Good Morning Everyone,

I pray you and your family had a Blessed Thanksgiving.

I’ve finally had time to work on updating and posting our Guidelines.  Section for Local Fraternities is complete.  Look in right hand column for

SKDRF Guidelines with Procedures, etc.

Just 2 clicks to find what you want

1. click on title above that you found in right hand column (below “Regional Handbook”)

2. Page is divided into specific sections.  Scroll down to the section of interest then click on specific page of interest.  Options are the same as in former “Regional Handbook”.  You may

  • just read;
  • save to your computer for use later
  • print or
  • “save & print”.

For further help contact your District Councilor: Kathy, Jeff or Terri.

Peace & Joy,

SKDRF Website Editor

 

Saint Katharine Drexel Region Feast Day Prayer (March 3rd)

A Prayer Service for St. Katharine Drexel – March 3

(Canonized October 1, 2000)

Leader: Let us pray…

Ever loving God, You called Saint Katharine Drexel to teach the message of the Gospel and to bring the life of the Eucharist to the Black and Native American peoples. By her prayers and example, enable us to work for justice among the poor and oppressed. Draw us all into the Eucharistic community of your Church, that we may be one in You. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Side 1: Eucharist

The Eucharist is a never-ending sacrifice.  It is the Sacrament of love, the supreme love, the act of love.  Help us each moment today and always to communicate myself to You by doing Your will.  – Saint Katharine Drexel

Brief pause for reflection

Saint Katharine Drexel, lover of the Eucharist, pray for us

Side 2:  EVANGELIZATION

We look up in wonder at God’s wonderful ways and thought how little we imagine what may be the result of listening and acting on a desire He puts into the heart.  Nourish before Him great desires…May our desire be to bring Him hearts, for all are His by right, having been purchased by every drop of His blood.  – Saint Katharine Drexel

Brief pause for reflection

Saint Katharine Drexel, model for those who evangelize, pray for us.

Side 1:  PEACE

Peacefully do at each moment what at that moment ought to be done.  If we do what each moment requires, we will eventually complete God’s plan, whatever it is.  We can trust God to take care of the master plan when we take care of the details.  – Saint Katharine Drexel

Brief pause for reflection

Saint Katharine Drexel, steadfast in trust, pray for us.

Side 2:  SERVANT OF THE POOR

Kindness is the natural fruit of goodness of heart.  He (Jesus) loved every human being as the image of God…and so all that came within range of His benevolence were treated kindly for God’s sake and their own.  – Saint Katharine Drexel

Brief pause for reflection

Saint Katharine Drexel, lover of the poor, pray for us.

Side 1:  SUFFERING OF CHRIST

Often in our desire to work for others we find our hands tied, something hinders our charitable designs, some hostile influence renders us powerless.  My prayers seem to avail nothing, my kind acts are rejected, I seem to do the wrong thing when I am trying to do my best.  In such cases I must not grieve.  I am only treading in my Master’s steps.  – Saint Katharine Drexel

Brief pause for reflection

Saint Katharine Drexel, follower of the suffering Christ, pray for us.

Side 2:  THE CROSS

(Christ) may be leading me out to a cross.  If so, I can have no hesitation about following Him!  I must follow Him closely, so that…I shall be near Him, my good Shepherd, Who will help me to carry it, for He still bears His Cross in each one of His children.  – Saint Katharine Drexel

Brief pause for reflection

Saint Katharine Drexel, bearer of the cross, pray for us.

Side 1:  DEVOTION TO MARY

Teach us, O my dear Mother, the lesson of sacrifice.  Help me, Mother, to take from the hands of Jesus, in the spirit of humble love, devotion to my daily crosses. – Saint Katharine Drexel

Brief pause for reflection

Saint Katharine Drexel, daughter of Mary, pray for us.

Side 2:  BUILDING FOR ETERNITY

Out of our common todays and yesterdays, we are building for eternity.  No thought, no work of ours ever dies.  We shall meet them all again, and in the world to come shall find our gathered harvest.  – Saint Katharine Drexel

Brief pause for reflection

Saint Katharine Drexel, woman of vision, pray for us.

Side 1:  PRAYER AND WORK

The active life to be productive must have contemplation.  When it (contemplation) gets to a certain height it overflows to active life and gets help and strength from the heart of God.  This is the way the saints produced so much fruit, and we’re all called to be saints.  – Saint Katharine Drexel

Brief pause for reflection

Saint Katharine Drexel, model for the union of prayer and work, pray for us.

Leader: CLOSING PRAYER:

We wish to be one who conscientiously takes part in the unfolding of God’s plans, and eventually have a glorious part in the final unfolding of time into the glory of God’s Kingdom in heaven.  If we are disciples of Jesus, we shall be happy to spend ourselves and be spent for the salvation of souls.  – Saint Katharine Drexel

Brief pause for reflection

ALL: Saint Katharine Drexel, pray for us.

 

Edited/Captured from the St. Katharine Drexel Church (Mechanicsburg, PA) Website – Prayer and Novena

Cindy Louden, OFS (Vice Minister, SKD Regional Council & Minister, Living Word Fraternity

March 3, 2024

Pope Francis & CIOFS Prayer Intentions for 2024

This link contains the Holy Father’s and CIOFS prayer intentions for 2024 for fraternity use in newsletters and gatherings:

EN-Monthly-Intentions-2024

Farewell to Br. Ed Skutka, OFM

There are three fraternities in St. Katharine Drexel Region that are bonded to St. John the Baptist Province (OFM):

  • Holy Cross Fraternity
  • Sts. Cyril & Methodius Fraternity
  • St. Francis Fraternity (Easton)

When the six OFM provinces become one in mid-October as Our Lady of Guadalupe Province, there will be many changes of friars across locations.  One of these reassignments affected St. Francis Retreat House, as Br. Ed Skutka, OFM, left for Butler, NJ, after 53 years at Easton, PA.

