The St. Katharine Drexel Region of the Secular Franciscan Order

St. Katherine Drexel Regional Fraternity 

Regional Spiritual Assistant 

St. Francis of Assisi Friary 

1901 Prior Road 

Wilmington, Delaware 19809 

 tel: (302) 798-1454      fax: (302) 798-3360      website:  skdsfo     email: pppgusa@gmail.com 

 May 2023 

 Dear Sisters and Brothers in St. Francis of Assisi, 

 The Lord grant you the gifts of Easter Joy, 

given on the first Easter Sunday to those gathered in the Upper Room: 

The Paraclete of Divine Presence 

The Pardon of Divine Mercy 

The Peace of His abiding Divine Life-giving Love within and around you…and 

The ever-present warmth of motherly love of our Mother Mary  

Who accepted us as Her children at the foot of the Cross 

 Our Seraphic Father St. Francis of Assisi tells us so much of his love for Mary and his awareness of Her place in the mystery of our salvation.  His love for Her was undeniable. Francis saw the Mother of God and our Heavenly Mother always in relationship to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and, because of that, to the Church.  

 Holy Virgin Mary, among the women born into the world,  

there is no one like you. 

Daughter and servant of the most high and supreme  

King and of the Father in heaven,  

Mother of our most holy Lord Jesus Christ, 

Spouse of the Holy Spirit, 

pray for us with Saint Michael the Archangel,  

all the powers of heaven and all the saints, 

at the side of your most beloved Son, our Lord and Teacher. 

 The Easter Season calls to mind the great truths of our Faith celebrated in this most holy period. The Incarnation of the Word in the womb of Mary is the beginning of the fulfillment of the Father’s Promise to humanity. Human nature is redeemed on Calvary, assured of salvation for those who live in the light and truth of the Resurrection of Jesus, and is raised up with Jesus and glorified in His Ascension.  The last Sunday of this month celebrates the Coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and heralds the birth of the Church and its coming of age to Proclaim the Gospel to every creature. (Mark 16: 15-16).  The Holy Spirit continues this action of restoration and sanctification of creation down through the ages. And Mary is an integral protagonist at every moment in this Drama of Redemption and Theater of Salvation from the beginning to the fulfillment of God’s Promises. 

 Our Blessed Mother Mary, the mere mention of Whose name speaks of the ‘Yes’ with which she responded to God’s offer to become His earthly Mother, is a powerful yet gentle reminder of the eminent role She fulfills in the mystery and history of our salvation. Throughout the liturgical year Our Lady is always present as the Church celebrates the mysteries of Her Son. True devotion to Mary, our Mother and Queen, whose Immaculate Heart envelops all Her children with tender loving care, always leads us to Jesus, Her Son, and to a greater love and trust in God. 

 With the passing of time, many ‘obvious’ remembrances are institutionalized as feasts or celebrations of some sort, so that we do not forget their significance in our journey of faith. The further away we move in time from the actual events and persons we habitually celebrate, the more they can become a mere memory of the past rather than a living experience for us today. When we celebrate God and His saving action in and for humanity, the experience and relevance are always actual and timely.  There can never be a time or occasion when God is not relevant or necessary. If God does not build the house, in vain do the laborers labor. If God does not watch over the city, in vain does the watchman keep vigil. (Psalm 127: 1) 

 It is this active presence of God that demands we return to our origins to re-discover the relevance of God’s Word and the impact His Word must have on our daily life.  If we could see the events of our Faith with the heart of those who had seen and walked with Jesus, before and after His Passion-Death-Resurrection, things could be drastically different. If we only allowed the events of our lives and how God manifests Himself to us to penetrate our hearts as Mary did!  She kept all these things in Her heart. (Luke 2: 19)  If we could only remember that we as Franciscans are called to live the Gospel, and thus reflect – keep in our hearts – upon the words of the Word and take them to ourselves, how different our response would be to the challenges of openness, compassion, understanding, patience, acceptance, detachment, transparency, obedience, Franciscan fraternity … LOVE!  That little word “if” packs a wallop when it is taken seriously! 

 With the eyes of a Faith convinced and committed, we can experience the same zeal and enthusiasm of the first followers. We too can be excited, enthused and encouraging not only about our Catholic Faith in general, but also about our Franciscan vocation in particular, and all that envisions and expects of us who profess to be Franciscans. As a faith-filled Jewish woman, Mary knew what collaborating with God usually entails: to put it in Franciscan terms, “Perfect Joy”. The “joy” was in knowing that everything that would be asked of Her was a part of God’s Plan to restore creation to its original grace-filled beauty. The “perfect” part was accepting a central collaborative part in the process of faith-filled dependence on God’s will with a hope-filled acceptance of all that is asked, regardless of how much is totally understood or desired. Only Love, and true love, can so completely abandon oneself with serenity to the unexpected, unknown, undesired, and say “yes” with such trust, that a God could become human, without every losing anything of His Divinity, and humanity could actually share in the Life of God Himself. Wow! What more can anyone ask! All this is thanks to a young virgin who said “yes” to the impossible, because God asked Her permission and assistance!  

 The Holy Spirit that descended on the first followers is the same Holy Spirit that we receive at Baptism and Confirmation.  The distinction is seen in the effects of the Spirit’s presence based on the availability of the person ‘gifted’ by the Holy Spirit. Our Faith, founded on the Passion-Death-Resurrection of Jesus, would be of no value had it not been for the empowering of the Spirit in those first followers whose availability to His prompting allowed them to be led by the Holy Spirit of God that they might lead others. We are called to lead others to know, love and serve God in the Gospel Life proclaimed by Jesus. In the Spirit, we remember, we celebrate, and we believe Jesus to be the Incarnate Son of God and Redeemer of humanity. This Faith will bring us to a deeper and more meaningful relationship with Jesus, and consequently with one another, just as it did for the first followers of Jesus. Mary, once again, is the prime exemplar; She believed the unbelievable, was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, (Luke 1: 34-35) and the impossible happened!  The Creator became one with His creature; divinity and humanity became one through the total surrender in Faith of Mary to the Father’s will.   

