Secular Franciscan Order South East Region. HOLY FATHER FRANCIS message from WORLD DAY OF PEACE JAN 2014

Transcription

1 Secular Franciscan Order South East Region ISSUE 16 LENT 2014 Building the Kingdom of God with Living Stones A PRAYER OF ST FRANCIS When his illness got worse I thank you, Lord God, For all my pains; If it pleases you, Lord Increase them a hundredfold. I shall thankfully accept Whatever sorrow you give, Not sparing me; for in the fulfilment of Your Will I find my greatest solace. (Bonaventure, Life of St Francis 14, 2) HOLY FATHER FRANCIS message from WORLD DAY OF PEACE JAN 2014 Given the theme from the Canticle that the SE Region is to present at the OFSGB Chapter of Mats in September this year, I thought that I could not do better than to include the following extracts from a message from HIS HOLINESS FRANCIS FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE WORLD DAY OF PEACE 1 JANUARY 2014 FRATERNITY, THE FOUNDATION AND PATHWAY TO PEACE 1. In this, my first Message for the World Day of Peace, I wish to offer to everyone, individuals and peoples, my best wishes for a life filled with joy and hope. In the heart of every man and woman is the desire for a full life, including that irrepressible longing for fraternity which draws us to fellowship with others and enables us to see them not as enemies or rivals, but as brothers and sisters to be accepted and embraced. Fraternity is an essential human quality, for we are relational beings. A lively awareness of our relatedness helps us to look upon and to treat each person as a true sister or brother; without fraternity it is impossible to build a just society and a solid and lasting peace. We should remember that fraternity is generally first learned in the family, thanks above all to the responsible and complementary roles of each of its members, particularly the father and the mother. The family is the wellspring of all fraternity, and as such it is the foundation and the first pathway to peace, since, by its vocation, it is meant to spread its love to the world around it. The ever-increasing number of interconnections and communications in today s world makes us powerfully aware of the unity and common destiny of the nations. In the dynamics of history, and in the diversity of ethnic groups, societies and cultures, we see the seeds of a vocation to form a community composed of brothers and sisters who accept and 1

2 care for one another. But this vocation is still frequently denied and ignored in a world marked by a globalization of indifference which makes us slowly inured to the suffering of others and closed in on ourselves. In many parts of the world, there seems to be no end to grave offences against fundamental human rights, especially the right to life and the right to religious freedom. The tragic phenomenon of human trafficking, in which the unscrupulous prey on the lives and the desperation of others, is but one unsettling example of this. Alongside overt armed conflicts are the less visible but no less cruel wars fought in the economic and financial sectors with means which are equally destructive of lives, families and businesses. Globalization, as Benedict XVI pointed out, makes us neighbours, but does not make us brothers.the many situations of inequality, poverty and injustice, are signs not only of a profound lack of fraternity, but also of the absence of a culture of solidarity. New ideologies, characterized by rampant individualism, egocentrism and materialistic consumerism, weaken social bonds, fuelling that throw away mentality which leads to contempt for, and the abandonment of, the weakest and those considered useless. In this way human coexistence increasingly tends to resemble a mere do ut des which is both pragmatic and selfish. At the same time, it appears clear that contemporary ethical systems remain incapable of producing authentic bonds of fraternity, since a fraternity devoid of reference to a common Father as its ultimate foundation is unable to endure.true brotherhood among people presupposes and demands a transcendent Fatherhood. Based on the recognition of this fatherhood, human fraternity is consolidated: each person becomes a neighbour who cares for others. Where is your brother? (Gen 4:9) 2. To understand more fully this human vocation to fraternity, to recognize more clearly the obstacles standing in the way of its realization and to identify ways of overcoming them, it is of primary importance to let oneself be led by knowledge of God s plan, which is presented in an eminent way in sacred Scripture. According to the biblical account of creation, all people are descended from common parents, Adam and Eve, the couple created by God in his image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:26), to whom Cain and Abel were