Postulants meet the Poor Clares
We received some shots of our postulants in from Kip Ledger, OFM Cap., and from Jim Mongovan, OFM Cap., the directors for this stage of Capuchin formation for our Province. The 7 postulants (candidates) are in their first year of Capuchin fraternity. They share their life, prayer and work at Padre Pio Friary in Philadelphia, PA, which has recently changed location to a new residence in the city.
The postulants were recent visitors to the Langhorne Poor Clare community near Philadelphia. It gave us a chance for these group shots with Br. Jim (left) and together with the Poor Clares below.
ALVERNO: A Thin Place
Fr. Lester Knoll, OFM Cap., has authored this reflection on the story of Alverno, a place for solitude in our Capuchin Province of St. Augustine. Located in Salisbury, PA, it offers the environment to encounter the Lord in its silence, its beauty and its natural surroundings.
Br. Francisco Highlighted at JCU
Our brother, Francisco Lopez, OFM Cap., was recently featured in John Carroll University's magazine. Francisco is an alum of the Cleveland university which he attended while a student in the Capuchin Formation Program of Borromeo Seminary in Wickliffe, OH.
The article focused on four alumni who have pursued a vocation to Religious Life. Francisco traces his call to Capuchin life to a card he received from a friend. It was from the Seraphic Mass Association and included a prayer to St. Anthony. Francisco looked at the back of the card and heard about Capuchins for the first time. The rest is history:
One of eight children, Br. Lopez, who was born in the Dominican Republic, spent 14 years there before coming to the U.S. to live in Massachusetts. That's where his grandmother first came years previously and where he went to high school.
"I've always wanted to go to a Jesuit school," Lopez says. "My father sent me to a private school in the Dominican Republic, but it wasn't a Catholic school."
Consecrated Life as a Capuchin
There's a video online from our brothers of the St. Mary Province (NY-NE). The interview with our brother Mike Greco, OFM Cap., director for post-novitiate formation, gives us a glimpse of the life & work of our friars in Boston.
Fr. Bryan's 'Driving Force'
Fr. Bryan Shortall, OFM Cap. (left), is a Capuchin confrere in the Province of Ireland. Our brother Bryan offers some inspiring reflections about his own vocation to our Capuchin brotherhood and of his priestly service to the people of Dublin. It's worth a look:
"How does our society make sense of the vocation to religious life today? What makes one thousand women and men religious, including myself, gather with the Archbishop of Dublin at a ceremony to begin the Year of Consecrated Life? What language is there to explain why I still want to be a religious? I believe it is in me, and I can't walk away. At the beginning and over the years, there weren't any guns put to my head and I wasn't forced to join. And I'm not being forced to stay. As the friars used to say to us, the friary is not a prison. The only reason why I'm still here is that I can't go. I'm trying to find English language to explain it and I struggle, It's like I had no choice and I still have no choice."
You can read his entire article on his blog page: 'Tired of all the Bad News'
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