As our region participated in many retreat weekends at Easton, we always enjoyed the hospitality, humor, and faithful presence of Br. Ed.  Attached is the provincial newsletter from St. John the Baptist with an article by Fr. Loren Connell, OFM, on page 5 about Br. Ed.  If you would like to send him a note, here is his address, effective August 11th:

Br. Edward Skutka, OFM
St. Anthony Friary
65 Bartholdi Avenue, Butler, New Jersey 07405
973-850-6512

Let us give thanks to Br. Ed for his long and faithful service, and pray for joyful fraternity among the friars in residence at Butler!

SJB News Notes 8-25-23

Eucharistic Revival: Stage Two

                                      A Church on Mission
The National Eucharistic Revival in the United States moved into its
second, or parish, year on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. In July 2024, the Church in the United States will hold a National Eucharistic Congress. We at Catholic Apostolate Center continue to work with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the National Eucharistic Congress organization to assist all in moving out on mission from our encounter with Christ in the Eucharist. On Monday, June 19, Pope Francis met with the organizers of the Congress and offered these and other important insights. His words are quoted here at length and should be reflected on often.
“It is my hope, then, that the Eucharistic Congress will inspire Catholics throughout the country to discover anew the sense of wonder and awe at the Lord’s great gift of himself and to spend time with him in the celebration of the Holy Mass and in personal prayer and adoration before the Blessed Sacrament…. I likewise trust that the Congress will be an occasion for the faithful to commit themselves with ever greater zeal to being missionary disciples of the Lord Jesus in the world… This is the sense of a missionary spirit. You go to the celebration of Mass, receive communion, adore the Lord and then what do you do after? You go out and evangelize. Jesus asks this of
us. The Eucharist, then, impels us to a strong and committed love of neighbor.
For we cannot truly understand or live the meaning of the Eucharist if our hearts are closed to our brothers and sisters, especially those who are poor, suffering, weary or who may have gone astray in life” (Pope Francis, Greeting to the Organizing Committee of the National Eucharistic Congress in the United States of America).
May the Charity of Christ urge us on!
In God, the Infinite Love,
Fr. Frank – Catholic Apostolate Center

St. Francis of Assisi’s “Letter to the Entire Order” (excerpt) 

 26  Let everyone be struck with fear,
let the whole world tremble,
and let the heavens exult
when Christ, the Son of the living God,
is present on the altar in the hands of a priest!
27O wonderful loftiness and stupendous dignity!
O sublime humility!
O humble sublimity! …

Humble yourselves that you may be exalted by Him! 1 Pt 5:6  Jas 4:10
29Hold back nothing of yourselves for yourselves,
that He Who gives Himself totally to you may receive you totally!

How will you give Christ to your brothers & sisters today?

St. Katharine Drexel Regional Retreat Weekend (Oct. 6-8, 2023)

Fr. Greg Friedman Franciscan Retreat October 6 to 8, 2023

As announced at our May 6th Chapter of Elections when copies of this flyer were distributed to all fraternity ministers or their delegates, our region has announced our regional retreat weekend for October 6-8, 2023 at St. Francis Retreat Center in Easton, PA.  The retreat presenter will be Fr. Greg Friedman, OFM with Franciscan perspectives on the papal encyclical “Fratelli Tutti.”  We hope that each of our 24 fraternities in the region sends at least two representatives.  Retreats are a special time and space to pull back from the ordinary and to encounter the extraordinary with new eyes.  May this retreat awaken new horizons for our vocation!

St Francis / EWTN TV Schedule for weekend of feast

Shared from our sister, Cindy Louden, OFS, Minister of Living Word Fraternity:
St Francis / EWTN TV

St. Francis’ feast day is October 4. Tune in to inspirational and informative specials on one of our Church’s most beloved saints!
Saturday, 10/2 at 8 p.m. ET        – “Clare and Francis”
Sunday, 10/3 at 1:30 p.m. ET     – Vespers and Transitus of St. Francis
Monday, 10/4 at 8 a.m. ET         – Holy Mass on the Feast of St. Francis
Monday, 10/4 at 3:30 p.m. ET    – St. Francis of Assisi: Sign of Contradiction
AND MORE!
See the full program schedule in your local time: http://bit.ly/EWTNtv
Sharing the news!  Peace & ALL Good!

Couple heads back to the altar. This time as Franciscans.

Couple heads back to the altar, this time as Franciscans

Two options for Franciscan Themed Face Masks

Two options for Franciscan related face masks.  Neither the Region nor I have any connection to either company!

Franciscan Themed Face Masks

Tau Cross Face Masks

More Good News!! Keep it coming!

Renee Eck, OFS, Minister of St. Patrick fraternity, Wilmington, DE, proudly passed on this news:  my husband Howard Eck, OFS, from St Patrick’s fraternity was accepted as an acolyte this past weekend. God willing next year he will be an ordained deacon.

(Howard is Formation Director of St. Patrick’s) Congratulations and best of luck in the coming year!!