Category: Franciscan

Review of Saints and Heroes: Francis, the Knight of Assisi

franciscanmomLeave a comment

On the heels of Pope Francis’ visit to the USA, here’s a way to keep your young children enthusiastic about serving the Church by helping others. CCC of America has bundled its Saints and Heroes video about St. Francis of Assisi with a fun activity poster with puzzles and word games about Saint Francis on one side and a commemorative Pope Francis mitre to fold and wear on the other.

ccc of america Francis

The video, in English, Spanish and French, clocks in at just over 25 minutes and presents the story of St. Francis’ change of heart and eventual founding of the Franciscan Order in a way children 8 and under can understand. One of the best moments came in the middle of the video, when Francis’ mother tells him that “God comes first–only He can tell you your destiny;” then Francis prays in the tumbledown chapel at San Damiano and is given the commission to build up the Church. (Of course, he misinteprets this at first, and the video shows how he later learns the true meaning of his mission.) Francis is shown preaching the Gospel, especially the Beatitudes, and being kind to strangers and to the poor.

My friends Cole and Ryan check out the video and activity poster.
My friends’ sons, Cole and Ryan, check out the video and activity poster.

As my own children are teenagers and young adults, I brought the movie and poster to church to ask my friends’ sons, who are are just the right age for the movie and activities in this bundle pack, to share their impressions of the video and poster. Their favorite part was the word-search activity on the back of the poster.

C and R with Francis activities 1

This movie would be an excellent addition to a religious-education program as well as a family video library.

To purchase your copy of this Special Edition: Francis, the Knight of Assisi + Pope Francis Commemorative Poster at a special price, use coupon code BLOGGER30 at checkout. You’ll save 30% off the regular price!

saints and heroes bundle pack

Product images courtesy of CCC of America.
Other photos copyright Barb Szyszkiewicz, OFS. All rights reserved.

Note: links to CCC of America are affiliate links. Thanks for sponsoring my blog through your purchase!

Transitus? What’s a Transitus?

franciscanmomLeave a comment

Franciscans all over the world observe the Transitus today, on the eve of the Feast of St. Francis. (Technically, for us, it’s a Solemnity, which would be extra cool if it weren’t already Sunday! As it is, the Sunday takes precedence over the Feast. Or Solemnity. St. Francis would probably let someone have it if he heard them complaining that a Sunday canceled out his Feast Day. Actually, there’s no “probably” about it. I’m quite sure he would.)

St. Francis statue at St. Anthony Shrine, Paterson, NJ. Copyright 2015 Barb Szyszkiewicz. All rights reserved.
St. Francis statue at St. Anthony Shrine, Paterson, NJ. Copyright 2015 Barb Szyszkiewicz. All rights reserved.

Today we observe the Transitus, because today is the day Francis died. “Transitus” celebrates transition: between Francis’ life on earth and his new life in Heaven.

We observe the Transitus by gathering together in prayer. The Transitus is not a Mass, but a prayer service. At the Transitus my Fraternity is hosting, we will sing “All Creatures of Our God and King” because Francis wrote the words. And we will sing all the verses, spread out at different points in the service, because those last two verses concern earthly death–or, as Francis called her, “Sister Death.” We will read from biographies of Francis by St. Bonaventure and Thomas of Celano. We will also read from the Gospel of John and Psalm 142. After the homily, we will pray together and then enjoy some fellowship with our guests.

#WorthRevisit: Almost-Saint for Today

franciscanmom4 Comments

Today we celebrate Bl. Junípero Serra, a favorite of mine ever since I learned about him in grade school. He’ll be named a saint in only a few short months, during the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia!

Ironically, we’re celebrating a Franciscan saint-to-be on the very first day since 1936 that my parish has not been served by Franciscan friars. We Secular Franciscans are all that’s left here. I’ll be keeping my Franciscan saints (and saints-to-be) close and praying that our new pastor is Franciscan-friendly.

So here’s my post from a year ago, Worth Revisiting:

Today the Church celebrates a priest I first learned about in grade school.

Public school.

(I’m pretty sure that would never happen today.)

Father Serra statue C JohnsonBut back in second grade in 1972, our Social Studies book had a whole section on the California missionaries, led by Father Junípero Serra.

I was fascinated.

Here were pictures, in my schoolbook, of men dressed like my uncle, who is a Franciscan friar. Here was the story of a priest who founded a string of Catholic churches throughout what later became the state of California at the same time the American Revolution was being fought in the eastern part of our nation.

In the Catholic middle school I attended, I learned about Father Serra again; Father Serra stained glass C Johnsonthis time the lesson was brought to us by speakers from the Serra Club, a group that promotes vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

As an adult, when I had the chance to visit California with Hubs in 1995, I made sure to see one of the mission churches there. California mission C JohnsonI’d love to take a trip along El Camino Real and see them all. They’re beautiful tributes to evangelization.

Here’s more about this energetic, dedicated Franciscan saint.

All images generously shared by Christine Johnson.

I’m linking up at Worth Revisiting, hosted by Reconciled to You and Theology is a Verb.

worth revisit

A Franciscan Farewell

franciscanmomLeave a comment

1024px-Kruis_san_damiano
San Damiano Cross [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
At the beginning of the year we received a letter from our pastor and one from our bishop. The Conventual Franciscan friars, who have served our parish since 1936, are turning the administration of the parish over to the diocese. There just aren’t enough friars to go around anymore, though we have been blessed to have two serving in our parish.

Having always worshipped in parishes staffed by religious priests (in all cases but one, Franciscan friars) rather than diocesan priests, I’m used to priests coming and going every few years.

But last night, at the last Sunday (OK, Saturday night) Mass our pastor would be celebrating with us, I did something I’ve never done before: I wept over the departure of these priests.

Let me be right up front and say that this is not because I don’t trust our bishop to send us a good diocesan priest to serve our parish, because I do. In fact, the priest who is coming here is someone whose homilies I’ve been following online for about a decade now.

But this departure represents something different.

First of all, it’s the loss of the Franciscan friars’ presence in our parish. That’s what drew us to this parish in the first place, in late 1991 when we were “church shopping” (yes, I admit it) after moving to this area. The friars made us feel at home. Franciscan hospitality is unlike any other.

But the two priests who have served here this year, who in some ways could not be any more different from each other, have touched my heart and it will be hard to see them go.

Father Brennan-Joseph, the pastor, inspires. A gifted speaker, he uses humor, personal examples and a fire born of true devotion to bring home the points he makes in his homilies. In addition, he is generous with gratitude and compliments for those who help at Mass in any way.

Father Matthew instructs and challenges. His knowledge of Franciscan history has been a true gift to the Secular Franciscans. He has urged us to keep the Franciscan spirit alive in this parish. And he tells it like it is, which (he admits) puts some people off, but which I find refreshing and necessary. Father Matthew also frequently speaks about prayer during his homilies, and you don’t hear many priests doing that.

Both priests live their calling. They pray with us and for us and they let us know this. They stay after daily Mass on novena days (Monday, the Blessed Mother; Tuesday, St. Anthony; Wednesday, St. Joseph; and Fridays in June, the Sacred Heart). They pray in the Adoration Chapel, with regular hours and drop-in visits. It is a true witness to parishioners to see their priests praying in the Adoration Chapel. They believe; they are devoted; it shows. And it edifies us.

When these two friars arrived in our parish, they knew they’d be here temporarily. But they didn’t just “phone it in,” do Masses, weddings, sick visits and funerals and call it a day. They gave everything they had. They became part of the community. They resurrected a dying altar-server ministry, started a Frassati Society for young adults, and showed up at each and every parish function, staying until the last piece of cake was served.

I am grateful for their service to this parish, for the example they set, for the inspiration and challenges they have given us. May God bless them in their ministry to their future parishes (one in New York state, one in England). And may God help our parish in this time of transition. May we show true Franciscan hospitality to our new pastor.

Don’t Use Prepositions to Justify Solar Panels

franciscanmom3 Comments

One of the biggest misconceptions about St. Francis of Assisi is that he “loved the environment.”

Not exactly.

He loved God’s creation. Because God created it.

Yesterday I saw an EWTN video clip about the Franciscan Friars of Ellicott City, MD (who currently staff our parish) and how they installed 1,200 solar panels on a large piece of property at St. Anthony’s Shrine. In this clip, Father Michael Heine, OFM Conv. uses Francis’ Canticle of the Creatures as justification for the building of the solar farm. “We know that St. Francis was a great lover of the earth. His Canticle of the Creatures praises all Creation.”

With all respect to Father Michael, his statement is based on a mistranslated preposition. In the Canticle, the preposition per was used*. It does not mean “for,” as in “Be praised, My Lord, for Sister Moon,” but instead “by” or “through,” as in “Be praised, My Lord, through Sister Moon.” In the Canticle, Francis called upon all Creation to praise the Creator, with each created thing: sun, moon, wind, fire, water, and the earth praising God by its very being–by doing what it was created to do.

