While some of the images caused some very lively discussion, the image of washing feet is one with which we as Christians are very familiar.  It is at the center of the Last Supper narration of the Gospel of John, and an important part of our Holy Thursday liturgies. 

Holy Thursday begins the Sacred Triduum- three days in which we mark the events that led to our salvation- the Last Supper, the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Holy Thursday celebrates the Institution of the Holy Eucharist, when Jesus, at the Passover meal with his disciples, took bread and wine, and changed them to His Body and Blood. We celebrate the institution of the priesthood, as the apostles were commanded “Do This in memory of Me” and to continue the real presence of Jesus Christ among us.   It is also important to note that in the Gospel narration of John read on Holy Thursday, we have, not the words of Institution that we find in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke (called the Synoptic Gospels), but that of Jesus washing the feet of his apostles.    It is also important to remember that John does not mention the actual taking of bread and wine in his Last Supper narration at all- but substitutes it with the Washing of Feet.

This is used as an example of service, not only as far as the priesthood is concerned, but as a command to all of us.   Instead of saying “Do this in memory of Me,” Jesus says, “As I have done, so also you must do.”

What is the importance and significance of this gesture of Jesus?  Certainly, we know that the washing of feet during the time of Jesus was seen as something lowly, the duty of a servant or a slave.  Yet we see Jesus, Lord and Master, doing this for his disciples.   It is such an outlandish gesture that Peter at first refuses to participate.   

Although much of Lent centers on the cross, on penance, and on sacrifice, we must always see these in terms of service.   We may find sacrificing for others a difficult thing, yet we know that when we love, sacrificing becomes an easy thing.

I am sure we have all encountered people who make tremendous sacrifices for those they love.  We see husbands and wives make sacrifices for their children, children for their parents- people taking on great hardships, denying themselves many things for the sake of someone they love. Indeed even in our own order and province, we see many friars making great sacrifices for others.   

But Jesus asks us to take another step-  he tells us to love our enemies, because he realizes that we will never make the necessary sacrifices for those who are strangers or even enemies.   

True love comes in sacrifice and surrender.   Heroism is not found in the one who saves his life, but the one who gives his life for others.  

Have a wonderful and holy Triduum, and a very Happy Easter.

News from the Convento San Francesco

Greetings from the eternal city. During this month we had many wonderful activities. In this holy season of Lent we had the opportunity to serve in San Pietro on Ash Wednesday, that was presided by Cardinal Gambetti. Also as a fraternity we served the Via Crucis at San Pietro Basilica. It was an impressive experience to see how the tourists get involved. Also after three weeks of exams and hard work we celebrated the end with a trip to San Giovanni Rotondo on a beautiful spring day.  

During this month we also celebrated several birthdays On February 22, we celebrated Daniela's birthday. On February 25 Br. Dagoberto and our guardian, Father Antonio, March 3. We wish you all the best and may the Lord bless you in your lives and your families.

We send you our fraternal greetings, wishing you a good Holy Week and may the joy of the Risen Lord fill your hearts.

Br. Aldair

Provincial Retreat/ Guardians

Workshop- May 7-10, 2024

Chapter of Mats- May 11, 2024

Retreat/ Guardian Workshop/Chapter

May 7-11 (Inclusive)-Mt. Alvernia Friary, Wappingers Falls, NY

All registration forms are due in the provincial office or by email to Texaco7171@gmail.com by April 1, 2024.  Those who are asking permission to be excused are asked to write  to the provincial minister by this date with reason and plan for your annual retreat. All guardians are expected to attend. 

Please make sure to include the date that you will arrive, as we must plan for rooms and meals. Thank you for your cooperation. We look forward to a time of spiritual nourishment, fraternal renewal, ongoing formation, and fun. All this is just five days!

HEALTHCARE NEWS

Are you in your seventies?

Friars in their seventies are currently the largest cohort of friars in the province (25). For those in parish ministries, many friars are or will be required to submit letters of resignation at age 75. Due to personnel shortages, many dioceses are allowing friars to work beyond this age. Even for those who are not in parish ministries, advancing age and the commensurate physical issues may be exerting additional pressures upon you. Many of our friars equate work with their usefulness and purpose in life. As a fraternity in service to the Gospel, we know, intellectually, that is not the case, but psychologically we still believe it. 