 The first and most excellent of all the faithful was Mary, our Blessed Mother. Faith accompanied Her into the divine plan that made Her Mother of the Christ, Mother of the Christian, Mother of the Church.  The depth of Faith of the Mother of God, expressed so powerfully at the foot of the Cross of Jesus, was enhanced with the added ministry entrusted to Her by Her dying Son. He called Her to become the Mother of all the Faithful: Woman, behold Your son; Son, behold Your Mother. (John 19: 26-27) Infinitely less than Jesus and eminently greater than all humanity, Mary makes the ultimate sacrifice in offering Her Son to the Father with the same availability to the Father’s Will with which She offered Her first ‘yes’ to become the Mother of the Savior.  She manifests Herself to be, in the words of our Seraphic Father St. Francis, the Virgin made Church.   

 The Church maintains the living presence of the Savior, most especially in the great gift of the Eucharist – the living Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of the Savior. This same Church continues, with Mary, to offer Her Son – our Brother, Lord, Savior, Word Incarnate, GOD – to the Father, in that one perfect Sacrifice perpetuated through the ages in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We are that Church! We, like Mary, offer ourselves each day in loving response to God’s tremendous and extravagant love for us in Jesus. And we are spiritually transformed by the graces that flow to us from Jesus through Mary. We are offered the challenge and opportunity to become the living image of the One whom we consume, as He consumes us, JESUS. 

 Mother of the Redeemer, She excels in the example of total surrender to God’s Will. Her Faith is an active and essential element of Her very being.  Faith is not just a static acceptance of some theological truth. It is living life in the light of what we have come to believe.  St. Augustine tells us that faith is believing what you do not see, and seeing what you believe. Thus, ‘believing is seeing, not vice versa as we are accustomed to presume.  Believing God’s Word, we see God’s almighty power and providence at work in our lives, and thus we can confidently yield to all the Father requests of us. This same Faith places Mary in a position of total trust in God and profound love for all His children, now entrusted to Her motherly care by Jesus. She stands as the Advocate for all Her children before the Majesty of the Blessed Trinity.  Truly She is, as St. Francis of Assisi acknowledged:   Daughter and Servant of the Most High and Supreme King and of the Father in heaven, Mother of our most holy Lord Jesus Christ, Spouse of the Holy Spirit. (Antiphon Office of the Passion) Her intimate relationship with the Triune God enables Her to be our most powerful Advocate in heaven. 

 Present in prophecy, present in history, and present in the expectations of all God’s People, Mary is a life-giving presence that speaks of the power of God working in human history. Mary is a sign of hope for a waiting world. She reverses the obstinacy of creation in Eden and accepts wholeheartedly to cooperate with all the Father asks of Her.  She becomes the Mother of all the Faithful Who enter into a New Covenant with the Father in the Blood of His Son, conceived in Her by the power of the Holy Spirit. Mary’s loving response and daily re-commitment to that response encourages us to respond to the Father and to ask that Jesus come alive in our hearts through the same Holy Spirit working within us.  

 Mary was the first to practice the Gospel in all its perfection before it was written. May Her example and prayers enable us and stimulate us to follow that example.  We must make every effort, like many elect souls, to follow invariably this Blessed Mother, to walk close to Her since there is no other sure path leading to Jesus – the Way, the Truth and the Life – except the path followed by our Mother.  We cannot afford to refuse to take this path, we who want to reach our journey’s end “successfully”. With Her, close to Jesus, we can proceed confidently through life in the midst of whatever we may encounter or must bear.  

 As Followers of the Poverello of Assisi, we strive to live the Faith we profess and to see in Our Heavenly Mother a sure Advocate Who pleads our cause. We open our hearts to the Spirit we have received and we listen to God Who speaks to us in the silence of our hearts.  Francis encourages us to foster an ever-growing love for our Mother Who stands to intercede for us at every moment. Mary’s life was one continual ‘yes’ to God.  Following Her example, let us gratefully accept sorrows, hardships, fortune, and all life offers and/or demands with the same ‘yes’ Mary offered to God. Her response to God’s invitation allowed the Eternal One to be enfleshed in Her life. During these trying times we have been experiencing, we continue to entrust ourselves to our Mother’s “almighty intercession”. May Her Son Jesus hear the plea we make through Her, and grant this world the peace, stability, and faith in God it so desperately needs to bring an end to the political, social, economic, international, religious, spiritual, moral, and more, confusion and fear that affects the whole world. 

 With every best wish for you during this season of new birth and new life, I pray we all live as the ‘People of the Resurrection’. In the midst of the world’s uncertainties and global threats, let us pray earnestly that God bless our earthly home with healing and freedom from the evil one and the evil that has and continues to affect all creation. May our lives be a song of praise to the God Who creates, redeems and sanctifies.  He gave us Mary, His daughter, His mother, and His spouse as our intimate companion to help us come closer to one another as Her children, as She leads us ever closer to Jesus Her Son. May we confidently respond, as our Blessed Mother Mary did with a determined ‘Yes’ to all the Father asks of us, and thus become more like Jesus in Whose image Scripture tells us we are created. Let us all be open to the working of the Holy Spirit, first gift of the Resurrection, Whose descent upon the early Church gathered together with Mary in the Cenacle, we celebrate this year on the last Sunday of May. May the Holy Spirit inflame our hearts as He filled Our Mother Mary and all the first followers.  

 God bless and keep all of you safe; Our Lady and good St. Joseph guide, guard, and protect you; and may our Seraphic Father St. Francis of Assisi and our Holy Mother St. Clare watch over each one of us, their Spiritual Children, with loving care.  

Peace and Blessings 

Fr. Francis A. Sariego, O.F.M Cap. 

Regional Spiritual Assistant 

St. Katherine Drexel Regional Fraternity

Regional Spiritual Assistant

St. Francis of Assisi Friary

1901 Prior Road

Wilmington, Delaware 19809

 tel: (302) 798-1454      fax: (302) 798-3360     website:  skdsfo    email: pppgusa@gmail.com

August 2018

Dear Sisters and Brothers in St. Francis,

The Lord give you his peace!

For centuries the Christian world has celebrated the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary body and soul into heaven.  This crowning moment in Her life was never really disputed by most Christians before the rise of Protestantism. As time moves on, the world and its values often clouds the vision of our minds and hearts.  As the modern world places humanity at the center rather than God, society takes a different view of life and basic human values.   Technology has become the ‘god’ for many, a practical atheism if not a theoretical one.  Materialism, commercialism, hedonism, just to mention a few ‘isms’ of our day, have sunk their roots deep into the human experience and often seduce the heart and soul urging us to confide in the passing things of time rather than in the lasting gifts of eternity.  The cult of the body has dominated our society for years.  Sixty years ago, recognizing these serious dangers, Pope Pius XII   proclaimed the Dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, body and soul, into heaven, November 1^st, 1950, amidst a gathering of thousands in St. Peter’s Basilica. This proclamation was the crowning recognition of the simple Maiden of Nazareth, Whose unconditional faith opened Her life to God’s will, and the world to salvation.

