that Francis came to understand that his experience of God would reach its fullness only through his own identification with the compassionate suffering of Christ. The eloquent theological interpretation of the Stigmata provided by St. Bonaventure in the 1260s, based on the 1229 account of the first "Life of Saint Francis" by Thomas of Celano, became classic in the Franciscan tradition: Two years before he returned his spirit to heaven, Francis began a forty day fast. . . in a high place apart called Mount Laverna. . . While he was praying one morning on the mountainside around the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, he saw the likeness of a Seraph, which had six fiery and glittering wings, descending from the grandeur of heaven. . . to a spot in the air near to the man of God. The Seraph not only appeared to have wings but also to be crucified. His hands and feet were extended and fastened to a cross. . . . Seeing this, Francis was overwhelmed. His mind flooded with a mixture of joy and sorrow. He experienced an incomparable joy in the gracious way Christ appeared to him so wonderful and intimate, while the deplorable sight of being fastened to a cross pierced his soul with the sword of compassionate sorrow. He understood . . . that such a vision had been presented to his sight, that he might learn in advance that he had to be transformed totally, not by a martyrdom of the flesh but by the enkindling of his soul, into the manifest likeness of Christ Jesus crucified. The vision. . . inflamed him interiorly with a seraphic ardor and marked his flesh exteriorly with a likeness conformed to the Crucified; it was as if the liquefying power of fire preceded the impression of the seal. . . . the likeness of the Crucified in his side as well as in his hands and feet. . . . And so the angelic man, Francis, came down from the mountain bearing the likeness of the Crucified, depicted not on tablets of stone or on panels of wood, but engraved on parts of his flesh by the finger of the living God. Bonaventure, Minor Legend, 6. "In Bonaventure's view Francis became an other Christ, not only because of the Stigmata but because of the way he related to other people and creation. Francis became a person of mercy, reconciliation, and peace, and he did so by allowing himself to be fully grasped by the compassionate love of the crucified Christ. For the sake of love he spared nothing and gave everything he had to the one he loved" (Ilia Delio, Franciscan Prayer). Here are two of the most famous depictions of Bonaventure's account, as well as the chapel on Mount La Verna built over the spot where tradition says Francis was praying when he received the Stigmata. Lord Jesus Christ, who reproduced in the flesh of the most blessed Francis, the sacred marks of your own sufferings, so that in a world grown cold our hearts might be filled with burning love of you, graciously enable us by his merits and prayers to bear the cross without faltering and to bring forth worthy fruits of penitence: You who are God, living and reigning with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Franciscan Health Center traveled to the Buseebwe Primary School for a free Outreach to the poor in the area.