Fraternity. Immaculata Fraternity is a local fraternity of the Three Companions Region

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1 Fraternity Reflections Ordo Franciscanus Saecularis Minister: Deborah Pettie, OFS Master of Formation: Sharon Toups, OFS Treasurer: Joanna Valentine, OFS Vice Minister: Deb. Ludwick-Bales, OFS Secretary: Mary Dang, OFS Spiritual Assistant: Father John Mark Klaus, T.O.R. Fraternity meets third Friday of the Month, 7:00pm to 9:00pm, Saint Andrew, Ft Worth, TX Inquirer / Candidate Formation first Friday from 7:00pm to 9:00pm, Saint Andrew, Ft Worth76109 Immaculata Fraternity is a local fraternity of the Three Companions Region IMMACULATA FRATERNITY, OFS October, 2016 VOL XII ISSUE X Ars Moriendi 3312 Dryden Road Fort Worth, TX

2 Secular Franciscan? Discerning the call What is a Secular Franciscan Call like? It s not the same for everyone. Some have a curiosity, tug, or thirst in their spirit to follow Christ and are drawn to the charism of St. Francis of Assisi. To help you in your discernment, this month we feature Laura Thompson a member for 3 years. She made her profession February 8, This is her Story: Why I Became A Franciscan By Laura Thompson, OFS I was looking for a way of life that would help me stay near the Lord. I found the Secular Franciscans and knew this is what I needed. I wanted to live a more simple life of prayer and conversion. The world is so corrupt and so many others are too focused on the materialistic ways of life. I discovered the Franciscan rules which include simple living, a sense of community, and helping those in need. The Franciscans promote peace, justice, work, family and ecology. These are all characteristics I wanted to strive for on my faith journey. When asked what word of advice she would give to anyone discerning the secular Franciscan order, Laura gave this scripture for them to pray: Consider it pure joy, brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so you can be mature and complete, not lacking anything. Secular Franciscan The way of Life The rule and life of the Secular Franciscans is this: to observe the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ by following the example of St. Francis of Assisi who made Christ the inspiration and the center of his life with God and people. Christ, the gift of the Father's love, is the way to him, the truth into which the Holy Spirit leads us, and the life which he has come to give abundantly. Secular Franciscans should devote themselves especially to careful reading of the gospel, going from gospel to life and life to gospel. --Chapter Two Are you being called.? Immaculata Fraternity Come and see! Every third Friday, 7:00PM September 16 October 21 St. Andrew Catholic Church, 3314 Dryden Rd Fort Worth, TX ofs@standrews.org St. Andrews James 1:2-4

3 Casting Your Vote in the 2016 Presidential Election By Deborah Pettie In 1976 I cast my first vote for president in a national election. At the age of 18, I was away from home, a sophomore at The University of Alabama, and my dorm room was just a block away from Foster Auditorium, where in 1963, Governor, George C. Wallace stated, segregation today, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever. To say the least, since its inception in 1776, the United States of America has greatly changed. That first election, I reflected upon the lives that were lost securing me that right. I wondered, what made them do it? How could they leave the security of their homes, their careers, pass up their dreams, and ultimately give up their life for a stranger? Then, I recalled the gospel. Jesus said, No one has greater love than this, to lay down one s life for one s friends. John 15:13. Not only did Jesus give up his life for his friends, but he also died for all mankind so that our sins could be forgiven. As Secular Franciscans we devote ourselves to careful reading of the gospel, going from gospel to life and life to gospel. We follow Christ with our actions, searching scripture for guidance as we live in the world. However, does that mean Franciscans should take the gospel with them to the polls, or, should Franciscans maintain a balance, keeping Church separate from State? In the next panel is an excerpt taken from an article written by the late Fr. Stephen F. Torraco who served on the Board of Catholic Experts on EWTN. He also was the author of various books and articles on moral theology and social teaching of the Catholic Church. You may find the whole article here: This short excerpt has been included in this month s Reflections for your consideration as a guide, if needed, as you prayerful discern your vote November 8 and not to persuade you in voting Democrat or Republican. Lord, we rejoice today that we are citizens of Your kingdom. May that make us all the more. committed to being faithful citizens on earth. Catechism of the Catholic Church Responsibilities of Catholic Citizens 2240 Submission to authority and co-responsibility for the common good make it morally obligatory to pay taxes, to exercise the right to vote, and to defend one's country: Pay to all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due. 45 [Christians] reside in their own nations, but as resident aliens. They participate in all things as citizens and endure all things as foreigners.... They obey the established laws and their way of life surpasses the laws.... So noble is the position to which God has assigned them that they are not allowed to desert it. 46 The Apostle exhorts us to offer prayers and thanksgiving for kings and all who exercise authority, "that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way." 47 A Brief Catechism for Catholic Voters Fr. Stephen F. Torraco, PhD (2002) Conscience is NOT the same as your opinions or feelings. Conscience cannot be identical with your feelings because conscience is the activity of your intellect in judging the rightness or wrongness of your actions or omissions, past, present, or future, while your feelings come from another part of your soul and should be governed by your intellect and will. Conscience is not identical with your opinions because your intellect bases its judgment upon the natural moral law, which is inherent in your human nature and is identical with the Ten Commandments. Unlike the civil laws made by legislators, or the opinions that you hold, the natural moral law is not anything that you invent, but rather discover within yourself and is the governing norm of your conscience. In short, Conscience is the voice of truth within you, and your opinions need to be in harmony with that truth. As a Catholic, you have the benefit of the Church s teaching authority or Magisterium endowed upon her by Christ. The Magisterium assists you and all people of good will in understanding the natural moral law as it relates to specific issues. As a Catholic, you have the obligation to be correctly informed and normed by the teaching of the Church s Magisterium. As for your feelings, they need to be educated by virtue so as to be in harmony with conscience s voice of truth. In this way, you will have a sound conscience, according to which you will feel guilty when you are guilty, and feel morally upright when you are morally upright. We should strive to avoid the two opposite extremes of a lax conscience and a scrupulous conscience. Meeting the obligation of continually attending to this formation of conscience will increase the likelihood that, in the actual operation or activity of conscience, you will act with a certain conscience, which clearly perceives that a given concrete action is a good action that was rightly done or should be done. Being correctly informed and certain in the actual operation of conscience is the goal of the continuing formation of conscience. Otherwise put, you should strive to avoid being incorrectly informed and doubtful in the actual judgment of conscience about a particular action or omission. You should never act on a doubtful conscience.