The Canticle does not, in any way, praise Creation in and of itself, but only for the way in which Creation reflects the One who created it in the first place. So to use it as a justification for the construction of solar panels (the manufacture of which can have considerable environmental impact) is stretching it. A lot.

Yes, we are called to be good stewards of God’s creation and of all the natural resources that are on the earth. But let’s not justify our rush to jump on the green-energy bandwagon, with all its empty promises, with a badly-translated twelfth-century poem that was nothing more than a hymn glorifying God and calling upon all of us to do our best to glorify God with the gifts he gave us.

Below is the Canticle of the Creatures as presented on the Franciscan Friars TOR site. This translation uses the prepositions correctly.

Most High, all powerful, good Lord,

Yours are the praises, the glory, the honor, and all blessing.

To You alone, Most High, do they belong, and no man is worthy to mention Your name.

Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures, especially through my lord Brother Sun, who brings the day; and you give light through him.

And he is beautiful and radiant in all his splendor! Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars, in heaven you formed them clear and precious and beautiful.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Wind, and through the air, cloudy and serene, and every kind of weather through which You give sustenance to Your creatures.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Water, which is very useful and humble and precious and chaste.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Fire, through whom you light the night and he is beautiful and playful and robust and strong.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Mother Earth, who sustains us and governs us and who produces varied fruits with colored flowers and herbs.

Praised be You, my Lord, through those who give pardon for Your love, and bear infirmity and tribulation.

Blessed are those who endure in peace for by You, Most High, they shall be crowned.

Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death, from whom no living man can escape. Woe to those who die in mortal sin. Blessed are those whom death will find in Your most holy willl, for the second death shall do them no harm.

Praise and bless my Lord, and give Him thanks and serve Him with great humility. AMEN.

If you would like to read the Canticle side by side with the Italian, Father Regis Armstrong, OFM provides it here.

*Disclosure about why I know my prepositions: I majored in Spanish and English in college, and took classes in Romance Linguistics.

In Honor of the Feast

franciscanmom1 Comment

Today is the Feast of St. Francis. I didn’t get to Mass this morning, because I was substitute-teaching at Little Brother’s school.

But I told them that I could only do half a day today, because this afternoon, the Secular Franciscans were getting together for a little retreat led by our very own Secular Franciscan Deacon! Together we reflected on being Franciscan, on minority, poverty, commitment and renewal. We closed the retreat with Adoration and Benediction.

So what does it mean to be a Franciscan in today’s world? Among other things, it means that we decide to serve rather than to be served; to “rebuild the Church” person by person, and to witness that people are more important than things.

And it means that we seek to surround ourselves with other who are striving for the same goal.

Today I am thankful for my Franciscan family! May this feast, and all days, be blessed.

A Whole New Meaning

franciscanmom3 Comments

One thing I love about our church is the cross. A Franciscan parish from the time it was founded in 1913, our church has a huge San Damiano Cross on the wall behind the altar. It’s more than a cross–it’s an icon, and every little detail has meaning. Read all about it, then gaze upon a large San Damiano Cross if you can find one. It’s a wonderful meditation.

It’s such a wonderful road to prayer, in fact, that I hesitate a bit to share this story. But I thought it was funny, so I’m going to tell it anyway.

The altar servers at our parish often wear a little cross over their albs. But the crosses aren’t all the same. Some have the words “Altar Server” inscribed on them. Others are San Damiano crosses. On Sunday, Little Brother got himself vested for altar serving, then came out to wait by me in the choir area. After I fixed his collar (an every-Sunday occurrence) I told him that I was glad he was wearing the San Damiano cross because it’s my favorite one.

He wanted to know why, and I showed him that it matched the cross on the wall in the church. He’d never noticed it before (possibly because he usually sits with the musicians who don’t have a good view of it) and I pointed out some of the figures on the cross.

Then I mentioned the “angels with halos” at the very top. Suddenly he got interested. “Halo people?” he asked. “I thought those were only in video games!”

Long Day Ahead

franciscanmom2 Comments

I’ve been up since 4:45, so I’m two hours into the day already.  I’ve finished my Big Travel Mug of coffee (it’s half-caff; I’m easing up) and have moved on to my Big Cup of Water.

There’s a lot to do today, which is probably why I was up so early.  Later this morning my Secular Franciscan fraternity will meet with our Regional Minister and others from the Regional Council for our Regional Visitation and Paperwork Jamboree.  It’s not supposed to be a stressful time, but because it’s outside the norm of our regular meetings, it’s a stressful time.  And I’m the fraternity minister, so any missing paperwork is on my head.

