A Well Deserved Award

Holy Name Province of the Franciscans, to which I belong, has over the past twenty years encouraged us friars to not only promote lay involvement but to "partner" with the laity in all of our ministries. By way of backing up this commitment our province since 1998 has given ministries the opportunity to award the Francis medal to those lay people who make outstanding contributions to our life and ministry.

Many of you have commented favorably on the fact the we in the Franciscan Ministry of the Word preach in Spanish as well as English. One of the reasons for our success in this endeavor is Mr. Pete Suarez of Miami to whom we gave the Francis Medal this past Saturday at a dinner in his honor here at St. Anthony Friary.

Rod Petrie and Marty Bednar of our team met Pete back in the early 90's. Pete not only introduced them to various pastors in the Miami area but also became involved as a lay preacher. Pete has been doing that ever since. He also became involved with us on a province wide level, serving as a member of our Hispanic Ministry Committee for several years and participating in several province wide convocations for ministry. In addition to his work with us Pete, who by profession is a plumbing contractor, has earned an MA in Theology and teaches part time at the college seminary of the Archdiocese of Miami. He is likewise involved in his home parish.

At the award dinner Pete was accompanied by his wonderful wife Hilda and four other couples, all of whom are wonderful Catholic Christians and examples of how laity can make a difference in the Church and the world. Congratulations Pete.

In the picture above Pete is pictured with his wife, Hilda, Rod Petrie and John Anglin, to their left, and Marty Bednar on the right.

Human Tragedy, Haiti and God

Once again we receive news that a population made up of some of the poorest people in the world have been struck by a natural disaster, this time the terrible earthquake in Haiti. As soon as such events happen the cry goes up, and understandably so, "Where is God? How can a just and loving God allow things like this?" While I do not pretend to have any definitive answer to that question and no one really does, I would like to offer a reflection and a perspective on this terrible tragedy.

First of all I reject offhand, and indeed find it appalling, that anyone who considers them self Christian would suggest that God is punishing these people. Shame on the Pat Robertsons of this world who say things like this. What is true is that the Creator has placed us in a fragile world where storms, earthquakes, pandemics, etc happen frequently. Life is fragile and when these things happen they should provide an awakening to all of us and a reminder that we are not in charge here, that there is no guarantee that we will live to be 80 years old, even though that is more or less the statistical norm. I say this not to frighten anyone but rather to suggest that in spite of our modern technology and great advances in medicine we will never succeed in total control over nature. It is an illusion to think otherwise and when we face the truth of this we become more free and more aware of what is really important in life.

More importantly we can so easily ask, "Why does this happen to poor people so often?" Instead, I think we need to be asking "Why is there so much poverty? Why is there so much unequal distribution of the goods of this world, gifted to us by the creator?" A 7.0 earthquake is a tragedy whether it happens in Beverly Hills, Greenwhich, CT, Nigeria or Haiti. The challenge for us is to learn the lessons, not so much that the Creator sends us from above, but that are naturally built into such tragedies by the Creator. The whole world is and will continue to respond to help the poor people of Haiti. We always seem to step up to the plate when these tragedies strike. In a short while, however, the aid will cease to come and the poverty and injustice will continue, or will it? The blame for that falls on us humans, not on the creator. Will our response be different this time? Will we numb ourselves to the human suffering in Haiti and elsewhere, or will we change our priorities?

Gold, Frankincense, and all that stuff-An Epiphany reflection

This past Sunday we celebrated the feast of the Epiphany, a feast originally celebrated on January 6, but now moved to the nearest Sunday. What are we to make of this well known story in our modern age. I find it helpful to dwell not on questions such as "What really happened?", but on the deeper meaning of this account, and how we in the 21st century can apply it to our lives. To me there are two challenges of this feast.

The first thing is the famous star. The star is a symbol of light. The magi (and the scriptures don't say how many there were) were drawn to light, not only the light in the sky, but the light who was Christ. Do we today seek the light?, The Light? It's easy for people of faith to say yes. The problem is that we so often focus on the darkness. There is indeed plenty of darkness out there and all around us--war, terrorism, heinous crimes, lack of disrespect for life, corrupt politics, etc. While we should not have our head in the sand and make believe that these things are not there we need to look to the One who is Light of Light to nourish us and guide us in difficult times, to send us light to show us the way. Without this focus we can so easily fall into the cynicism which is one of the great "poisons" of our culture today.

The second challenge is to be bearers of the Light that we follow. Whenever we bring love, forgiveness, healing and peace to others, whenever we strive to do justice where injustice prevails the Light Of Christ shines through us and draws others to him. Those who bear the Light might not be great in numbers, certainly not a majority of the world population, but the Light we bear is powerful and that is what makes the difference.

A Happy Epiphany or "little Christmas" to all

Fr. John's Christmas Message--YouTube

Here's praying that all readers of this blog have a Blessed and holy Christmas. For my Christmas message please click on Christmas Message When you get to youtube just click on the big arrow in front of my picture.

Once again, Merry Christmas
Fr. John

More Friary Pictures

Here are some more pictures of our friary to go with the one below. You can see here our nativity scene, in pre-Christmas mode, our dining room, the beautiful courtyard, the envy of our friends up north at this time of the year and three paintings--of SS Anthony, Clare and Francis done by our resident artist, Miguel Loredo, OFM

Christmas at the Friary

Several folks who follow this blog have asked me about St. Anthony Friary where I live. I have included a few pictures to give you an idea of what it's like here. One picture shows the outside of our newly painted friary. The beautiful Christmas tree is the work of the vicar of our community, Bro. John Capozzi, OFM., who works hard to keep our place looking great year round. John had the help of several friars in this effort completed at the house tree decorating party. The other shows the entryway with Christmas decorations.
For me the friary really is home. As the title of this blog suggests I am indeed the wandering friar, but as much as I enjoy my travels I find it so important to be rooted in my life here. It is always great to have brothers to come back to after a couple of weeks on the road. The fact that our daily routine is built around prayer and the Eucharist is vital to my life, as well as the interchange with the men here who have spent many years serving God's people in parishes, schools, foreign missions, military chaplaincy and much more. The word friar, by the way, means brother. In his testament St. Francis writes, "...and the Lord gave me brothers." To be brother to each other and to those we serve is at the heart of our Franciscan life. As Christmas approaches I'm grateful for the brothers that the Lord gave me, and I want you to know that by calling myself the wandering "friar" I am always, even when alone, part of a family of brothers who help to shape who I am, and who support me in so many ways in all that I do.

Our Lady of Guadaloupe

Those who know me well hopefully know that I am a man of faith, but also a skeptic when it comes to things like apparitions. I generally believe that the presence of God is all around us and that as Catholics we have as well the Eucharist and the other Sacraments in which the Lord is present to us in various ways, and thus ought not to be looking for special apparitions and divine interventions. That having been said I must say that my experience with Hispanic people in my travels with the Ministry of the Word over the past few years have given me a deep appreciation for the upcoming (Dec. 12) feast of Our Lady of Guadaloupe. While scholars debate the details of exactly what happened there I am convinced that the event was "of God". The reason I say this is because in the conquest of 1521 by the Spaniards the native peoples were nearly exterminated. Even Church officials were debating whether they had a soul, as inconceivable as that is to us. Then, a short while later, Our Lady appeared to a young native boy named Juan Diego. Not only does this event impact this young man, but his people turn to Christ and the Church starts looking upon them differently. As they say, the rest is history. His people are now impacting the Church in our country, which I also think is "of God."

So ask, if you will, did she really appear? Whatever happened God certainly acted on behalf of a downtrodden people. Our Lady of Guadaloupe, pray for us.