4 Transitus of Our Holy Father Francis October 20, 2014 A reflection by Scott Surrency, O.F.M. Cap. We seem to live in a society that is excessively anxious about death. Death is something to run away from, to avoid, to put off as long as possible, and so we idolize and even fetishize youth and the young. And yet the current vogue enjoyed by vampires and zombies would appear to indicate that paradoxically (if not altogether schizophrenically), we have some sort of odd, probably morbid, fascination with death. I would even go so far as to suggest that vampires and zombies are somehow emblematic of the current state of our culture, which in many ways might very well be just as soulless and undead as the monstrous creatures that have so captured our imaginations. As Christians, of course, we believe that death is not something to be feared, that it is not death but rather life that will have the final word. And yet it is nearly impossible that we not be affected by the culture in which we are immersed how often do we find ourselves subscribing to the prevailing assumption that life is nothing more than the absence of death, just as peace is merely the absence of war? By the end of the Middle Ages, the ars moriendi (or art of dying ) tradition of spiritual writing emerged on the cultural scene of Europe, the result of the awareness of a more personal and individual reckoning with one s Maker on Judgment Day, and a response to the devastation of the Black Death in the mid-1300s, which had wiped out half of the population of Europe in the brief span of seven years, leaving a devastatingly indelible mark on the collective psyche. From the beginning, Franciscans, together with their Dominican brothers, were instrumental in spreading the ars moriendi spirituality. Over the next few centuries this art of dying would undergo significant changes as it adapted to various social and religious realities, enjoying equal popularity among both humanist intellectuals and the common folk, and among Catholics as well as Protestants. What remained a constant in the ars moriendi tradition, however, was the firm conviction that the surest way to die well was simply to live well, that a good and holy life was the best preparation for a good and holy death. Since no one knew the hour of his death, it was crucial to be ready at all times. The Jesuit saint Robert Bellarmine, who made his own contribution to the ars moriendi literature and himself died very well in 1621, suggested that a criminal condemned to death was in a particularly advantageous position because he knew precisely when he was going to die and could thus prepare himself accordingly. (Cold comfort is better, I suppose, than no comfort. We might do well to consider our commemoration of St. Francis s actual death this evening (as opposed to his entrance into eternal glory, which we will, of course, celebrate tomorrow) in light of this idea of the art of dying well, for St. Francis marvelously exemplifies and embodies this spiritual art. And in more than one way. To begin with, Francis, ever the literalist and with great dramatic flair, seems to turn his own death into a kind of artistic event one perhaps worthy of being set to music by Puccini or Verdi in grand operatic style. Not even his disembodied soul, apparently, can resist the urge to razzle-dazzle at least one of the bereaved brothers, who espies it twinkling like a radiant star carried up on a shining cloud on its journey to Heaven. But this is obviously not the lesson to be learned here. Bonaventure (Major Legend XIV) draws our attention to two instances of nakedness in Francis s life, the first being when he strips himself before the bishop and everyone else gathered in the town square of Assisi at the beginning of his conversion, and the second one when he [throws] himself totally naked on the naked ground at the very end of his life. It is between these two highly theatrical moments that Francis s real artistry is to be sought it is here that he teaches us the real art of dying, which ultimately comes down to [striving] by perfect imitation to be conformed to Christ in every aspect of our lives denying and dying to ourselves, picking up our cross and carrying it with and for Christ our Lord. As we all know, this is easier said than done. And as if this weren t enough, we re supposed do it all with perfect joy. It might strike us a little surprising that Francis would choose the story of Jesus washing the feet of His disciples (John 13:1-17) to be read to him at the moment of his death, for the simple reason that it lacks any sense of the dramatic, with the exception of Peter s rather melodramatic outburst begging Jesus to wash not just his feet but his hands and head as well. Francis took the words of Jesus literally, recognizing that the servant is not greater than his master, that the one who is sent is not greater than the one who sent him, and he followed the example set by his Lord and spent his life in selfless service of his brothers and sisters. And this was the source of his joy, for as Jesus said to his disciples after washing their feet and telling them to do the same for one another, If you know these things, happy are you if you do them (John 13:17) Francis, as we are well aware, both knew and did these things of which our Lord speaks. The key to Francis s genius, I believe, is summed up in one of his final remarks to his brothers: I have done what is mine to do; may Christ teach you yours. This can also be a source of frustration at times, since ultimately it puts the responsibility back on ourselves we cannot resort to slavishly mindless imitation but must put our own soulful creativity into the mix. However, something more than unfettered creativity is required, for it can produce nothing on its own. Part of the training of the great painters of the past, to continue with the artistic metaphor, involved copying the works of the Old Masters and studying the time-honored art of Greco-Roman antiquity. Such discipline and training provided the necessary channels through which their own creativity could flow. And so Francis gently and lovingly admonishes us to persevere in the faith of the holy Roman Church, placing the holy Gospel ahead of other observances it is through the Church and through the Gospel that Christ teaches us what is ours to do. Not all of us here, I dare to say, will end up being Michelangelo s or Caravaggio s of the spiritual art of living and dying. But since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as the saying goes, if we conform ourselves to Christ by co-operating, to the best of our ability, with God s grace, then our lives and deaths cannot but be beautiful, since Our Father in Heaven, who is the eternal beholder of all things, will see and gaze upon His Own beloved Son. As we reflect this evening on the death of Our Holy Father Francis, let us ask for the grace to live our lives in continuous preparation for Sister Death so that we may welcome her, when the time comes, with joyful trust and hopeful surrender. Even if our own death does not turn out to be quite as theatrically artistic as Francis s was, may it nonetheless be pleasing and beautiful to our God. And finally, may each one of us, by dying to ourselves every day as our Lord commanded us and as Francis showed us, little by little breathe the Spirit of true Life back into a seemingly soulless and undead world.

5 HAPPY BIRTHDAY! For the month of October Warren Falgout, Oct. 8 Diane Klein, Oct. 16 Carol Leiser, Oct. 15 Rafael Refi Oct. 16 For we are His handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them Ephesians 2:10 Fraternity Calendar Annual San Angelo Portion Retreat (Oct. 1) 901 Madison Drive, Dallas, TX Transitus (Oct. 3) Saint Andrew, Fort Worth, TX Saint Andrew Fall Festival (Oct. 8-9). Immaculata Council Meeting (Oct. 15) Immaculata Fraternity Meeting (Oct. 21) Don t forget to share your bio on your call to the Secular Life! Profession ANNIVERSARY Diane Klein October 22, 1982 Please continue _ to pray for our sick: God is our refuge and our strength, an ever present help in distress. The Lord of hosts is with us; our stronghold is the God of Jacob. (Ps. 46) For those of you reading this addition of Fraternity Reflections on our webpage or through Facebook, and feel called to the Franciscan way, please contact us standrewcc.org/owa, and we ll be glad to direct you in the best possible way, rather it be in the Order of Secular Franciscans or in a Franciscan Religious Vocation. We d also invite you to come to the Immaculata Fraternity meetings every 3 rd Friday of each month between 7:00 PM and 9:00 PM, at Saint Andrew Catholic Church, 3314 Dryden Rd. Fort Worth, TX. Please Note: In discerning a life with us, you must be a member of the Catholic Church in good standing and in a spirit of unity. We look forward to meeting you!