born. In the story of this first family, we see the origins of society and the evolution of relations between individuals and peoples. Abel is a shepherd, Cain is a farmer. Their profound identity and their vocation is to be brothers, albeit in the diversity of their activity and culture, their way of relating to God and to creation. Cain s murder of Abel bears tragic witness to his radical rejection of their vocation to be brothers. Their story (cf. Gen 4:1-16) brings out the difficult task to which all men and women are called, to live as one, each taking care of the other. Cain, incapable of accepting God s preference for Abel who had offered him the best of his flock The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering; but for Cain and his offering he had no regard (Gen 4:4-5) killed Abel out of jealousy. In this way, he refused to regard Abel as a brother, to relate to him rightly, to live in the presence of God by assuming his responsibility to care for and to protect others. By asking him Where is your brother?, God holds Cain accountable for what he has done. He answers: I do not know. Am I my brother s keeper? (Gen 4:9). Then, the Book of Genesis tells us, Cain went away from the presence of the Lord (4:16). We need to ask ourselves what were the real reasons which led Cain to disregard the bond of fraternity and, at the same time, the bond of reciprocity and fellowship which joined him to his brother Abel. God himself condemns and reproves Cain s collusion with evil: sin is crouching at your door (Gen 4:7). But Cain refuses to turn against evil and decides instead to raise his hand against his brother Abel (Gen 4:8), thus scorning God s plan. In this way, he thwarts his primordial calling to be a child of God and to live in fraternity. The story of Cain and Abel teaches that we have an inherent calling to fraternity, but also the tragic capacity to betray that calling. This is witnessed by our daily acts of selfishness, which are at the root of so many wars and so much injustice: many men and women die at the hands of their brothers and sisters who are incapable of seeing themselves as such, that is, as beings made for reciprocity, for communion and self-giving. And you will all be brothers (Mt 23:8) 3. The question naturally arises: Can the men and women of this world ever fully respond to the longing for fraternity placed within them by God the Father? Will they ever manage by their power alone to overcome indifference, egoism and hatred, and to accept the legitimate differences typical of brothers and sisters? By paraphrasing his words, we can summarize the answer given by the Lord Jesus: For you have only one Father, who is God, and you are all brothers and sisters (cf. Mt 23:8-9). The basis of fraternity is found in God s fatherhood. We are not speaking of a generic fatherhood, indistinct and historically ineffectual, but rather of the specific and extraordinarily concrete personal love of God for each man and woman (cf. Mt 6:25-30). It is a fatherhood, then, which effectively generates fraternity, because the love of God, once welcomed, becomes the most formidable means of transforming our lives and relationships with others, opening us to solidarity and to genuine sharing. In a particular way, human fraternity is regenerated in and by Jesus Christ through his death and resurrection. The Cross is the definitive foundational locus of that fraternity which human beings are not capable of generating themselves. Jesus Christ, who assumed human nature in order to redeem it, loving the Father unto death on the Cross (cf. Phil 2:8), has through his resurrection made of us a new humanity, in full communion with the will of God, with his plan, which includes the full realization of our vocation to fraternity. 2

3 From the beginning, Jesus takes up the plan of the Father, acknowledging its primacy over all else. But Christ, with his abandonment to death for love of the Father, becomes the definitive and new principle of us all; we are called to regard ourselves in him as brothers and sisters, inasmuch as we are children of the same Father. He himself is the Covenant; in his person we are reconciled with God and with one another as brothers and sisters. Jesus death on the Cross also brings an end to the separation between peoples, between the people of the Covenant and the people of the Gentiles, who were bereft of hope until that moment, since they were not party to the pacts of the Promise. As we read in the Letter to the Ephesians, Jesus Christ is the one who reconciles all people in himself. He is peace, for he made one people out of the two, breaking down the wall of separation which divided them, that is, the hostility between them. He created in himself one people, one new man, one new humanity (cf. 2:14-16). All who