The life of the fraternity is filled with the Holy Spirit and we have so much to look forward to! We’ve been given the opportunity of sharing our Franciscan charism with five wonderful people that have been so committed to their Franciscan callings that they persevered in their initial Formation amidst a pandemic and entirely online. At our September gathering, four of these prayerful people participated in the Rite of Admission and become Candidates into the Secular Franciscan Order. We  also formally ‘re-welcomed’ Dottie Hansen OFS, as she Renews her commitment to the Secular Franciscan Order. In October, we will be celebrating the Profession of Heidi Madden. Such joy!!!

    In September, we continue to reflect particularly on the Feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis of Assisi. I love the image of the Stigmata by Domenico Ghirlandaio (below). There’s so much going on with it – including featuring the place of La Verna in the background, one of the many places of hermitages to which Francis and his brothers regularly spent extended time in prayer. Francis was so open to God in deep and regular prayer and so emulated the life and teachings of Jesus Christ that he was granted this most sacred gift. Br. Bill Short OFM, recorded a brief video for us on the Stigmata and Franciscan Spirituality. We shared Br. Bill's talk at our September gathering, and created a new 'home' for both his slides and talk here on our website. Enjoy!

     Clare defied the powerful male authority figures in her family to follow this little poor man from Assisi. She defied the wealth into which she was born to embrace a life of poverty. She defied her aristocratic status to embrace the lowly. Clare was a radical.
     Clare created a community of ladies, the Poor Clares, in which sisters of both noble and poor birth prayed and worked together - something usual, even radical, at that time. Clare was the first female founder of a community that wrote her own rule and have it approved by the Pope. We are blessed to have one of Clare's sisters, our own Sr. Madeline Fitzgerald OSC, as the Spiritual Assistant to our community. Clare's legacy definitely lives on!

Pace e Bene +
Laura Chun, OFS
Minister, San Luis Rey Fraternity

    How beautiful it is to enter into summer – still with Coronavirus concerns, but also with hope.  As we continue to pray for those impacted by the pandemic, especially globally – there is hope. Francis was a man of hope and could find it inn each situation, even experiencing difficult situations as perfect joy. We benefit by his example and in his way of so beautifully following in the footsteps of Christ. We feel his positive influence even today.

     Julia was an enthusiastic parishioner, a daily communicant, and became an active member of the Secular Franciscan Order starting in 1901.  Some called Julia a ‘one person St. Vincent de Paul Society" as she pulled her little red wagon full of items for the needy through Denver, CO - often visiting at night so that her recipients would not be embarrassed by being seen receiving charity, especially from an African-American woman.  Julia's story inspired Fr. Regis Scanlon, OFM,Cap. to found the Julia Greeley Home in Denver for homeless women. You can learn more about Julia’s story on the website of the Julia Greely Guild.  

    As fellow Secular Franciscans let us ask how we might serve others in and make a positive difference in our families, fraternity, Church, and the world.

Pace e Bene +
Laura Chun, OFS
Minister, San Luis Rey Fraternity

     The Franciscan family since the earliest of times has had many branches. The diversity of Franciscan communities seems to be part of our history and our DNA. One big, beautiful, ancient branch of the Franciscan Family is the Secular Franciscan Order. The Secular Franciscan Order was one of the three Orders founded directly by St. Francis of Assisi. There are about 350,000 active Secular Franciscans globally today.[1]  I especially like this Franciscan Family Map (below) that includes our Anglican brothers and sisters.[2]

     We’ve recently had guests joining us at our Fraternity gatherings including Fr. David Gaa, Fr. David Gaa OFM, the Minister Provincial of the Franciscan Province of St. Barbara and Sr. Kathy Warren OSF, the Director of Women Religious for the Diocese of San Diego. Both shared a similar message regarding Secular Franciscans, ‘Now is a GREAT time to be a Secular Franciscan; the world needs you!’ This Secular Franciscan vocation of ours is a beautiful gift, something for us to be continually unwrapping, cherishing, and putting it to service in a world that is so terribly in need of it.

Pace e Bene +
Laura Chun, OFS
Minister, San Luis Rey Fraternity

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_Franciscan_Order
[2] https://franciscansinternational.org/about/franciscan-corner/

     I stood where where countless pilgrims before me had - at Calvary itself, now nestled within the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. In a liminal space between the chapels commemorating the place where Jesus was nailed to the Cross and where Jesus was crucified, is a statue of Our Lady with a sword dramatically and completely through her heart. The statue seemed overly brutal; a literal representation of a powerful but metaphorical prophesy.

     During this month of May, may all those who 'mother' be blessed, especially all mothers and fathers suffering the loss of a child. Please pray for our beautiful family friend, Michele Williams, and her dear family who are in so much pain at her sudden and tragic loss. Pray also for the DeSantis family on the third anniversary of the death of their daughter Christine Marie. Pray for all parents connected to their children through this incredible parental bond of love, a love that extends from the first moments of life, to the here and now – and reaches into Eternity. 

