“Let Us Begin Again..”

            St.Francis of Assisi extends this invitation to us:  “Let us begin again” 

    January, the beginning of a new year!  It is a cold month.  We expect it, we dress for it, we take precautions.  This first month of a new year extends to us an invitation to celebrate life, to begin again.  We respond by putting up a new calendar, making resolutions, reconnecting with family and friends, and in some areas of our country we hibernate. 

    In the Franciscan family we turn to our brother Francis of Assisi, who encourages us to “begin again, brothers and sisters, for up till now we have done very little”.    What a blessing it is to be invited to begin anew, to become the person God created us to be.  Beginning again is a risk. It takes courage: to go forward into the unknown, to reach out to welcome the stranger, to take a stand for Justice and Peace, to be open to those who are different from us, to listen with our hearts, to be patient, to surrender our opinion, to seek forgiveness, to face our shortcomings, to trust God ever present with us and within us, to go forward into the unknown with openness and surrender.    At the Last Supper Jesus gave his apostles a special gift:  “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you.”    “This gift was not given for them to hide or hoard, it was meant to empower them to make peace and to spread peace throughout the earth.”                         

…Peacemaking begins when we recognize peace is God’s work.  We are God’s instruments in the process.   

...Peacemaking grows as we live our Franciscan call…and become more conscious of our solidarity will people everywhere and with all creation.                                                                  

…Peacemaking finds expression in our actions as reconcilers of injustice, as stewards of creation and as sharers of God’s peace with others.”  

From:    Announce Peace  (p.4)   A Franciscan Reflection on the Bishop’s Pastoral: The Challenge of Peace

From the words of St. Francis:  

“Let the sisters and brothers be gentle, peaceful and unassuming, mild and humble, speaking respectful to all … in greeting others, let them say, “The Lord give you peace.”
Rule: Chapter 5  Article 20

“The sisters and brothers are called to heal the wounded, to bind up those who are bruised, and to reclaim the erring.” 
Rule: Chapter 9, Article 30

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.”     The true peacemakers are those who preserve peace of mind and body for love of Our Lord Jesus Christ, despite what they suffer in the world.”  Admonition XV

“Wherever they are, or wherever they go, throughout the whole world, the brothers or sisters should not be quarrelsome, contentious, or judgmental toward others.  Rather, it should be obvious that they are joyful, good-humored, and happy in the Lord as they ought to be.   And in greeting others, let them say,       “The Lord give you peace.”   Rule Chapter 5, Article 20

Imagine the sky as Heaven

Imagine the rock as my pathway to heaven.

I will exhaust all means and barriers

to climb this rock to heaven!

Sister Elaine Cote, osf

Margaret Mary Foley's, OSF Final Profession - Homily by Pat Klemm, OSF

The call to love God with all of our heart, mind and soul, is a universal call that goes back to the early Hebrew Scriptures.  It is a call intended for all people, and reflects God’s plan for each of us - that we be lovers of God and of our neighbors. It is not intended to be a call only for those who consecrate their lives to God in a community of religious women or men. This call, and God’s plan for our “welfare rather than woe” applies to all those whom God has created in love.  We are all created with a future of hope –a hope that tells us that when we seek God with our whole being, we will find God.

When we seek God we are responding to the God who first desires us. Seeking God is not something we do once - it is an ongoing, life-long process of love responding to love.  Our loving God wants to be in all of our lives, no matter what state of life we have embraced.

As universal as this call is, there are some who choose a life of community and service in response to the overwhelming gift of Godself to us. I believe that this truly is a choice, not a destiny. The responsibility is ours!  We can choose to respond to God’s call in whatever way seems best for us – we not only can, but we must!  Our response is certainly influenced by those we meet along the way, by all of our life experiences, and especially by our ongoing relationship with God. 

When a woman chooses to look at religious life, she enters into a process of personal and communal discernment. This process provides time for ongoing reflection and is helped by experiences that assist in discerning how she can best answer that universal call to God.  It facilitates continual growth in self-understanding and knowledge, but it is not an incubator for perfection!  The reading from the third Order Rule exhorts us to “serve, love, adore, and honor the Lord God as best we can”, acknowledging our human frailties and foibles.  

Margaret has been in discernment for a number of years.  She has taken the necessary time to grow into the person who today is making a mature choice for a life of dedication to God and God’s poor.  This process has not always been easy, but Margaret has always remained faithful to God’s call to grow in love. She has chosen to respond to God’s call by following in the footsteps of Saints Francis and Clare of Assisi. She has embraced a simple lifestyle and enjoys working with those who live in poverty.

Finally, finals! The words “final vows” are a bit of a misnomer because the vows that Margaret is taking today are not really the end of anything (except yearly evaluations!) Margaret has been living these vows for a number of years, plumbing their depths through study, reflection, her own personal experiences, and those of the committed women with whom she has lived. Her commitment today is to continue to grow in understanding of the vows and to live them in the realities that she will face all the days of her life.

Margaret’s vows are a gift to each of us, to the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany, and to the entire Church. Her public commitment to God speaks clearly of the power of God in our lives. It challenges us to recommit ourselves to God in our own state of life – to live lives of love in response to the God who loves us.

And so we rejoice with Margaret today. We celebrate her commitment, and we thank her for her fidelity.  We pray for Margaret, that she may continue to be a woman of hope in a world so desperately in need of hope. We ask God’s blessing on her today and all the days of her life.

And we promise to love her and support her. We invite her to help us as a congregation move into an unknown future, aware of our blessed past - always faithful to the call to love God with our whole heart, mind and soul and our neighbor as ourselves.

Pat Klemm, OSF on the occasion of Margaret Mary Foley’s lifetime commitment.

Franciscan Way of Living

Broadly, the Franciscan way is to live knowing that all of creation is the place to encounter God. Concrete manifestations involve living more simply on the earth and with other people in order truly experience and savor God’s gift of life.

The things of this world are God-like just as they are and reveals God to us in their specificity. Therefore, to deepen our relationship to God we need regular, attentive contact with the world in its simple, humble state. We can forget about a search for things and people that are worthy of love or that will make us happy. The world is full of signs of God’s presence, with God telling us what we need to hear through the bits and pieces we encounter in a day. In an ongoing way we are converted to the gospel through God’s daily work inside and outside of us.

Francis’ first biographer, Thomas of Celano describes the way of Francis like this:

Who could ever express the deep affection Francis bore

for all things that belong to God?

Or who would be able to tell

of the sweet tenderness he enjoyed

while contemplating in creatures

the wisdom, power, and goodness of the Creator?

From this reflection

he often overflowed

with amazing, unspeakable joy

as he looked at the sun,

gazed at the moon, or observed the stars in the sky.

Article used with permission by Janine Walsh,
Communications Coordinator, Franciscan Action Network

Submitted by Marita Flynn, OSF

The Open Door

Your door is always open

no matter day or night.

Your words of welcome spoken

“Come in, do not take flight.”

What joy it is to be with you

in these dark, quiet hours

…the work of day completed

as gift, turned into flowers…

Bringing delight to many

whose days are always dark.

May we become for others

the open door, the spark!

Journey of the soul to God (Bonaventure)

  

 Hope    Humility    Repentance    Mercy   Love   Light    Transformation                        

PEACE     UNITY

Anne Rothmeier, OSF

There are always ways to step over obstacles.  I should see the beauty of my obstacles and the stepping stones that are there to help me overcome them.

Donna Haynes