accept the life of Christ and live in him acknowledge God as Father and give themselves completely to him, loving him above all things. The reconciled person sees in God the Father of all, and, as a consequence, is spurred on to live a life of fraternity open to all. In Christ, the other is welcomed and loved as a son or daughter of God, as a brother or sister, not as a stranger, much less as a rival or even an enemy. In God s family, where all are sons and daughters of the same Father, and, because they are grafted to Christ, sons and daughters in the Son, there are no disposable lives. All men and women enjoy an equal and inviolable dignity. All are loved by God. All have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, who died on the Cross and rose for all. This is the reason why no one can remain indifferent before the lot of our brothers and sisters. Fraternity, the foundation and pathway to peace 4. This being said, it is easy to realize that fraternity is the foundation and pathway of peace. The social encyclicals written by my predecessors can be very helpful in this regard. It would be sufficient to draw on the definitions of peace found in the encyclicals Populorum Progressio by Pope Paul VI and Sollicitudo Rei Socialis by John Paul II. From the first we learn that the integral development of peoples is the new name of peace.[from the second, we conclude that peace is an opus solidaritatis. Paul VI stated that not only individuals but nations too must encounter one another in a spirit of fraternity. As he says: In this mutual understanding and friendship, in this sacred communion, we must also work together to build the common future of the human race. In the first place, this duty falls to those who are most privileged. Their obligations are rooted in human and supernatural fraternity and are manifested in three ways: the duty of solidarity, which requires the richer nations to assist the less developed; the duty of social justice, which requires the realignment of relationships between stronger and weaker peoples in terms of greater fairness; and the duty of universal charity, which entails the promotion of a more humane world for all, a world in which each has something to give and to receive, without the progress of the one constituting an obstacle to the development of the other. If, then, we consider peace as opus solidaritatis, we cannot fail to acknowledge that fraternity is its principal foundation. Peace, John Paul II affirmed, is an indivisible good. Either it is the good of all or it is the good of none. It can be truly attained and enjoyed, as the highest quality of life and a more human and sustainable development, only if all are guided by solidarity as a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good. This means not being guided by a desire for profit or a thirst for power. What is needed is the willingness to lose ourselves for the sake of others rather than exploiting them, and to serve them instead of oppressing them for our own advantage. The other whether a person, people or nation [is to be seen] not just as some kind of instrument, with a work capacity and physical strength to be exploited at low cost and then discarded when no longer useful, but as our neighbour, a helper. Christian solidarity presumes that our neighbour is loved not only as a human being with his or her own rights and a fundamental equality with everyone else, but as the living image of God the Father, redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ and placed under the permanent action of the Holy Spirit, as another brother or sister. As John Paul II noted: At that point, awareness of the common fatherhood of God, of the brotherhood of all in Christ children in the Son and of the presence and life-giving action of the Holy Spirit, will bring to our vision of the world a new criterion for interpreting it, for changing it. Conclusion 10. Fraternity needs to be discovered, loved, experienced, proclaimed and witnessed to. But only love, bestowed as a gift from God, enables us to accept and fully experience fraternity. The necessary realism proper to politics and economy cannot be reduced to mere technical know-how bereft of ideals and unconcerned with the transcendent dimension of man. When this openness to God is lacking, every human activity is impoverished and persons are reduced to objects that can be exploited. Only when politics and the economy are open to moving within the wide space ensured by the One who loves each man and each woman, will they achieve an ordering based on a genuine spirit of fraternal charity and become effective instruments of integral human development and peace. We Christians believe that in the Church we are all members of a single body, all mutually necessary, because each has been given a grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ, for the common good (cf. Eph 4:7,25; 1 Cor12:7). Christ has come to the world so as to bring us divine grace, that is, the possibility of sharing in his life. This entails weaving a fabric of fraternal relationships marked by reciprocity, forgiveness and complete self-giving, according to the breadth and the depth of the love of God offered to humanity in the One who, crucified and risen, 3

4 draws all to himself: A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (Jn 13:34-35). This is the good news that demands from each one a step forward, a perennial exercise of empathy, of listening to the suffering and the hopes of others, even those furthest away from me, and walking the demanding path of that love which knows how to give and spend itself freely for the good of all our brothers and sisters. Christ embraces all of humanity and wishes no one to be lost. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him (Jn 3:17). He does it without oppressing or constraining anyone to open to him the doors of heart and mind. Let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves Jesus Christ says I am among you as one who serves (Lk 22:26-27). Every activity therefore must be distinguished by an attitude of service to persons, especially those furthest away and less known. Service is the soul of that fraternity that builds up peace. May Mary, the Mother of Jesus, help us to understand and live every day the fraternity that springs up from the heart of her Son, so as to bring peace to each person on this our beloved earth. Kathleen Bishop ofs Regional Minister CHAPTER OF MATS There are still a few places left if you want to be present at our Chapter of Mats speak with your Minister. This name was given to a particular Chapter of the early brothers that took place in Portiuncula had become the place where the brothers gathered regularly for their discussions, elections, corrections and admonitions, catching up on their adventures and travels. It was a very special "mother house" despite its tiny size. Francis wrote special regulations about the virtuous characteristics expected from any brother who was to live at the Portiuncula. The name arose because at that Chapter 5,000 brothers gathered for a few days, sleeping on "mats". (We don't know exactly what these simple sleeping mats would have been like. Brothers were used to sleeping on rock beds and simple straw bedding - whatever they could find.) Local people provided all the food. It made a huge impact on both the brothers and the local people because so many brothers had joined Francis. Today a Chapter of Mats means a gathering of members of the Order to catch up on news, share stories and celebrate together. There is no official business such as voting on any matters, formation, or teaching input. It is just time spent among people who have chosen to belong to the Order which enables us to appreciate what we share and what it means to live as on OFS member today. Traditionally there has to be a national chapter half way between national elections and we have held these. Every member is invited and people who are beginning to be interested or in formation are always welcome. In the past these have consisted of prayer and teaching input. This time we simply wanted to celebrate and share, meeting up with members from all parts of OFSGB. We take the name from the celebratory nature of the 1221 Chapter. ASSISI TRIPS Salvina suggested this would be an interesting topic for our regional newsletter. How I came to organise trips to Assisi. When I was working at FISC I led students on a Franciscan pilgrimage, travelling with Pax Travel. Over the years I came to love Assisi more and more, so I now feel Assisi is like a second home. I had responsibility for preparing the guide and prayer books for the group. I gradually acquired the responsibility of choosing which Franciscan sites, apart from Assisi, we would visit. It was always very busy and I found little time for myself. However, I always felt excited and privileged to accompany and lead the student group. It was a great opportunity for getting to know the students better. I soon realised that it would be useful to know Italian and I started learning the language it has been wonderful but also essential. I love the language and still go to a tutor to improve. I tried various places for accommodation and eventually found the one I use regularly, Casa Papa Giovanni. I prefer this for a number of reasons - it doesn t charge a single room supplement; by Assisi standards it is reasonably priced; you do not pay in advance and can decide day to day which meals you want to eat in; it is central and it has an amazing roof terrace, in the shade of trees, overlooking the Rieti valley; it is very welcoming; food is good but fairly plain and simple. It was expensive. I decided that I would cut costs to a minimum if ever I accompanied a group. This meant not paying for a priest as there are plenty of Masses in Assisi and you Road in front of Casa Papa Giovanni often happen upon a Mass or find a priest staying at the casa who will celebrate a Mass for painted by an ofs member from a visit you. in 2012 The Itinerary I plan as low cost as possible, but with optional extras which I can arrange at the last minute. I have established a good relationship with a taxi firm. This firm transports us between Perugia airport and the Casa and takes us wherever we want to go. 4