The Health Care Committee (HCC) was charged at the last chapter with compiling some resources for those who are thinking about retirement. These resources can be found on the HCC sub section of the provincial webpage at icprovince.org. Additionally, friars who are concerned about retirement and what it means are welcome to contact Michael Dominic or Gabriel to set up a time to start a discussion about possibilities for transition. 

EASTER MESSAGE

Br. Massimo Fusarelli, O.F.M.

Minister General

To the Friars of the Order

To the Poor Clare and Conceptionist Sisters

To the Franciscan Sisters affiliated to the Order

To the Franciscan Laity

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

May the Lord give you peace!

This message for Easter 2024 is being published on the Fifth Sunday of Lent, when John’s Gospel is proclaimed: “unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves their life loses it, and whoever hates their life in this world will preserve it for eternal life” (Jn 12:24,25).

Together, then, let us look at this interweaving of death and life as we recall the 800th anniversary of the stigmata of St. Francis — those mysterious signs of his loving communion with Christ.

Centred on the Cross

“All the striving of this man of God, whether in public or in private, revolved around the cross of the Lord” (3 C 2,2).

The key to the heart of Francis is the Cross. It is crucial for those who wish to embrace this form of life (ER 1:3); it is the heart of thanksgiving to the Father (ER 23:3); it is the reason for the friars’ prayer in churches (Test 5); it is our sole reason for glory (Adm 5); it is ‘Perfect Joy’. This is why Francis strongly calls on us to:

Offer up your bodies and carry His holy cross and follow His most holy commands even to the end (OfP Psalm 7:8).

Clare is on the same wavelength:

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, [Who] though more beautiful than the children of men became, for your salvation, the lowest of men, was despised, struck, scourged untold times throughout His entire body, and then died amid the suffering of the Cross (2LAg 19-20).       

To follow Christ in his abasement is the core of the call of Clare and her sisters, and we also see the same radicality in Francis’ own call.

Celebrating the Paschal Mystery of death and resurrection in this year dedicated to the stigmata leads us to re-centre ourselves, as individuals and fraternities, on the glorious cross of the Lord.

We urgently need this attitude today in order to respond to the gift of a Franciscan way of life that is beautiful and attractive, rather than jaded and defeated. “The Spirit of the Lord and his holy operation” (LR 10:8) unceasingly urges us to move beyond and overcome the fears and sins that impede us and make us self-focussed. Let us ask ourselves how we can rediscover the fascination that is necessary for us to choose to lose our lives in generous self-giving as we follow the way of Jesus’ Cross and Resurrection.

May the Creator Spirit instil in us the daring and passion to seek contemporary means and initiatives — including new approaches — to live as brothers, sisters, and lesser ones, as contemplatives, in obedience, with nothing of our own and in chastity, as pilgrims in mission among and with the poor.

Gladness and Compassion

St. Bonaventure recounts that while on the Mount of La Verna, Francis “rejoiced at the gracious way Christ looked upon him under the appearance of the Seraph, but the fact that He was fastened to a cross pierced his soul with a sword of compassionate sorrow” (LMj XIII,3).

Francis experiences joy and compassion in his encounter with the Lord, who is serene although fastened to the wood of the Cross. This is a reminder that the Resurrection is not a happy ending after the Cross because, it is in the very act of dying that Christ voluntarily accepts his entry into the abyss of death, entrusting his life to the Father and rising again! 

It is in the Spirit that the power of the Resurrection flows through people and creation in various ways. These are the infinite instances of the Paschal Mystery in the world — those signs of life and death in which the Spirit of the Living Christ is present and acts unceasingly, often contrary to all the evidence.

Francis experienced a form of death in his revulsion towards lepers, as well as a resurrection in ‘showing mercy’. Clare experiences this paschal joy in her relationship with her sisters (cf. TestCl 67-70). Both have shown that what is burdensome and bitter can be changed into sweetness and become the first fruits of new life. Death does not have the last word!

This Easter, we cannot forget the many signs of death and life in places of war, violence, abuse, inequality, hunger, and the cries of our common home, Creation. There are so many ways in which the Paschal Mystery is expressed in the world! Let us learn to recognise them as arising from Him who is “the First and the Last, who was dead and came to life” (Rev 2:8). Such a contemplative gaze will help us not to remain paralysed in the face of evil, but instead to join with many others in building resurrected life!

It is with these thoughts, dear brothers and sisters, that I wish you to celebrate the Paschal Mystery, “grounded and steadfast in the faith, unshakable in the hope of the Gospel” (Col 1:23), which is our profession of life. Let us stay close to those who are afflicted by the wounds of these times, including some among ourselves. Let us stay close to the peoples of the Holy Land in this painful hour, as well as people in Ukraine and so many other places.

We believe that in them the Spirit of the Lord allows shoots of new life to develop in ways that we cannot imagine.

With fraternal greetings and the Blessing of St Francis.

Your brother and servant,

Br Massimo Fusarelli, ofm

Minister General

Rome, 17th of March, 2024

Fifth Sunday of Lent

Prot. 112997/MG-140

At the meeting of the Provincial Definitorium, held at the Provincial Curia on Monday, March 4, 2024, approval was given for Fr. Richard Martginetti, O.F.M. to accept a new position as Vice President for Mission and Ministry and Chaplain at Marian University, Indianapolis, Indiana, beginning with the fall 2024 term. He will conclude his current ministry as Campus Minister and Chaplain at Ave Maria University, Ave Maria, Florida.

Unanimously approved the requests of Friars John (Jack) Sidoti and Daniel Cavalieri to profess Solemn Vows. Date and location to be determined.

Renovation of Stations of the Cross at Andover Cemetery

Finishing Touches on Stations of the Cross- St. Francis, Andover, MA.  

Paul Swope, a Knight of Columbus and parishioner at St. Thomas Aquinas in Derry, NY spearheaded the recent refurbishing of the Stations and monuments at St. Francis Cemetery, Andover, MA. As reported in previous newsletters, the monuments and stations were in desperate need of repair. Pictured here are Paul’s daughter Jacinta, who hopes to be a cloistered Carmelite, polyurethaning the crosses for each station (crosses seen above).Paul’s wife, Jennifer, mother of nine and grandmother of 11, so far,  is seen praying a one of the completed Stations.  Many thanks to Paul and his family for lovingly and prayerfully completing this project.

Our brother, Fr. Romano Stephen Almagno O.F.M., passed to eternal life on March 1, at Mary Manning Walsh Home, Manhattan, New York City, where he was under hospice care, at the age of 84.

He was born in Providence, Rhode Island on August 5, 1939, son of Stephen and Theresa Lafazia. He was received into the novitiate on August 15, 1956; made his temporary profession of vows on August 16,1957; professed Solemn Vows on August 16, 1960; and was ordained a priest on June 12, 1965. 

Fr. Romano taught at Immaculate Conception Seminary, Troy, New York, and for thirty years at the University of Pittsburgh. He was a renowned teacher and preacher, giving many parish missions and retreats for priests. He was Guardian of the Holy Land Monastery in Washington, D.C., did research at the International Franciscan-Dominican Research Center in Rome, served the Order as Visitator and Delegate General, and at the Pontifical University of St. Anthony (Antonianum) in Rome. In recent years he was on the Retreat Staff of Mount Alvernia Retreat Center in Wappingers Falls, New York, and in residence at Padua Friary in New York City. He also assisted on weekends at various parishes. 

Funeral Mass and burial will be in Providence, Rhode Island

Our brother, Fr. Paul Guido O.F.M., passed to eternal life on March 7, 2024 at Teresian Home, Albany, New York at the age of 92.

He was born in Brownstown, Pennsylvania ((Greensburg Diocese)  on September 29, 1931, and baptized Richard, son of Dominic and Magdalen Cicero. Before entering the order, Fr. Paul served in the United States Navy.  He then attended St. Bonaventure University, Olean, New York, and graduated in 1959 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He was received into the novitiate on August 15, 1960; made his temporary profession of vows on August 16,1961;  professed Solemn Vows on August 16, 1964; and was ordained a priest on June 11, 1966.

After ordination he served as associate pastor of Our Lady of Peace Church, Brooklyn.  He was elected Secretary and Treasurer of the Province in 1967, a position he held until 1976, when he was named Pastor of St. Kilian Parish in New Bedford.  He also served as pastor of St. Anthony Parish, Troy, New York, Sacred Heart Parish, Palenville, New York; and pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish, New Britain, Connecticut.  He also served as associate pastor of St. Joseph Parish, Winsted, Connecticut, before retiring to St. Anthony Friary, Catskill, New York, where he was a weekend assistant at many of the local parishes.  His final assignment was to Mount Alvernia Friary, Wappingers Falls, New York, before moving to Teresian Home. 

