A reminder that the September and October 2020 part of the General Council visit has been temporarily postponed. The December General Council visit is still under review as both the General and Provincial Councils monitor the U.S. virus situation. The hope is to reschedule the first part of the visit soon after the new year. I’ll provide information as it becomes available.

The normal pattern has been that in the year of the General Council visitations, the Provincial Council does not make regular community visitations. In the continued hope that the General Council will be able to visit us, the Provincial Council is not currently scheduling “official” community visitations for this ministerial year. I have asked that the Provincial Council visitor from last year be the liaison to the council this year. For a list of the Provincial Council community liaisons 2020-2021, click here.

Mr. Paul Combest, Lay Marianist and a friend to many Marianists in the San Antonio area, is the director of operations at Central Catholic High School. Paul’s office was directly across from the brothers' chapel. He sent a few thoughts on the fact that the brothers are no longer living in the community. Remember that there are still several Marianists that work or volunteer at the school. Click here for Paul's thoughts.

As we all know, over the years Marianist religious have been involved in (arch)diocesan ministries that assist conferences of religious. I am especially proud that we provide this assistance. I received a letter of thanks from the Superior General of the “Hijas de Guadalupe,” a Mexican religious group of sisters.

Sister wrote to thank the Marianists for the wonderful resource that Bro. Juan Pablo Espinoza Chávez has provided to their community as they have revised and updated their “Guide for Formation” for both initial and on-going formation. The sisters will be implementing the document during the coming year and will be presenting it to the congregation’s General Chapter next summer. Part of the work also includes developing statutes for the Guadalupana lay branch and a leadership/formation program for the congregation’s schools.

Please click here for helpful resources on surviving in this time of COVID.

All communities, and other members of the Province, should have received by email the ballots for the election to the Provincial Chapter for representatives from California, Hawaii and St. Louis. Please note that they are to be returned to Pat Stephens at the Provincial offices by Friday, October 16. If you or your community have not received them, please contact Pat.

Many thanks to Frs. Ted Cassidy and Varghese Manooparampil for their recent missionary preaching at two parishes in Dayton: Holy Trinity and St. Joseph’s. This was a great help.

We have now completed the summer 2020 preaching. Soon we will be making applications for 2021. I want to thank Deanna Snyder for her kind assistance with this important project.

As a Province we once again rejoice with Bro. Allen as he professes his perpetual vows. This will be livestreamed on October 3 beginning at 5:00 p.m.(CST) Livestream will not be available until the vow ceremony begins. Click here for the Perpetual Vows Mass booklet.

At a recent meeting of the Provincial Council we reviewed three requests for Affiliation to the Society of Mary. We are honored to welcome:

Many thanks to Bro. David Betz for organizing their formation program.

October offers many themes to consider and pray over:

During our bicentenary celebration of Marianist Education, I invited various Brothers to write a reflection on this momentous occasion. Fr. Rudy was the first reflection shared in FamilyOnline. In that reflection he wrote:

We now carry on Fr. Rudy’s legacy of Marianist educational commitment and excellence. To read Fr. Rudy’s full reflection please click here.

Zoom, Meet, Hangout, FaceTime, virtual webinars, phone calls and the occasional outdoor meeting have become my new norm, especially as we have had a boost in inquiries from people who are interested in Marianist religious life. This seems to be the norm across several congregations. Unfortunately, many of us are receiving phone calls and emails from the same people who are reaching out to many communities in hopes of someone accepting them even though other communities have said no. I wanted to share with you some of our policies around who we cannot accept and why.

Our policy is that we do not accept people over 35-40 years old because of the apostolic and communal nature of our life. Thankfully there have been exceptions, but those are special cases. We also turn away those with diagnosed personality disorders. I am grateful for the National Religious Vocation Conference for their research and training as they help shape policies for vocation directors. Many of the inquiries I have received in the last two or three months have been people that fit this description. I am grateful for the many brothers and communities who have sent me messages of support and let me know they are praying for me. I would like to ask for prayers for this particular intention, both for me and for those I have to deny.

I have redesigned the prayer intention booklet to include photos and those men who have just been accepted in the last few months. It is being finalized and sent to the printer now, and your community should receive it in the next week or so. I will wait until January for the updated posters, which will be sent to ministries and communities.

In response to Fr. Oscar Vasquez and Bro. Bernie Ploeger's video and the request for assistance in creating vocation plans, I will be sending every community a subscription to Horizon, a journal of the National Religious Vocation Conference. This has been very helpful to me in my ministry, and think it will be for you as well. I am attaching the Summer version electronically; you can access it here. Please consider reading and discussing this as a community.

I want to offer you two things that you may find interesting. The first is a video made in New York that was produced by Bro. Leonard Kuntz, SM, and the father of Bro. Jim Brown. It was filmed in 1959 and 1960. You can find that on the Vocations YouTube channel or by clicking here.

Jesús (Chucho) Alvarez, one of our pre-novices from the Casa Maria Community, was interviewed for a podcast in which he speaks about his vocation. You can listen here and click on the episode, "Sí, Como María."

Thank you for continuing to encourage young people to explore Marianist religious life.

October 1: Allen Pacquing

October 2: M. Gary Marcinowski

October 3: John Lemker, Gerard Sullivan

October 6: Delmar Jorn, Gary Morris

October 7: Sylvester Burkemper, Robert Moriarty

October 2: Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels, Anniversary of the Foundation of the Society of Mary, 1817

October 7: Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary