A C A P U C H I N F R A N C I S C A N P U B L I C A T I O N

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1 Newsnotes A C A P U C H I N F R A N C I S C A N P U B L I C A T I O N V O L U M E 2 6 N U M B E R F E B R U A R Y

2 Stt.. John Communiitty Bllesses New Image of St. Pio The Parish Community of Saint John the Baptist in New York City gathered on Monday, 24 January to bless the newly-arrived image of our Capuchin brother Saint Pio of Pietrelcina 12 o F Following the Liturgical Celebration, a wine and cheese reception was held in the St. John the Baptist Parish Hall. [Left] Thomas Franks during the Eucharistic Celebration 02

3 Regis J. Armstrong, O.F.M. Cap. Our brother Regis Armstrong was to be honored with an Honorary Doctorate during an Academic Honors Convocation on 27 January 2011 held at the Lodi, New Jersey Campus of Felician College. The gathering was cancelled due to the inclement weather. We would like to share with you his prepared presentation. I have to confess that I really don t know why I am being honored. When Ignatius Brady was sadly struck with Alzheimer s, Francis and Clare: The Complete Writings fell to me. Clare of Assisi: Early Documents came as a pure gift; only after the third edition did I feel I had fulfilled that labor of love. Francis of Assisi: Early Documents was a necessity as was inaugurating and editing Greyfriars Review. Honor for performing one s duties was something I never envisioned. In the spirit of your patron, Saint Felix, Brother Thanks be to God, as he became known, I am grateful to God and to you. People have asked me: why Felician College? What is your affiliation with Felician College? My initial response to those questions was a tentative: Possibly because I am a Saiintt Felliix off Canttalliice Brother Thanks Be to God Capuchin! A response triggered by two sets of memories: one tied to Glenclyffe High School, our prep seminary, where Felician Sisters of Lodi tirelessly tended to our stomachs and our clothes; the other is of a wonderful day in Rome years later when Mother Amadeus asked me to preside at a Mass over the tomb of Saint Felix of Cantalice. In other words, in my mind, my presence here seemed to have little to do with scholarship or academic achievement. In past academic convocations Sister Margaret Carney, O.S.F., offered you a presentation on Duns Scotus while Father Timothy Radcliffe, O.P., an analysis of the Felician College motto. I d like to propose some random thoughts inspired by the image of those first nineteenth century Polish Sisters bringing young people before a statue of Saint Felix of Cantalice hence your name, Felician. Mother M. Amadeus Lewicka Felix was a very simple man; for that reason, he was a very transparent man; and for both of those reasons, he was a very popular man. When he died in 1587 vast crowds of Romans came to pay their respects to the saint who had touched their hearts among them one of his close friends, Philip Neri, and the pope, Sixtus V who told Felix s conferes to immediately prepare for his canonization. It could be said that it was Felix who made the first Capuchins credible and, as such, became a unique articulator of the Franciscan vision. You might ask: why or how? He was definitely no scholar or academician. His only writings are a handful of madrigaletti or ditties that demand knowledge of sixteenth century Italian to appreciate. The now frequently repeated words of Johannes Jørgansen -- Preach the Gospel; if necessary, use words! -- apply more to Felix than to Francis. If your first Felician Sisters were eager to influence the young, a valid question may be to ask: is there a unique perspective on the Franciscan tradition that your Felician lens offers? 03

4 Felix and his confreres lived during the time of the Reformation, at a time when there was, on one hand, a prevalent lack of civility, and, on the other, a burning desire to return to the single-minded vision of the form be it the form of the Church or, in the case of the Franciscan Family, the forma minorum. For the Capuchins of Felix s time this meant a renewed commitment to an interior life of prayer lived in the austere poverty embraced by Francis. It also meant returning to the thought of Bonaventure that became for those followers of Francis: a mental atmosphere that always ends to use the words of Cuthbert Hesse in a wistful acknowledgement of mystery beyond the attempted topical explanation, for the simple reason that it search for vision and experience rather than the logical truth (The Capuchins, p. 404). It is precisely in this context that Felix and Bonaventure come together, where the Felician tradition might find its unique perspective. In the first chapter of his Itinerarium mentis in Deum, Bonaventure states unequivocally that the power, wisdom, and knowledge of the Creator shine forth in created beings. He writes that these external beings must deservire [serve/contribute to] the interior life, thus how we look at them becomes important. Bonaventure proposes three ways of looking at things: the first of one who contemplates, the second that of one who is fidelis [keeps faith], and, lastly, one who ratiocinabiliter investigantis [theologizes or one whose faith seeks understanding]. Each of these three perspectives is worthy of consideration; each advances in much needed directions Zachary Hayes s 1974 article Towards a Philosophy of Education in the Spirit of St. Bonaventure. Such consideration, however, is beyond the scope of this brief presentation. The first way is, nonetheless, worthy of reflection. "Every moment and every event of everyman's life on earth plants something in his soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of winged seeds, so the stream of time brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of men. Thomas Merton By contemplating things as they are in themselves, Bonaventure describes what he sees as the most basic or fundamental of looking at corporalia exteriora [exterior beings]. In this context he uses as passage from the Book of Wisdom 11:20: You have arranged all things by measure, number, and weight. The phrase measure, weight, number was a thread in the fabric of Augustine s The Literal Meaning of Genesis and, in a work he wrote at the same time, The Trinity. As he describes the six days of creation, Augustine observes: It is a great thing to soar beyond everything that can be measured and see measure without measure, to soar beyond everything that can be numbered and see number without number, to soar beyond everything that can be weighed and see weight without weight (LMG IV 8). As he muses at the Trinitarian call of a human person made in God s image he returns to the passage as he recognizes the challenge to make things which lie hidden and secreted in nature s bosom burst forth and be created openly, by unfolding measures, number and weights Thus Wisdom 11:20 became a phrase found throughout the medieval literature of Augustine, Hugh of Saint Victor, and Peter Lombard encouraging the neverending discovery of the divine in created beings and celebrate it in music, architecture, and poetry. Bonaventure, however, places contemplating the divine arrangement of creation in measure, number, and weight in the context of poverty and, in doing so, places the Franciscan stamp upon it. This was the inheritance that Felix and his confreres received, the inheritance to which those nineteenth century Felicians unwittingly pointed those young people. Why is that image appropriate today? To answer that question, I need to repeat my earlier description: Felix was a very simple man; for that reason, he was very transparent; and for both of those reasons, he was very popular. It might be difficult to imagine how this simple lay brother could become so popular without being on Facebook. Six out of seven days he spent on the streets of Rome, begging from one person after another! Philip Neri and Charles Borromeo came to know him, as did popes, cardinals, aristocrats and professional people, couples wanting children, women fearing or having miscarriages, parents with children having life-threatening diseases! As he walked the streets of Rome begging bread for his confreres, Felix seemed unable to overlook the poor, the starving, the sick, those whose quality of life he felt compelled to improve. And to think: transparency, being fingerprinted, or CPE were never issues! It was the children who nicknamed him Fra Deo Gratias! And the children who also recognized his sense of humor! Talk about a social network! These days many in the Franciscan School of Spirituality might be emphatic that contemplative prayer is the call of monastics. While those in the Ignatian School of Spirituality might claim Felix of Cantalice as an exemplar of contemplation in action or the attitude seeing my work is my prayer. The Capuchin Felix, however, best exemplifies a comment on the call to contemplation made by Thomas Merton: "Every moment and every event of everyman's life on earth plants something in his soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of winged seeds, so the stream of time brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of men. Denizens of Metropolitan New York know well that simply walking the streets might inseminate city-dwellers. But with germs of spiritual vitality? Merton, who knew these streets well, continues: Most of these unnumbered seeds perish and are lost, because men are not prepared to receive them: for such seeds as these cannot spring up anywhere except in the good soul of liberty and desire." (Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation (New York: New Directions, 1961), 17. There is a dividend, not a surcharge, accrued by one who looks contemplatively at everyday life while, at the same time, nourishing an apostolate that in turn contributes to that contemplative life. As they devoted an hour in the morning and another in the evening to deepening the inner Continued on page eight 04

5 Stt.. John Communiitty hostts a Meal for the Homeless The Charismatic Prayer Group of the Parish Community of Saint John the Baptist hosted a dinner for the homeless on Saturday, 30 January 2011 in the Parish Hall. 30 o F Top left-clockwise: clothing was available for those in need; volunteers served their guests at their tables; our brother John Baptist Riordan with the volunteer servers; [left] volunteer Renalda serving meals. 05

6 Friiars iin Japan Gather for Retreat February 2011 Our eighteen brothers ministering in Japan gathered for their annual retreat in Yonabaru, Okinawa, conducted by two Japanese Sisters Kozuka and Ozaki. 53 o F Top left-clockwise: Retreat house in Yonabaru, Okinawa; opening toast Compai at the first supper; Sr. Kozuka, Wayne Berndt, Roland Daigle and Peter Baptist Ishigami; [above] Maxim D Souza, LaSalle Parsons and Louis Chiusano; [left] Denis Fernandes, Louis, LaSalle, Maxim and Sr. Ozaki. 06

7 Viice Proviince off Our Lady Sttar off tthe Sea ASSEMBLY GATHERING 2011 Back row: Agustin Gumataotao, Randolph Nowak, Joseph English, Eric Forbes, John Gallagher, Celestino Arias, Paul Minchak, Marvin Bearis, Robert Maher, Brian Champoux, Michel Dalton and George Maddock; front: Patrick Castro, Andre Eduvala, Felixberto Leon-Guerrero, Archbishop Anthony Apuron, Paulo Kosaka, Ivo Sinaga and Jose Villagomez. 81 o F Celestino Arias; our brothers Marvin Bearis and Brian Champoux; John Gallagher with local fauna; below: Agustin Gumataotao, Paul Minchak, Paulo Kosaka and George Maddock; Felixberto Leon Guerrero, Patrick Castro, Andre Eduvala, Marvin Bearis, Brian Champoux & Celestino Arias Our Lady Star of the Sea Visitation & Assembly Coverage continues in our next Issue of Newsnotes 07