Pace e Bene +
Laura Chun, OFS
Minister, San Luis Rey Fraternity

     As we experience the Stations of the Cross this Lent, especially in a year where there has been so much suffering and grief felt by so many, let us open our hearts to conversion. Let us ask God to forgive our sins as we forgive the sins of others. Through our contemplation of the passion of Christ through the Stations, let us also hunger to experience the immeasurable love of Christ for us through the Sacraments, especially in the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist. Let us ask God, that like Francis, we look upon the Crucified Christ - and see God’s immense love.

Pace e Bene +
Laura Chun, OFS
Minister, San Luis Rey

     Fr. Bodo explores each of these teachings, especially from the lived experience of Francis in a fresh and passionate way. Each chapter is almost like a love story. A story of the love with which Francis joyfully dances with God. And in a sense of falling in love with this incredible person Francis and taking his hand and joining in that Divine Dance.

     Then Fr. Bodo expounds on the ‘Teachings of all Teachings.’ The foundation of all Francis’s ‘teachings’ is Love. He examines all the key stories of Francis’s life and wonders if underneath each one, Francis found a call to Love. Fr Bodo says that ‘Francis fell in love with the love who is Infinite Love, a love that made him cry out: “May the fiery and honey-sweet power of your love, O Lord, wean me from all things under heaven, so that I may die for love of your love, who deigned to die for love of my love.”

    Let us all strive, to live our Rule and be those followers of Jesus in the footsteps of St. Francis, who love the Lord with our whole hearts, our whole souls, and our whole minds. To live in ‘wholeness’ and ‘holiness.’ Let us, in each interaction, to see the face of Christ in ‘the other’ – perhaps people of other ethnicity, culture, socio-economic status, or political affiliation - and to reach out to each other in Love.

The Magi followed the Star, that luminous light, that led them to the Christ Child. These wise people represent us all. Epiphany is “the manifestation of Jesus as Messiah of Israel, Son of God and Savior of the world” (CCC 528). Jesus not only come for the people Israel, represented by the shepherds, but also for everyone, for all of us - represented by the Magi.

The Magi demonstrate the beautiful catholicity or universality of the Church. The Second Vatican Council taught that this gift of universality which adorns the People of God is a gift from the Lord Himself whereby the Catholic Church ceaselessly and efficaciously seeks for the return of all humanity and all its good under Christ the Head in the unity of His Spirit (Lumen Gentium 13).

Christ is the light; we are called to be the channel of his Light in the world. Epiphany reminds me of a song I loved since a child – back in the first days of those Post Vatican II ‘guitar masses.’ Let us allow God’s light to shine through us. Let us become, in the words of the hymn by Jean Anthony Grief, ‘the light of the world.’ Let the good we do in the world, let the hope share with others in dark times, let our faith in our living God... be luminous.

Laura Chun, OFS
Minister, San Luis Rey

It seems to me that as Brothers and Sisters of Penance, Advent, a joyous time of preparation and repentance is especially attuned to our Franciscan spirituality. Perhaps it is with a Franciscan sense of wonder that we are able to even better enter into Advent.
 
Fr. Jeffrey Kirby writes in Crux that ‘For the believer, or the person of goodwill, who chooses to observe Advent, they are allowing themselves to receive the blessings of the season. While different in how they are given, based on personal temperament and authentic need, the blessings of Advent include hope, peace, reconciliation, and conversion.’

There a ‘liminal space’ in waiting. A space of unique blessings.  In this liminal space, this space between, there can be hope, peace, reconciliation, conversion. We can move through this liminal space and allow ourselves to be transformed by God graces. It’s like that wonderful time of waiting and anticipation through the nine months of pregnancy for a baby to be born (and the joy St. Francis helped us celebrate at Greccio!). Waiting in anticipation for a dear friend’s arrival. Waiting during the time of engagement a longed-for wedding.  Tending for a dying loved on as Lady Jacoba did for Francis, waiting with them for the arrival of Sister Death, helping them to prepare for their journey home.

Especially this Advent, even amidst a pandemic, we can still share joy.

This 3rd Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, we focus not on the waiting, but on this unbounded joy. The Readings for today jump with joy!  We light the rose-colored candle on the Advent wreath. Our long time of penitential waiting is nearly complete. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Our responsorial psalm today is stunningly beautiful: My soul rejoices in my God. My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked upon his lowly servant.

I invite you to peruse the many articles included in this Cord; our spiritual life is full of so much Joy; the story of Greccio and the Incarnation, Our Lady of Guadalupe, our invitation to help others through Catholic Charities. At our December 13th gathering, Sr. Mary Beth Ingaham will be joining us to talk about Franciscan Duns Scotus and the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. There is so much joy!

May God Grant You Peace +
Laura Chun, OFS
Minister, SLR