The story of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is beautifully told in the Apocrypha (texts not inserted among the books of Sacred Scripture by the Bishops gathered at the Council of Nicea in the fourth century).  The story lets us see how the early Church truly loved Mary as the highest honor of our race. It is no wonder that so many saints have had a particular and deep love and filial devotion for Our Lady.  Our own Seraphic Father St. Francis and Holy Mother St. Clare were devoted children of this Most Holy of Mothers, Whose love envelopes us with Her protective mantle. Close to Her Immaculate Heart, Her children feel secure from harm and assured of an Advocate almighty by intercession with God.

Saint Francis loved Christ and was deeply struck by the humility of the Incarnation and the love of His Passion.  He wanted to conform himself totally to Christ, so that Christ would be the true foundation of his life.  This love for Christ inevitably led him to a profound love for Mary, the Mother of the Lord.  In fact, as Celano states: He embraced the Mother of Jesus with inexpressible love, since She made the Lord of Majesty a brother to us.  He honored Her with his own Praises, poured out prayers to Her, and offered Her his love in a way that no human tongue can express.  But what gives us greatest joy is that he appointed Her the Advocate of the Order, and placed under Her wings the sons to be left behind, that She might protect and cherish them to the end. (2 Celano, chpt.150) Love for Our Lady moved him to imitate Her virtues.  He would tell his friars that it is the example of Christ and His Most Holy Mother that we follow in choosing the way of true poverty. (Legend of Perugia, #3)

St. Francis wanted this basic element of his spirituality to be the same basis for the spirituality of St. Clare and her religious family. Thus an essential element of the life of Clare and her sisters is the love and devotion they have for the Mother of Jesus, whom St. Clare considers their true Mother. The love of Clare for Mary is apparent from the first moment of her consecration to God.  Once she abandoned her home, city and family, she fled to Saint Mary of the Portiuncula (Our Lady of the Angels), where the brothers, who were waiting for her in prayer before the little altar in that chapel, received Clare with lighted torches. (Life, #8).  It was here that St. Francis cut her hair before the altar, in the Church of the Virgin Mary (Process, #12), and it was here that the humble handmaid was wed to Christ (Life, #8) Saint Mary of the Portiuncula is that famous place where the new throng of the poor began, guided by Francis: thus it appears clearly that the Mother of mercy gave birth to both Orders in Her own dwelling place. (Life, #8)

St. Clare began her new life at the feet of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  She had a particular love and devotion for Her and wanted her sisters, although they received the precious Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion only seven times a year, to receive communion on the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. (Rule, #3) Clare even desired that any form of fasting be dispensed on the feasts of Mary.  As much in love as Clare was with Christ Crucified, so also was she with the His Mother, reflecting upon Her sorrows.  She wrote to Sister Ermentrude: Meditate constantly on the mysteries of the cross and the agonies of His Mother standing at the foot of the Cross. (Letter to Ermentrude)

Clare was deeply convinced that perseverance in her vocation gave honor to Mary.  She prayed for the gift of perseverance, and in her Testament she writes: Let us be very careful that, if we have set out on the path of the Lord, we do not at any time turn away from it through our own fault and ignorance, or that we do a great wrong to so great a Lord and His Virgin Mother, and our blessed father Francis, the Church Triumphant and even the Church Militant…For this reason, I bend the knee to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ so that, through the prayers and merits of the glorious and holy Virgin Mary, His Mother, and our most blessed father Francis and all the saints, the Lord Himself, Who has given a good beginning, may give the increase and may give final perseverance. Amen. (Testament)

Clare’s love for Mary was a transforming element for her,   that she expressed in the imitation of Mary’s virtues.  Even Cardinal Rainaldo in the letter of  Approval of the Rule, recognizes that the community of St. Clare follows in the footsteps of Christ and His Most Holy Mother, and have chosen to live a cloistered life. Of all the aspects of the life of Jesus and Mary, Clare is particularly concerned with imitating the poverty of Mary that she might be also faithful to the example of Francis, who sought to follow the poverty of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Most Holy Mother.  It was this deep love for Mary that merited for Clare the assistance of Our Blessed Mother during her illness.  One biographer writes that when Clare seemed close to death, surrounded by her sisters who were weeping, a Benedictine nun had a vision and saw a beautiful lady at the head of the bed who addressed the weeping sisters saying: Daughters, do not cry for one who still must live on until the Lord with His disciples comes to her. (Life, #40)

Mary is the Mother of all the living (Lumen Gentium, #56)   Mary gives birth to God, by giving Him our human nature.  And Her Son, receiving from Her all that is human, gives Her, as much as possible, all that is of God.  Jesus was like Mary in Her human form, and Mary was like Jesus in His spiritual form.  There was never a creature so much ‘like God’ than Mary.  Between Mother and Son there was a full and perfect union and correspondence, even in that insurmountable distance that separates the divine Son from Her, a pure creature. (Free translation from St. Lawrence of Brindisi) It is this relationship between the human and the divine that Clare will learn and deepen through her love for Jesus and Mary.

Clare’s love for Jesus and Mary leads her to an active contemplation of Jesus and Mary that culminates at the foot of the Cross in the ultimate sign of the depth of God’s love for humanity, and humanity’s participation with God in Mary. Her love for the Crucified Christ leads to Mary, the Virgin Made Church, Whose ‘yes’ to God made our redemption possible. Before the image of the Crucified, Clare opens herself to the mystery of God’s limitless love for all humanity, and there she finds the Mother of the Redeemer Who leads her to contemplate the role Mary was called to fulfill in our salvation history. From the first moment of Her Conception until Her glorious Assumption to the right hand of Her Son Jesus, Mary is an intimate collaborator in the mystery of salvation.  She offers Jesus to others, disregarding the disadvantages to Herself, so that Jesus in turn could offer Himself for us all. Mary’s collaboration from the first moment of the Lord’s conception in Her womb is remembered by the Evangelists. Mary carries Jesus, still within Her womb, to Elizabeth and the Baptist; She presents Him to the Magi; She offers Him to Simeon and Anna; She encourages Him to perform His first miracle to save a young couple from embarrassment; She accompanies Him to Calvary and death where, at the foot of the Cross, She offers Him and Herself with Him.  In the sufferings of Calvary Mary became our Mother in the life of grace. Her spiritual itinerary is the life of one who accepted and lived God’s Will. When Mary and her relatives went to see Jesus at Capharnum, Jesus said to the one who told Him His Mother and relatives were looking for Him: My Mother and my brothers are those who hear the Word of God and live It. Jesus does not distance Himself from His Mother Mary but, on the contrary, extols Her greatness because She believed and accepted the Father’s Will, as He Himself was doing even in His own journey to the Cross.

Clare, in imitation of Mary, opened her heart and life to live God’s Will as it was proclaimed by the Magisterium and counseled by St. Francis.  Yet, with all her simple, humble obedience, Clare is a woman radical in her approach to the life she has been called to live, flexible towards her sisters and the human weaknesses she encounters, and truly free to be detached from all that could keep her from focusing on the eternal gifts and striving for them.  Clare is an image of that strong Woman who stood at the foot of the Cross with the dignity of an empress and a heart pierced with the sorrow of a loving Mother.  Clare could stand her ground firmly convinced for years with the officials of the Church for the Privilege of Poverty that eventually she was granted shortly before her death; yet she would be aware of and respond with the love, concern, and the flexibility of a caring mother to the needs of her sisters and any who came seeking her assistance. She lived the words she wrote to her spiritual daughter, St. Agnes of Prague:  Embrace the poor Christ.  Look upon Him Who became contemptible for you, and follow Him, making yourself contemptible in this world for Him…gaze, consider, contemplate desiring to imitate your Spouse. (2^nd Letter to St. Agnes of Prague)

Saint Clare of Assisi ‘gazed upon the Lord’ in the depths of her heart and in the faces of her sisters and others. With the love of a mother, she responded to their needs, and even placed her own life in jeopardy for their sake. Remember the two times we are told she saved the monastery from invasion and the sisters from harm by standing with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament between the sisters and the invaders. Jesus was the center of her life.  He filled her with courage and strength; Mary was the valiant woman of Scripture whose example helped her instill serenity and peace in others.

As spiritual children of our seraphic Father St. Francis of Assisi and our holy Mother St. Clare, let us follow their example. Let Christ be our center so that we too may irradiate goodness and peace to all. Let Mary be our Mother whose life, from Her Immaculate Conception to Her Assumption body and soul into heaven, be a constant reminder of our origins in God’s love. God’s love for us is His pledge to us in Jesus that we, one day, will have the opportunity to share the eternal joys of heaven in the body with which we were known on earth and through which we sought to give glory and praise to God. O Christian, remember your dignity (St. Leo the Great) and live as redeemed children of God.

We have considered the marvelous privilege of our Heavenly Mother’s Assumption into heaven, the great love of our Seraphic Father St. Francis for “the Virgin made Church”, and the life of our Mother St. Clare, truly filled with the same spirit and love of St. Francis for Mary. May we follow the examples of our “Assisian Parents”.

My God bless you; may Our Lady, guide, guard, and protect you; and may our Seraphic Father St. Francis and our Holy Mother St. Clare watch over each one of  us, their Spiritual Children, with loving care.

Peace and Blessings

Fr. Francis A. Sariego, O.F.M. Cap.

Regional Spiritual Assistant

St. Katherine Drexel Regional Fraternity

Regional Spiritual Assistant

St. Francis of Assisi Friary

1901 Prior Road

Wilmington, Delaware 19809

tel: (302) 798-1454      fax: (302) 798-3360      website: skdsfo     email: pppgusa@gmail.com

June 2018

Dear Sisters and Brothers in St. Francis,

The Lord give you his peace!

ur Seraphic Father Saint Francis of Assisi was a totally Eucharistic soul whose love for the Eucharist led him to revere all priests, even those whose lives were not as exemplary as they should have been. Why?  Because they give us spirit and life through the sacraments they offer and the Word they proclaim. All the faithful have a share in this marvelous gift of the priesthood through their baptism and attentive participation in the celebration of the Eucharist.

The immediacy with which the celebration of the Eucharist ends seems so abrupt.  After the faithful have received the Eucharist and shared in their Holy Communion the liturgy seems to say a quick ‘good-bye’, ‘be on your way’ to the assembled faithful.  Nothing of the sort!  The Dismissal is a capsulized and intensely packed moment that carries with it an extraordinary privilege, responsibility, and awesome power.

When (Jesus) had risen, early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene…Then He appeared to the (disciples) … He said to them, ‘Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not be believe will be condemned.  These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages.  They will pick up serpents with their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them.  They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover…  (Mark 16: 9-19)  And behold I am with you always, until the end of the age. (Matthew 28: 20)  (The disciples) went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs. (Mark 16: 20)

The moment  we sign ourselves with the sign of our salvation in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we begin an extraordinary spiritual journey.  This mystical experience of our salvation history is an intimate immersion and participation in the Passion-Death-Resurrection-Glorification of Jesus. As the early followers of Jesus, we also listen to and reflect on the words of our ancestors in faith.  As the first disciples, we listen to and learn from the words of Jesus. In the gift of the Holy Spirit Who will remind you of all that I said, we grow in the strength that will empower us to go forth and be ‘heralds of the Great King’.

Our Seraphic Father proclaimed himself as the ‘Herald of the Great King’ when confronted by a band of robbers. The robbers beat, stripped, and threw St. Francis into a ditch, considering him a mentally challenged person of little worth. They could not and would not accept or understand the freedom and joy that Francis had encountered when he allowed Jesus to ‘take over’ his life.  The Eucharist, celebrated well and received with the appropriate spiritual dispositions empowers us in the same way to be free to ‘be Christ’ and proclaim Him to all the world. We become ‘heralds of the Great King’. We are entrusted not only to bear a message to others in words, but to become the message in our actions. With courage, and fearless of any opposition we might receive  for the sake of the Name, we preach Jesus with our lives. How others receive the message/messenger depends on human nature that influences that reception.

Today we sense a growing aversion in many areas of our world to Christ and His message.  There are those who seek to follow Him with a sincere heart. There are those who follow the image they have created in their own likeness that responds to their personal situations rather than His Word. There are those who stand in opposition to Christ, even going so far as to proclaim they are acting in His name.