I’ll be getting there early to unlock the meeting room and put the coffee on–and turn the heat on, since Mother Nature has finally gotten the memo that it’s February.

I’ll also be getting there early because the back of my van is fully loaded with enough groceries to feed a spaghetti dinner to 105 people, which is what I’m doing tonight.  It’s the annual Cub Scout Blue & Gold Dinner.  Fortunately, it’s in the same building as my meeting this morning, so I can unload the van once and be done with it.  When the meeting is over, I’ll put on my apron, change out of my “confident shoes” and put on my sneakers, and start making spaghetti sauce.  A lot of spaghetti sauce.

Yesterday I rolled and baked 225 meatballs.   That’s a lot of meatballs.

When the meeting is over and I have closed up the meeting room, I will appreciate the quiet in the building.  I’ll be the only one there for a few hours.  While I open cans of crushed tomatoes and stir in the garlic and oregano, I’ll have time to decompress.  Never underestimate the value of cooking as an aid to decompression.  (I get to be Martha and Mary all at the same time–yay for multitasking!)  I made sure to load up some good playlists so I’ll have music, and since there will be no one else in the building, I can sing as loudly as I want.  Or I can just enjoy the quiet, which will come to a sudden end when the Cub Scouts show up.

There’s a long day ahead, but I’ve got the tools to get through it:  coffee, an entire bag of fun-size Milky Ways, “confident shoes,” an apron, a Sharpie, my favorite music, and prayer.  A lot of prayer.

Hail, Holy Queen

franciscanmomLeave a comment

In honor of today’s celebration of the Queenship of Mary, here’s a how-to for my favorite variation of the Rosary:  the Franciscan Crown.

It’s got that name because, according to legend, the Blessed Mother asked an aspiring Franciscan friar to weave her a crown of prayers.

The Franciscan Crown is a 7-decade Rosary.  If you don’t have a 7-decade set, use your regular Rosary and just backtrack a bit.  Unlike the regular Rosary, you start at the medal and end at the cross.

For each decade, pray 1 Our Father, 10 Hail Marys and 1 Gloria.

Here are the meditations for each decade:

  1. The first Joy in the Crown of Mary is the joy of Our Lady at the Annunciation.  “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to Your word.”  May I become your humble servant, Lord.
  2. The second Joy in the Crown of Mary is the joy of Our Lady at the Visitation.  “Rising up, Mary went into the hill country and saluted her cousin Elizabeth.“  Grant us true love of neighbor, Lord.
  3. The third Joy in the Crown of Mary is the joy of Our Lady at the Birth of Jesus and the Adoration of the Magi.  “She brought forth her first-born son…and laid him in a manger.”  Give us true poverty of spirit, Lord.
  4. The fourth Joy in the Crown of Mary is the joy of Our Lady at the Presentation and Purification.  “They carried him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord…as it is written in the law of the Lord.”  Help me obey all just laws.
  5. The fifth Joy in the Crown of Mary is the joy of Our Lady at the Finding of Jesus in the Temple.  “Not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem seeking him.”  May I never lose you through serious sin, Lord.
  6. The sixth Joy in the Crown of Mary is the joy of Our Lady at the Resurrection of Jesus.  “The Lord is not here; He is risen.”  May we share your glory, Lord.
  7. The seventh Joy in the Crown of Mary is the joy of Our Lady at her Assumption into Heaven and her Coronation.  “A woman clothed with the sun; upon her head a crown of twelve stars.”  Mary, may we share your crown of eternal life.
After you have prayed the seven decades, pray two more Hail Marys to make a total of 72–honoring the 72 years of Mary’s life (according to legend).  Then, for the intentions of the Holy Father, pray one Our Father, one Hail Mary and one Gloria.
Friar Charles has some more details on the Franciscan Crown.  You don’t have to be a Franciscan to pray this beautiful devotion.  Join me today, in honor of the Queenship of Mary.

Following Up on the Sultan and the Dilemma

franciscanmom2 Comments

Thank you all so much for your words of advice as I made the decision.  A fellow Franciscan, Lisa of Franciscan Focus, suggested checking into a book called St. Francis and the Conversion of the Muslims.  When I visited the website she recommended, I found a link to an interview with the author.

I printed out this interview and brought it to the meeting.  I decided to head this member off at the pass.  I handed her the printout and told her that I knew she’d be interested in reading this, and if she thought that this book would be beneficial to the fraternity, we’d order a copy for the fraternity library.  The idea of guest speakers was not mentioned.  She was happy to receive the interview and said she’d let me know if she thought we’d be interested in the book.

So there we are!