5 I take the group on an orientation walk the first afternoon. I then take them to San Damiano, where Clare and her sisters lived in community; Sta Maria degli Angeli (Portiuncola the little chapel which was really the mother church for the brothers and where Clare was tonsured) and the Carceri (a hermitage just above Assisi). I organise an English tour of the Basilica of St Francis. Once people know their way around it is up to the individual to go back to places they like. Assisi itself is pretty and has a lot of places of interest. It is a relaxing and enjoyable, as well as a safe, place to be. For those who can and want to go further, I have arranged visits to La Verna (where Francis received the Stigmata), Greccio (the place Francis celebrated a living nativity) which has cribs from all over the world and a less well-known hermitage, Poggio Bustone. Each site has its own character and attraction. It is also possible to take day trips to Rome or Florence, to Gubbio, to Perugia and other local places. I just help people find out about travel to these places. Everything is optional and some people just enjoy being there, visiting churches, shopping, eating and drinking, taking the path up to the ruins of Rocca Maggiore with its beautiful panoramic vista over Assisi. There is a downward climb through woods, to a rustic restaurant and a waterside walk. I find out what entertainments are planned during the time we are there and people choose what they might like to do in the evenings. There are often exhibitions in a range of venues. There are concerts in different places. There are often events in the central Piazza. Just sitting on the casa s terrace is a pleasant experience. There are plenty of seats so you can be in a group or sit quietly on your own. The casa has its own chapel. Groups I have accompanied I took a parish group from my own church in the first informal trip. I found interest from people who knew I was going because they knew friends or relatives of mine. They came from different parts of the UK. One year several Franciscan sisters asked to join the group. There developed a small group who wanted to come every time until this year. June 2014 will consist mostly of secular Franciscans. There is a group from Wales and a couple of people from Scotland. The rest are connected with or live in the SE region. People make their own travel arrangements I just book the accommodation and act as a guide/translator and suggest things to do. I love introducing people to Assisi, especially parishioners who are not Franciscan. I also look forward to taking fellow Franciscans to places they have already heard so much about. It brings to life so much about our Order and other Franciscans. Paula Pearce ofs Formation OFS SE REGION PROGRAMME FOR OUR DIARIES 2014 Saturday 14 June Santa Chiara Fri 19 Sun 21 September Saturday 4 October St Clare Saturday 13 December Our Lady of the Angels Family and Life in Fraternity, Fraternity Presentations for Chapter of Mats FISC, Giles Lane, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NA 10am 4pm Chapter of Mats The Hayes, Swanwick, Derbyshire Life in Union with God in our Secular Life Poor Clares, 22 Upper Church Road, Hollington TN37 7AS 10am 4pm Electoral and Chapter of Mats The Angelus Centre, Carlton Road, Erith DA8 1DN 10am 4pm FRATERNITY NEWS ERITH We now have 14 professed but 2 are quite ill; 1 guest and 5 are not in full communion. In December our meeting was very joyful. We did as St Francis did and all focused on the crib the one from the brown handbook. We prayed the psalms and read the Gospel. Fr Prins gave the Blessing. In January, for the Epiphany, we placed the wise men. Fr Prins led us and we all took part in the blessing of the home. We then gave our offering of ourselves, writing them on paper and placing them in a small box for Fr Prins to dispose of after our meeting. In February we returned to on-going formation and had a meeting for all members to pool together ideas for the Chapter of Mats. We found a lot of history about our fraternity which will be useful for the display. Sheila is very keen to make a Book of Remembrance for our deceased members. As a reminder Fr Thomas More who was once Erith s Spiritual Advisor celebrates his Golden Jubilee on 14 March. We will have Mass at Our Lady of the Angels specially for him. 5