Often those who seek to foster a love for the Gospel, the Church, and our Catholic Christian values and traditions face the same problems the first followers of Jesus, and all sincere seekers of Truth, face down through the centuries.  If they are not physically attacked, those who seek to do God’s will and live in His Truth are beaten with barrages of negativity and harsh words, or stripped of integrity by slander, false accusations, or even by an embellishment of the truth for the sake of destroying the reputation of the innocent, who are left on the ‘road of indifference’ or in the ‘ditch of discouragement’ alone to fend for themselves with their physical, and sometimes spiritual, strength depleted.  There is no stifling the power of God and His Spirit in those who seek His will.  We find strength in our weaknesses, as St. Paul reminds us when speaking of his own vulnerabilities and defects.  One of the great Fathers of the early Church, Tertullian, stated: The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church.   What greater ‘martyrdom’ is there than the ‘witness’ of bearing with patience, trust, and forgiveness, an ‘ongoing death’ that seeks to destroy the soul over the course of days, weeks, months and perhaps years!  What greater amount of ‘blood’ can we shed than the ‘lifeblood’ of our time, talents and even treasures spent in the daily practice of our faith and its defense against the power of the one who is in the world’. This ‘one in the world’ is always at work insidiously in the minds and hearts of those who proclaim a ‘heaven on earth’ and a god created to their own image!

The Eucharist offers us a bit of heaven on earth,.  We bask in the light of the Son, and find strength and peace in Him. Once we have received the Lord in the Eucharist at Mass, it seems as though everything precipitates so quickly that we have little time to spend with the Lord in the protected solace of the church, chapel or other ‘sacred space’.  The brief words and quick dismissal, Go, the Mass is ended or perhaps, translating the words literally, Go, it is sent, are an urgent commission entrusted to all who participated (and the key word is ‘participated’) in the Eucharist.  Christ sends us out, as He did His disciples when He ascended to the Father, to bring to others what we have seen with our own eyes, heard with our own ears, and touched – Jesus. The commission is urgent. Thus the dismissal is immediate.  We have celebrated the mysteries of our salvation. We have re-presented the Passion-Death-Resurrection-Glorification of the Savior. We have actively participated in the Mass – we are witnesses to all this.  There is no time to waste. We must be out and about with the Lord and proclaim Him with our lives!

At the very beginning of the Acts of the Apostles we read: (Jesus said to His disciples) you will be witnesses in Jerusalem … and to the ends of the earth … As (the disciples) were looking on, he was lifted up … from their sight.  While they were looking intently at the sky … suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them.  They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? ( cfr. Acts 1: 1-12) The celebrant conveys the same command to us at the end of Mass.  It is as though he were saying: ‘You have celebrated the sacred mysteries of our salvation. You have entered the ‘inner circle’ of the Great King’. You have been privileged to be entrusted with His message and His Spirit to inform and remind you. The Victim is sacrificed. Our offering is sent and received by the Father.  The Sacred Communion that empowers those who receive worthily has been received and consumed.  What are you waiting for? Don’t stand around! It’s time to go and be the One we received. Drive out the demons of ill will, confusion, doubt, discouragement, despair by the spirit of goodness and compassion. Speak the new language of Christ’s command of love that can be understood by anyone regardless of ethnic origin or even religious affiliation. Deal with the deadly serpents of verbal and physical persecution for the sake of the Name.  Know that I am with you all days even to the end of the age. Don’t fear the deadly poison of a world that insidiously attempts to corrupt mind and heart from within with seductive enticements and glittering allurements. Lay hands of reassurance and sensitivity on those who have grown ill through lives that are weak, those who have possibly given up … Be their strength … Be the Jesus you have celebrated and received to them’.

Do not forfeit what divine authority confers on you.  Put on the garment of holiness, gird yourself with the belt of chastity (transparency of character and life) .  Let Christ be your helmet, let the cross on your forehead be your unfailing protection. Your breastplate should be the knowledge of God that he himself has given you.  Keep burning continually the sweet-smelling incense of prayer.  Take up the sword of the Spirit.  Let your heart be an altar.  Then, with full confidence in God, present your body for sacrifice.  God desires not death, but faith; God thirsts not for blood, but for self- surrender; God is appeased not by slaughter but by the offering of your free will. (Saint Peter Chrysologus, Sermo 108)

Spiritual Children of St. Francis of Assisi do not use prayer, personal sacrifice, and even charitable giving as an excuse to keep aloof from the realities of life.  Our Eucharist is celebrated sacramentally everyday at the altar, and then continued in the streets and our homes through our daily activities.  Once we’ve received the sacramental Jesus and allowed the grace of His Spirit to flow through our veins, we must ‘Go, the (liturgical) Mass is ended’ … ‘It is (or we are) sent’, to bring others, to lead the whole world, into the mystery of God’s love in the Sacrifice and Sacrament of Jesus the Christ.  The Eucharist is not just a goal to be reached but also a starting point that leads to greater heights in, with, and for God and His People.  The priest who acts in persona Christi (in the person of Christ) accompanies us as one of God’s People, and prays with and for us as one set aside to intercede as a ‘mediator’ between the divine and the human.  He too is called to be victim with the Victim. He and those entrusted to his ministry are called to share in the Victory of the Eucharist that fills the world with the Real Presence of an awesome God.  God invites us all to an intimate relationship with Him, and then commissions us to be ‘Eucharist’, to be an act of thanksgiving in God to, with, and for all who accept His Love.

Continue to pray for all priests and those contemplating the priesthood. Pray that we priests live according to the Heart of the Savior in Whose person we live, and move, and have our being. Pray that we may be willing ‘victims’, if the Lord should ask that grace of us, that others with and through us may experience the victory promised by the One Who said: I have conquered the world.  Do not be afraid.  ‘Greater is the one within you that the one in the world’.  ‘Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age’. Pray for yourselves, as I do for you, that the Jesus we celebrate and receive may always be the One Whom others see in you.

May the Eternal High Priest, Jesus, show us His Most Sacred Heart, pierced by the centurion’s lance, that we may enter the door thrown wide open leading to the Father’s loving embrace. May Mary, Queen and Mother of our Seraphic Family, keep us in the depths of Her Immaculate Heart. May Our Father St. Francis of Assisi watch over each one of us, his Spiritual Children, with loving care.

Peace and Blessings

Fr. Francis A. Sariego, O.F.M. Cap.