8 Continued from page four life of prayer, Felix and his confreres taught a lesson valuable for us today: In the inexorable truth in which [these early Capuchins] faced their own lives, they faced their fellow men; and in the knowledge of themselves learned in their own spiritual struggles, their words rang with the compassion and humanity of the fellow sufferer (Cuthbert Hesse, The Capuchins, v. I [Port Washington, NY/London: Kennikat Press, 1971], 157). In a recent Op- Ed piece in the New York Times, David Brooks wrote of the contemporary lack of civility: Over the past few decades, people have lost a sense of their own sinfulness. Children are raised amid a chorus of applause. Politics has become less about institutional restraint and more about giving voters whatever they want at that second. After describing various examples of the acrimonious and divisive partisanship of contemporary society, Brooks concluded: Beneath all the other things that have contributed to polarization and the loss of civility, the most important is this: The roots of modesty have been carved away. In his struggle to grow in the contemplative embrace of God, Felix found the means to join the struggles of his fellow human beings in finding God amid their brokenness. Moreover, Felix teaches that looking at things through contemplative eyes prods a person to be restlessly attentive, eager to discover in as many details as possible, to use the words of Wisdom 11:20, the divine designs of measure, number, and weight. This might well be another unique approach of Felician College: to help students to become restlessly attentive to the divine designs. This is the challenge that faces all of us would be followers of Francis of Assisi to learn the lesson of his Canticle of Brother Sun in which every word has its proper place. Be it a Mozart Sonata or the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins: every detail has its place making, as Augustine wrote, things which lie hidden and secreted in nature s bosom burst forth and be created openly, by unfolding measures, number and weights I write this as another snowstorm looms on the horizon. It is only January 27 th with February and March soon approaching generally the months with our heaviest snowfalls. The sight of snow has certainly made this, to tweak John Steinbeck s phrase, a winter of our discontent. Curiously, on this morning s TODAY SHOW, a woman was interviewed about her book tweaking the same title; in this case, The Winter of Our Disconnect; She and her family embraced six months of setting aside their electronic life lines : television, radio, computers, ipods, cell phone, landlines, and the like. Our relationships with one another were subtly eroding around us while we were wired to the outside world, she explained. We had to do something! When asked what the family of five learned, she replied: We saw one another differently and responded accordingly! Her insight might prompt us to wonder: for all our progress in communication, in being socially connected, in being so media savvy have we not loss the sense of sin or uprooted desire to see the face of God and in its glance a true sense of our selves. Such reflection on the world around us especially in the greater Metropolitan New York area might make the Felician Tradition even more appealing. In other words, the simple, transparent, popular Felix does indeed challenge the way we see things. Thanks be for God for the heritage God passes onto us through his like. 33 o F Regis J. Armstrong, O.F.M. Cap. Catholic University of America 220 Curley Hall Washington DC regis.armstrong@gmail.com 28 o F Left to Right: Jerome Johnson Province of St. Joseph Francis Grinko Province of St. Conrad Gerard O Dempsey Province of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Robert Barbato Province of Our Lady of the Angels NAPCC Noviittiiatte Team 08

9 Next Issue: Hawaiian Visitation Vice Province Assembly 2011 [continued coverage] Human Resource News 02 St. John Community Blesses New Image of Saint Pio New York City 24 January 2011 NEWSNOTES V O L U M E 2 6 N U M B E R F E B R U A R Y Publisher John Gallagher, O.F.M. Cap. Editor John Shento, O.F.M. Cap. 03 Saint Felix of Cantalice Brother Thanks Be To God A presentation by Regis J. Armstrong 27 January 2011 Assistant Editor Photography Donna Smith-Kresel Donna Smith-Kresel George McCloskey, O.F.M. Cap. John Rathschmidt, O.F.M. Cap. Gavin Reilly, O.F.M. Cap. 05 St. John Community hosts a Meal for the Homeless New York City 30 January 2011 Guest Photographers Robert Abbatiello, O.F.M. Cap. Stephen Papp Joseph Yakimovich, O.F.M. Cap. Gerard Keppel Andrew Nowak, O.F.M. Cap. 06 Friars in Japan Gather for Retreat Yonabaru Retreat House February 2011 Mailings Jack Reilly Patricia Lefebvre 07 VP of Our Lady Star of Sea Assembly Gathering 2011 Agaña, Guam February 2011 Archival Retrieval Meteorological Research Roger Deguire, O.F.M. Cap. John E. Koelle, O.F.M. Cap. Photography Credits Pages 2: Photography courtesy of Thomas Franks Page 5: Courtesy of George McCloskey Page 6: Courtesy of Patrick Sullivan Page 7: Courtesy of Eric Forbes and John Gallagher Page 8: Novitiate Team photo courtesy of Francis X. Grinko Weekly Capuchin Franciscan publication of the Province of Saint Mary of the Capuchin Order 30 Gedney Park Drive White Plains, NY Office of Communications Voice x SMPComCap@aol.com 09