6 The Canonisation of Angela of Foligno - Secular Franciscan On 9 October 2013, in response to numerous appeals to the Holy See by Bishops and Ministers General of the Franciscan Family, Pope Francis declared Blessed Angela de Foligno of Italy a saint. Born in Umbria in 1248, the mystical writer, after experiencing a stunning conversion, wrote of her experiences and visions, recorded in her Book of Visions and Instructions. This is a canonisation that is equal in force and significance. It was Pope Francis desire to declare her a saint on 9 October, without the necessity of having a public ceremony for her canonisation. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints released this announcement on Friday, 11 October. The Holy Father after having received in audience Cardinal Angelo Amato S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, extended the liturgical cult of Blessed Angela of Foligno of the Secular Franciscan Order, born in Foligno (Italy) in 1248 and dying in the same place in 1309, to the universal Church, inscribing her in the catalogue of saints. Saint Angela of Foligno is a Secular Franciscan. She is our sister, a lay woman, and a mother in the fullest sense. She is a mother of the children born of her womb and prematurely lost, a mother of the disinherited for whom she sold her earthly possessions, and a mother to her spiritual sons and daughters who remained at her side till the end of her life. The life of Saint Angela began with a worldly existence, rather remote from God. But, later, her encounter with the figure of St Francis and, finally, her encounter with the crucified Christ, reawakened her soul; it is only with God that life becomes true life, because, in sorrow for sin, it becomes love and joy. This is how Saint Angela also speaks to us. Living a daily life of prayer, Saint Angela is a master guide. The secret of her conversion and her union with Christ crucified, is constant prayer. "The more you pray", she would say, "the more you will be enlightened; (...) the more profoundly and intensely you will see him, the more you will love him." Without heavenly light, no man can be saved.if you wish to gain possession of this light, pray ; if you wish to increase this light within you, pray; if you want faith, pray; if you want hope, pray; if you want charity, pray; if you want poverty, pray; if you want true obedience, pray; if you want chastity, pray; for whatever the virtue you seek, pray. And pray in this way: by reading in the Book of Life, that is, in the life of the One who is God and man, Jesus Christ (Instruction II, lines 229 ss.). Pope Benedict XIV called Saint Angela the "Mistress of Theologians", because all doctrine has been developed on the Book of Life, Jesus Christ, our Lord. This identification with Jesus equally signifies living what Jesus himself lived: poverty, contempt and sorrow, because, as she declared, "through temporal poverty, the soul will find eternal riches; through contempt and shame, it will obtain supreme honour and very great glory; through penance, undertaken with pain and sorrow, it will possess with infinite sweetness and consolation the Supreme Good, God Eternal" Today, we all risk living as though God does not exist; he seems so distant from daily life. But God has thousands of ways, one for each of us, to be present in the soul, to show that he exists and knows me and loves me. And, Saint Angela wants to make us attentive to these signs with which the Lord touches our soul, attentive to the presence of God, so as to learn life with God and towards God, in communion with Christ crucified. (Benedict XVI ) FRANCISCANS SHARING A Case of Blasphemy by Robin Saunders ofs Ashford At the 2013 Canterbury Festival, a modern interpretation of a medieval passion play was staged in the crypt of the Cathedral on the Thursday and Friday, 31 Oct/1 Nov. The original play was written by the 13th century friar, mystic and poet, Br Jacapone da Todi, and this focuses on the suffering that the Blessed Virgin will have felt as she witnessed the torture and crucifixion of her precious Son. The play then moved into the 21st century, when a present day lawyer, in a modern courtroom style, crossquestioned the spirits of Christ's two main accusers, Pontius Pilate and the high priest of the Sanhedrin, Caiaphas, played by Robin Saunders of the Ashford Fraternity. 6