Funeral was held on Thursday, March 14, 2024 at Mount Alvernia Friary Chapel,Wappingers Falls, New York. Viewing was from 9-10 AM, and the funeral Mass was celebrated at 10 AM. There were many friars and local people at the funeral, including the Poor Clares from Wappingers Falls, the Sisters of Life from Catskill, and many people from the Catskill area, where Fr. Paul was stationed. Burial was at the family plot in Illinois.

Marian University is proud to introduce the Franciscan Leadership Institute (FLI). This groundbreaking initiative is poised to emerge as a national leader in promoting renewal in the Catholic Church and society. Communities, schools, and parishes in today's world require missionary disciples who can use research and the wisdom of Christ to tackle the complex issues they face with innovative, faith-filled responses. The Franciscan Leadership Institute will fulfill this need through cutting-edge research, comprehensive formation programs, new academic pathways, and partnerships with organizations across the nation. 

The Franciscan Leadership Institute launches in support of the university’s vision to promote Faith in Action through the Journey to 2030: Always Forward strategic campaign. Building upon the success of existing programs, Marian has already raised $15 million toward a $30 million goal to launch the Franciscan Leadership Institute, endow scholarships, and support programs, which will accelerate its goals to advance the following initial activities: 

1. Discipleship: Launch the San Damiano Scholars DO Program for students in the College of Osteopathic Medicine seeking to carry on the healing ministry of Jesus Christ.  
2. Scholarship: Create degrees and certificates, both in-person and online, to empower leaders in Catholic          schools, parishes, healthcare, and other ministries. 
3. Leadership: Expand the Renovación: The Initiative for Parish Renewal to cultivate leadership teams in Latino serving parishes.
4. Partnership: Develop a network of communities of practice among 5,000 Catholic leaders throughout the country. 

With the Franciscan Leadership Institute set to launch immediately, Marian University proudly announces key leadership appointments to the Institute. Adam P. Setmeyer has been promoted to Marian University Chief Mission Officer and Director of the Franciscan Leadership Institute. JT Noble, Ph.D., will serve as Assistant Director of the Franciscan Leadership Institute in addition to maintaining his role as Chair of the Department of Theology and associate professor. Marian is also thrilled to announce the hiring of Father Rick Martignetti, OFM, who will serve as Vice President of Mission & Ministry and Franciscan Scholar in Residence.  

Father Rick brings a wealth of experience having served as Director of Campus Ministry at Ave Maria University in Florida, Director of the Priestly Discernment Program at Franciscan University of Steubenville, OH, and having earned a doctorate in Sacred Theology and Franciscan Spirituality from the Antonianum Pontifical University in Rome. Fr. Rick will join Marian this fall. 

Kenith Britt, Ph.D., chancellor and chief operating officer, shared, “Under the guidance of our dynamic new leadership team, Marian University is poised for an exciting chapter of growth and purpose with the launch of the Franciscan Leadership Institute. This marks a pivotal moment in our commitment to excellence and service in our Catholic, Franciscan tradition. We anticipate the Franciscan Leadership Institute will have a profound impact on Marian University, our Church, and our country through creating transformational leaders in service to the world.”   

Adam P. Setmeyer, chief mission officer and director of the Franciscan Leadership Institute, stated, “Recently, Pope Francis challenged university leaders to, ‘A Catholic university must make choices, choices that reflect the Gospel… for the transformation of the world and in service to the human person.’ The new Franciscan Leadership Institute is a bold choice by Marian University to propel the formation of Catholic leaders, and, like Saint Francis, Marian will be uncompromising in its commitment to the Gospel and quality programs that make a real difference in the life of the Church.” 

Father Rick expressed, "Towards the end of his life, Saint Francis of Assisi challenged his brothers by saying, 'Let us begin again, my brothers, for up to now we have done little to nothing.' It is in that Franciscan spirit of always starting fresh and working more wholeheartedly than ever, that I am overjoyed to be coming to Marian University at such an exciting time in the University’s development. I am eager to meet you all and to share the journey with you, as together we uncover the beautiful plans the Lord has for us all at Marian!" 

Take time to wish our brothers a Happy Birthday!

Guy Vellardita, April 3, 1931 (93)

Joshua Critchley, April 3, 1994 (30)

Bishop Joseph Bonello, April 4, 1961 (63)

Octavio Salinas, April 6, 1953 (71)

Alfonse Ferreira, April 9, 1934 (90)

Marco Antonio Gomez, April 26, 1991 (33)

Jules Wong, April 28, 1943 (81)

Gabriel Aceto, April 29, 1949 (75)

Jack Sidoti, April 30, 1996 (28)