Regional Spiritual Assistant

St. Katherine Drexel Regional Fraternity

Regional Spiritual Assistant

St. Francis of Assisi Friary

1901 Prior Road

Wilmington, Delaware 19809

tel: (302) 798-1454      fax: (302) 798-3360     website: skdsfo     email: pppgusa@gmail.com

April 2018

Dear Sisters and Brothers in St. Francis,

The Risen Christ bless you with His peace!

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, ‘Peace be with you’.  When He had said this He showed them His hands and His side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them, ‘Peace be with you’. As the Father sent me, so I send you…(John 20: 19-21) It was on that same first day of the week that two disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus…Jesus Himself drew near and walked with them…but their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him… While he was with them…their eyes were opened and they recognized Him and He vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while He spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures for us’…So they set out at once to return to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the eleven…The two recounted what had taken place on the way and how He was made known to them in the breaking of the bread. (cfr. Luke 24: 13-35) A week later His disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them.  Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, ‘Peace be with you’ (John 20: 26)

The season of Easter is saturated with Peace.  It is a time for us to enter the Joy of the Risen Jesus and realize that our  God is alive and well. We see in the few chapters that end the Gospel accounts a transforming experience for all the first followers of the Lord.  It was an inner transformation, for as yet they were fearful of the Jews, but joy-filled at the sight of the Savior.  No doubt some may have thought that ‘now He will re-establish Israel’, ‘now He will manifest Himself to the world and conquer our dominators’, ‘now the sinners and sinful nations will be put down and Israel will reign as the righteous nation’.  As childish as this manner of thinking may seem, I do not doubt that some, if not all the disciples, may have had similar thoughts or feelings. All we need do is remember what the concern was on the road to Jerusalem as Jesus spoke of His pending capture-torture-death…and resurrection; the apostles were talking about who would be first and powerful in the kingdom, and who would reign on the right and left with Jesus.

The disciples saw Jesus captured and tortured; they knew He died and was sealed in a guarded tomb.  Things were not as the disciples expected.  Things were not as the first followers had hoped.  Things seemed to be moving in a direction totally different than expected and desired.  The disciples stayed together in the upper room with Mary the mother of Jesus. They were afraid and confused, but found inner strength in their common bond in Jesus’ name and all He taught them.  They were at peace within themselves, while still frightened of the world around them. Calm demeanor, conscious awareness, and cautious outlook, were now the elements that helped them slowly regain a hope they had lost on Calvary. They began to bond as the ‘Apostolic Community’ that would fearlessly proclaim the Messiah-ship and Divinity of Jesus the Christ throughout the world.

Calvary was a tragic day for he first followers of Jesus.  The hopes and dreams of the disciples hung with Jesus on the cross.  Until He gave up His last breath, Jesus could have made everything happen as they had hoped.  When He said, ‘It is finished’, ‘Father into Your hands I commend My spirit’, the Master seemed to go the way of all other Messianic pretenders who, as good, patriotic, and even faithful Jews as they could have been, still ended their hopeful enterprise of re-establishing the independent nation of Israel with their own deaths.  Could Jesus be any different!?  In this case, the answer was ‘Yes’!  These followers could not let go, could not forget.  They were a hodgepodge crew, yet the diversity and diametrically opposed personalities among them, seemed to find a consolation and strength now with each other.  There was a ‘troubled peace’: ‘troubled’ because of human uncertainty regarding the future…’peace’ because the spirit of the three years of His life they had shared with Jesus and His teachings made them believe that the dream of a ‘new heaven and a new earth’ was attainable…and for some reason, they knew they were the messengers who had to become the message…Jesus’ acceptance of Calvary told them it was ‘the hard way’ they had to follow to give a more effective witness.

At Mass, just before we receive the Body and Blood of our Savior in Holy Communion, the priest celebrant prays ‘in  Persona Christi’ for all the community as well as for himself; he too needs the graces and blessings as a member of the Mystical Body of Christ. The priest prays: Lord Jesus Christ, You said to Your   apostles, I leave you peace. My peace I give you.  Look not on our sins but on the faith of Your Church (people)… Again we hear the Lord in the Liturgy, after His death and resurrection sacramentally  re-presented, gifting us with His peace.  This peace can only be felt if it is given away, if we become peacemakers with others because we are at peace with God and ourselves.  We can be at peace and be peacemakers only if and when we disarm our hearts to one another.  If the sign of peace we extend at Mass is not sincere or is even refused, the reception of the Eucharist (the Real Presence of the Living Lord) will have little or no effect in the one receiving Him.  We are integral members of the Mystical Body of Christ. No member of the body acts on its own without affecting the whole body. No member can refuse to support, encourage, forgive  the whole body without affecting his/her own spiritual health.  (cfr.  1 Corinthians 12: 12-26) Let us never forget that Franciscans have always been considered the women and men with ‘disarmed hearts’.  Our Secular Franciscan family has always been singled out as those people of God who truly make peace a characteristic and a challenge for them to live.

Behold each day He humbles Himself as when He came from the royal throne into the Virgin’s womb; each day He Himself comes to us, appearing humbly; each day He comes down from the bosom of the Father upon the altar in the hands of the priest. As He revealed Himself to the holy apostles in true flesh, so He reveals Himself to us in the sacred bread.  And as they saw only His flesh by the insight of their flesh, yet believed that He was God as they contemplated Him with their spiritual eyes, let us, as we see bread and wine with our bodily eyes, see and firmly believe that they are His most holy Body and Blood living and true. And in this way the Lord is always with His faithful, as He Himself says… (Admonitions, #1)

Our Seraphic Father St. Francis reminds all the faithful that only in the living presence of Jesus among us can we ever hope to find inner peace and external serenity. The Eucharist is that awesome and most wonderful gift of the Spirit that re-presents the whole mystery of our salvation – the Passion-Death-Resurrection of Jesus. As the early followers were strengthened and empowered to become the message of “Peace and Blessings” to the world, so are we, the spiritual children of Saint Francis, called to live the joyful peace of the Resurrection and offer the experience of new life in Jesus to all whom we encounter.

Our God is a ‘hidden God’ … hidden in the hearts of everyone, for some as a Real Presence, and for others as a nostalgic memory. St. Augustine expresses the longing of the human heart when he writes: O Lord, we are made for  You, and our hearts can find no rest until they rest in You.  Repeating this expression, the Church also prays: O God, You have placed in our hearts such a deep yearning   for You, that only those who find You can find peace!  It is this hidden God that the yearning of all human beings for ‘Someone’ seeks out.  This is the God we are called to encounter in our individual lives and help others find and live in theirs. This is the God with Whom we seek a deeper relationship during the Lenten Season.  This is the God of Life in Whose Spirit we have come to recognize Jesus as the Christ, incarnate Son of God, in Whose Death and Resurrection heaven is once more made accessible to us.