7 The production was sponsored by the Franciscan International Study Centre, and four friars opened the play, chanting praises to the Heavenly Mother, a friar chanted the penitential psalm to mark the point in the play when it moved into the modern courtroom, and the four friars concluded the play, chanting the Jubilate Deo, to emphasise the play's final note of hope, that the Cross was not the symbol of death, but of the Resurrection and eternal life. The play was very well attended on both nights, and several people commented that it was very moving and had a real spiritual effect. REJECTED. AGAIN By EH - a family member of Croydon ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ He stood as if at the Wailing Wall In a dedicated submissive stance. A forlornness was about his presence, Long disheveled hair hung down and Shrouded an unseen face from view; His hands were stuffed into pockets, He rocked to and fro as if in supplication, But this was not Jerusalem, just the Stone-wall of a kiosk in Hyde Park. Filthy tattered clothes draped the Frail form, he stood barefoot On the black asphalt path, a lonely Figure in a park of frenzied activity. Indifference surrounded the pathetic form; One felt compelled to look at the Human agony which, cried out, Yet somehow, powerless to ease the pain; For he epitomized the suffering in The world borne upon his shoulders; Was he the Come again Messiah Still to be ignored by man? At Speakers Corner man on wooden boxes Pontificated Who is the one true God? But did he stand not so far away, Once again, forsaken denounced by man? The figure haunted me, yet I, like many Other ignoring his plight walked on by. Edward Horrigan SELF REFLECT and REACH OUT IN LOVE this LENT Let us remember to keep ourselves, each other and all the Franciscan Orders in prayer. Include all those in our hearts, parishes, prisons, hospitals, trafficked, abused, homeless (the list is endless) here and around the world whether suffering in the mind, heart, body or soul. Reach out to someone who is lonely; share a smile, a kiss or hug, a kind word; forgive those who have hurt us; forgive ourselves; face our pride - hand it over the Jesus; have humility no matter how painful; say sorry despite the indignation; think positive even if the sun is not shining or the train is late. Very often how we think is how we are so change our mindset to joy; face our challenges in faith and with a smile. Take just 10 minutes a day to see our true selves and then measure that against the Good Book. Try to see Jesus in everyone including ourselves. We cannot change anyone, only God can; we can only work on changing ourselves. Let s make a real effort to love our brother and sister renew that commitment each morning. Remember to be Holy is to be perfect like our Father is Perfect. That is our goal so persevere. Stand up quick when we fall no matter how many times we fall. (Now read it again, more slowly and may be even again tomorrow). 7

8 FRATERNITY CONTACTS South East Region Executive Council: Minister: Kathleen Bishop Ashford Vice Minister: Salvina Bartholomeusz Croydon Secretary: Declan Walsh Croydon Treasurer: Cordelia Rice Erith Presence ITW: Kathy Maskens Croydon Formator: Paula Pearce Ashford ASHFORD St Pio of Pietrelcina Last Tuesday 7.00pm 9.00pm at The Priests House, St Teresa of Avila, Maidstone Road, TN24 8TX Minister: Mary Murrills Vice Minister: Ann Waldner CANTERBURY Santa Chiara 2 nd Sunday 2.30pm 4.30pm at Franciscan Study Centre, Giles Lane, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NA Vice Minister: Merlyn Lewis Treasurers Michael Haggar michael.h@ofsgb.org.uk CROYDON St Mary of the Angels 4 th Sunday 2.30pm 5.00pm at St Mary s Church Hall, 70 Wellesley Road, Croydon, Surrey CR0 2AR Minister: Salvina Bartholomeusz Salvinaofs@yahoo.co.uk Treasurer: Declan Walsh Declan007@talktalk.net ERITH Our Lady of the Angels 3 rd Sunday : 2.45pm 4.45pm at The Angelus Centre, Carlton Road, Erith, Kent DA8 1DN Minister: Hilda Delaney h45@hotmail.co.uk Vice Minister: Michael McCarthy HOLLINGTON St Clare 1 st Sunday 3.30pm 5.30pm at Poor Clares, 22 Upper Church Road, Hollington, TN37 7AS Minister: Stuart Agnew stuartaagnew@gmail.com Vice Minister: Glenn Lowcock glennlouis@hotmail.co.uk SEVENOAKS 4 th Sunday 2.30pm 4.00pm at Parish Centre by St Thomas Church, 12 Granville Rd, Sevenoaks TN13 1ER Minister: Annette Lot annette_lott@btinternet.com Secretary: Mary Jordan Franciscan website links: Secular Franciscan Order GB Secular Franciscan International Order Franciscans International Good Friday Prayer of Love for the Crucified Lord O Jesus, it is not the heavenly reward You have promised which impels me to love You; neither is it the threat of hell that keeps me from offending You. It is You O Lord, it is the sight of You affixed to the Cross and suffering insults; it is the sight of Your broken body, as well as Your pains and Your death. There is nothing You can give me to make me love You. For even if there were no heaven and no hell I would still love you as I do! 8