People of science tell us how difficult it is today to speak about God when the immensity of the galaxies and the materialism of an entrenched secularism in today’s world question anything that cannot be tangibly experienced.  Even those involved in pastoral ministry realize the difficulty there is to speak about God today. Talking about God has become always more problematic, both because of the new ‘verbage’ required, as well as the difficulties created by a world that has ‘to see to believe’ and anything other than what can be ‘touched’ with the senses is just a ‘figment of the imagination’, ‘a relic of times past’, ‘pious people’s inability to move with the times’, and the like. The spirit of the Apostle St. Thomas lives on! Our society wants instant gratification and concrete answers.  No sign will be given it but the sign of Jonah.  Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights so shall, the Son of man be …  It is precisely this ‘sign’ we Christians throughout the world remember, celebrate, and believe during the Easter Season, and every time we enter the Mystery of the Eucharist. As Spiritual Children of our Seraphic Father St. Francis of Assisi are we making every effort to be this ‘sign’? Can people hear in our words and see in our actions that Jesus’ Resurrection has filled us with confidence as it did the early disciples to fearlessly confront our world in the power of God’s Word? Has the experience of Calvary helped us see the cross as a crowning moment in life rather than a collapse of our hopes and dreams?  We are spiritual children of St. Francis of Assisi; the cross was the unique gift he ‘wore’ visibly before he died; do we wear ours with dignity and joy, and carry it with confident hope in its fruits?

God’s presence envelops us, even those who have not met or even know Him.  When we build on the positives of life, the beauty of creation, the diversity-power-wonder of nature at all its levels, the complexity of the human person and our ability to reach horizons that other creatures cannot, we encounter a God of Love and Life.  All too often we seek God in the drastic, disastrous, difficult, dilemmas of life; global fears, economic instability, incurable diseases, natural disasters all ‘make us think’ of God.  At those moments we perhaps see a distorted image of the One Great God of the Covenant who entered an agreement with Humanity and seeks to fulfill it each day.  The Death and Resurrection of His only begotten Son, Jesus, speaks to us of this God of Life.  St. Francis sang the praises of this God Who is alive and well in all creation, in those who forgive … and even in Sister Death who accompanies us to Life. Do we accept the challenge our Holy Father Francis offers us to do likewise? Have we learned what it means to be an ‘Easter People’ and how to live the ‘Alleluia’ we so often recite in our liturgies and prayers?

When we accept our moment in life and believe in the Lord’s Resurrection, ignorance gives way to knowledge, fear to courage and strength, prejudice to impartiality and tolerance, pride to humility, indifference to concern, over-indulgence to self-control, hypocrisy to sincerity, discouragement to hope, doubt to faith, and hatred to love, because…You can’t hold back the dawn! And the Resurrection of Jesus is the New Dawn bringing the Light of Christ to all willing to accept Him.

May  the light of Christ’s Resurrection shine in your life that we might have life, and have it in abundance. May the Risen Lord Jesus shower you and your loved ones with peace, joy and abundant blessings for a Happy Easter  season.  May Mary, Mother of the Redeemer and our Mother, help you to live with Jesus in the light of the New Life His Resurrection offers each one of us.  And may our Seraphic Father St. Francis of Assisi watch over each one of   us, his Spiritual Children, with loving care. With a promise to keep all of you affectionately in my Masses and prayers, I wish you and your dear ones a very Happy and Joyous Easter season.

Peace and Blessings in the Risen Lord

Fr. Francis A. Sariego, O.F.M. Cap.

Regional Spiritual Assistant

St. Katherine Drexel Regional Fraternity

Regional Spiritual Assistant

St. Francis of Assisi Friary

1901 Prior Road

Wilmington, Delaware 19809

tel: (302) 798-1454      fax: (302) 798-3360      website: skdsfo

email: pppgusa@gmail.com

February 2018

Dear Sisters and Brothers in St. Francis

May the Lord grant you peace!

In 1263, a priest from the Italian town of Bolsena, while celebrating Mass, after having pronounced the words of Consecration, began to doubt that with those words the bread and wine had truly been transformed into the Precious Body and Blood of Jesus. The document of deposition at the time gives us the textual words the priest said to himself: I do not see anything here, nor do I feel anything, nor can I notice any change; it cannot be true that Jesus Christ is really here. This host is nothing more than a piece of bread.

From a moment of anxious doubt he entered a state of heresy; he went from difficulty to full-blown disbelief! The priest nevertheless continued celebrating Mass for the sake of the people attending, and arrived at the elevation of the Host.

As he did so, droplets of blood fell from the host onto the corporal (the cloth that is placed under the chalice and paten during Mass to catch any consecrated drops or particles that might accidentally fall on the altar). One can only imagine the fear that possessed the priest at such a sight. With hands raised high holding up the Sacred Host, in an act of adoration of the Sacred Body of Jesus, he remained for a rather lengthy period contemplating the mystery and miracle that had just occurred.

The people assisting at the Mass also saw the wonderful happening and burst forth into a cry of adoration and praise: O Precious Blood! O Divine Blood; who is responsible for this shedding of blood? Others exclaimed: O Divine Blood, flow over our souls, purify us of our sins! Most Blessed Blood, call down the Divine Mercy upon us!

The shouting of the crowd jolted the priest out of his contemplation of the Precious Body and Blood he held. He found a dry spot to rest the Precious Body upon the corporal that had been almost totally dampened with the droplets of the Precious Blood. His eyes and heart were opened. He saw the truth and recognized the answer to his doubt, and gratefully accepted this miraculous response of God’s merciful love to his own mistrust of Jesus’ promise to be with you always until the end of the age, in such a marvelous way.

Continuing the celebration of the Mass amidst tears and lengthy meditative pauses, he was able to conclude the Eucharistic celebration. At the end of the Mass, the celebrant attempted to fold the cloth as best he could, but the people came forward and wanted to see for themselves close-up in order to ascertain the truth of the occurrence. The priest showed the faithful the cloth bathed in blood and they, in turn, fell on their knees to adore the miracle and implore divine mercy upon themselves.

News of the event reached Pope Urban IV who at that time was in Orvieto, a city near to Bolsena. The priest brought the Corporal to the pope.  He told the story of his doubts and the manner in which the miracle had occurred. Pope Urban IV and those with him recognized the miracle and knelt in adoration of this Eucharistic Mystery made visible in the Miracle before them.  A local feast in honor of the Blessed Sacrament was extended to the entire Church – the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi). This is one of several Eucharistic Miracles that call for our attention when the evil one challenges our faith in Jesus’ words and His Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament.

What happened many centuries ago in Bolsena happens in every Catholic Church around the world when the Sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated. There is no longer a visible shedding of blood. No longer is the ground bathed in blood or the heads of sinners sprinkled with the saving Blood of Jesus, as the early Israelites were sprinkled with the blood of the animals sacrificed to reconfirm their commitment to the Covenant.

What does happen is that hearts and souls are cleansed and renewed when the eyes of the faithful see the Lord in Sacrifice as He offers Himself in Sacrament to all. The re-presentation of the Passion-Death-Resurrection of Jesus is perpetuated through the centuries in the Church. At the Consecration of the Bread and Wine the ‘Presence’ becomes ‘Real’ and our relationship with the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit achieves an always greater intensity.

The Presence of God among us is a Privilege. This privilege must be participated if we are to experience the power of grace available to us. The three key words here are: ‘presence’, privilege’, ‘participation’. They remind us that: God walks with His people.  His people have no right to His presence.  God offers us His presence freely.  It is a gift of God’s love.  To profit from the awesome experience, the people of God must enter the moment and participate by responding with and in their lives to God. This response is a sign and a determining factor of our friendship and intimacy with God.

The priest continues in the presence of our Sacramental Lord interceding for the unifying gift of the Spirit, blessings for the Church Suffering and Militant, and imploring the mediation of all those holy souls who now live in the Eternal Presence of God. The Eucharistic Prayer ends with a brief hymn of praise and thanksgiving to the Father, through-with-in Jesus, in the unity of the Spirit.  And the People of God acclaim and confirm all that was said and done with ‘Amen!’ Priest and People of God have ‘celebrated’ together.  They entered the mystery that requires a depth of faith to experience the ‘miracle’ of a ‘presence’ that makes the Mystical Body of Christ – who are faithfully gathered in Liturgy – a visible reality for the world to see. Filled with Jesus, we become a sign of hope to a world so desperately in need of that gift.

Hope has always been a rather difficult virtue to comprehend. Hope is not a static, passive stance that we take. Hope is not dwelling on something we desire and wait for it to happen or to be given to us. Hope is a very proactive virtue that flows from faith and fosters love. Christian hope is not passive resignation. Our own Padre Pio teaches us to be active and to make God’s interests ours. In other words, he is telling us that we must seek first the kingdom of God and His justice over us, and God will make our interests His. God will come to our aid in our temporal needs as we journey to the fullness of time where nothing is needed because all we could ever hope for is there – GOD forever!

Our Seraphic Father St Francis of Assisi, in his ardent love for the Eucharist, admonishes us all to see the Eucharist as it is: The True Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The Eucharist helps us to see the past in God’s mercy, the present in God’s grace, and the future in hope with confident and peaceful trust. We are anxious about the future.  We forget that the Lord is with us always.  Our enemy has no power over anyone who has resolved to belong entirely to Jesus? Moreover, isn’t God good and faithful to the point of not permitting anyone to be tested beyond their strength?… If we were left to ourselves we would always be falling and never remain on our feet. Let us humble ourselves, then, at the wonderful thought that we are in the divine arms of Jesus, the best of fathers, like a little infant in its mother’s arms, and sleep peacefully with the certainty that we are being guided towards the destination that will be to our greatest advantage. How can we be afraid to remain in such loving arms when our entire being is consecrated to God?  What greater way can this consecration to God be realized than through our entering the mystery of the Eucharist we ‘celebrate’ together, and experience the transforming ‘miracle’ that makes us a people of loving service?

It never fails to astound me how many of our Catholics, privileged to possess such a magnificent gift as the Eucharist, who assist at the re-presentation of Calvary, and participate personally in the act of their own redemption, should so often disregard the importance of the Eucharist in their lives. Often one can hear good Catholics say, “If I had only been there”… “If I had stood at the cross” … “If only I could have seen and spoken with Jesus”, and the like. My response is: “Go to the tabernacle, open your heart, your mind and your eyes. You will see Him. You will be there before Him. You will hear Him and speak with Him”.

As Spiritual Children of the Poverello of Assisi, we cannot minimize the importance of the Eucharist and the celebration of this great gift. As Franciscans, our lives must be centered around this Sacrament. The Eucharist we celebrate and receive must ultimately be a way of life for us. The priest is unique by sacramental ordination and ministry. However, all God’s people benefit with a ‘resurgence of renewed graces’ when they ‘consecrate’ their lives together with the bread and wine offered by the priest, and abandon themselves to the will of the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit.

As Penitents of Assisi, what kind of Lent can we ‘do’? Personal sacrifices are fine and gain merit. However, I believe the greatest ‘sacrificial act’ we can do for Lent would be to assist more frequently at Mass with an active participation made up of preparation before and thanksgiving after Mass, and daily reflection on God’s Word heard at the Eucharistic Liturgy.  As we share in the common priesthood of the faithful through Baptism, let us pray for those who give us the Eucharist and serve God’s people in the ministerial priesthood.

Have a blessed and spiritually fruitful Lent. Let go of your hesitancy in disarming your heart to others, especially those you find difficult, or who may see you that way.  Do not set limits to love!  Take up the daily cross of your responsibilities, and perform them with peace and joy. Accept difficulties as challenges to grow in grace.  Trust the One Who allows them in every life so that we might achieve the perfection to which we are called.  Surrender yourself to the One Who gave Himself for us all … and … Do not be afraid to deepen your relationship with God (Prayer), detach yourself from all you allow to possess you (Penance), and open your heart and surrender to the Christ Who suffers in others and awaits your love (Almsgiving). Living these three elements especially will assure us of a very fruitful Lenten journey.  Do not be afraid to become ‘Eucharist’!

May God bless you; Our Lady guide, guard, and protect you; and our Seraphic Father St. Francis of Assisi watch over each one of you, his Spiritual Children, with loving care.

Peace and Blessings

Fr. Francis A. Sariego, O.F.M. Cap.

Regional Spiritual Assistant