On Fridays during the Easter season we will celebrate the Via Lucis or Way of Light after the 12:30 and 5:30 Masses in place of the Stations of the Cross.
The Via Lucis consists of 14 “Stations” which recount the Easter story from the Resurrection to Pentecost.
Please join us for this beautiful Easter devotion!
+
This past Thursday we celebrated the Ascension of the Lord, but when you look at today’s Gospel, it seems that Jesus hasn’t ascended yet because this is Jesus’ final prayer for his followers. It is a beautiful prayer, filled with Jesus’ love and concern for his disciples. Jesus asks the Father to protect us and he wants us to share in his joy completely. He is also realistic because he says that the world has a hatred for those who follow him. In spite of this, Jesus concludes by saying that he wants us “in the world”, a world that needs his message and yet will resist it. We have all experienced this, yet we have to remember that this is where Jesus wants us… because we have his message which he has entrusted to each of us. He trusts us and believes in us.
On this Mothers’ Day, the Friars and Staff of St. Francis, wish all Mothers, Grandmothers, Great Grandmothers, and the Motherly, a blessed and happy day. Our prayers are with you and we are grateful for all that you do for us.
Please keep us Friars in your prayers. At the end of this month our six Provinces (geographical areas in the United States) will vote on whether to become one Province or not. It is a big decision. Your prayers are appreciated!
-Fr. Andrew Reitz, O.F.M.
The LGBT+ Ministry of St. Francis of Assisi is meeting up for a happy hour to celebrate the start of the weekend!
FRIDAY, MAY 4, 2018 at 6:30pm
The Polynesian
Pod Hotel Times Square
400 W 42nd St, 3rd Fl,
New York, NY 10036
Enjoy Tiki drinks with Ministry members and other Catholic LGBT and ally brothers and sisters.
Feel free to bring friends! As always, ALL ARE WELCOME.
Please follow us on Facebook to get updates on where we will be meeting inside the Polynesian.
Long ago, there was a thirty-day devotion to Mary, sometimes called “Lady Month,” which began on August 15. By the eighteenth century, the custom of assigning devotions to months of the year was developing. June, for example, was the month of the Sacred Heart, and October was for the Holy Rosary. Beginning with the Jesuit Order in Rome and spreading throughout the world, May has been celebrated as the month of Mary, the Blessed Mother, for more than two hundred years.
That was a welcome remedy to some enduring pagan practices, such as maypole dancing and the crowning of the May Queen. Some historians say that in ancient times the May Queen was actually a human sacrifice. Devoting May to Mary is undoubtedly a better thing to do.
“An attitude of openness in truth and in love must characterize the dialogue with the followers of non-Christian religions, in spite of various obstacles and difficulties, especially forms of fundamentalism on both sides. Interreligious dialogue is a necessary condition for peace in the world, and so it is a duty for Christians as well as other religious communities.
This dialogue is in first place a conversation about human existence or simply a matter of ‘being open to them, sharing their joys and sorrows.’ In this way we learn to accept others and their different ways of living, thinking, and speaking. We can then join one another in taking up the duty of serving justice and peace, which should become a basic principle of all our exchanges. A dialogue which seeks social peace and justice is in itself, beyond all merely practical considerations, an ethical commitment which brings about a new social situation. Efforts made in dealing with a specific theme can become a process in which, by mutual listening, both parts can be purified and enriched. These efforts, therefore, can also express love for truth.”
At Mass today, we hear this passage from St. John’s Gospel: “No one has greater love than this to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”This is what Jesus did and what we are asked to do. I believe that in all of our lives we have experienced the “laying down of one’s life.” Parents do this, families do this, friends do this. These are the times when we are asked, to not just observe what is happening to others, but to become involved and even to go out of our way. We put aside our own comforts and needs because there is something greater that asks for our attention. In our self-centered world, what Jesus did for others is needed even more. As followers of Jesus, we are the ones who “make a difference”, who take seriously the command to “love one another.”
The Gospel also says “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you.”
This Thursday, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. You may have lived in another part of our country where it is celebrated on a Sunday, but not here in the northeast. Our vigil Masses are Wednesday afternoon, and on Thursday we will follow our regular Mass schedule. We will also have our regular Confessions schedule Wednesday afternoon and Thursday.
Next weekend I will be accompanying members of our Filipino community and other parishioners on a pilgrimage to Boston. We will have Mass at our Franciscan St. Anthony’s Shrine, visit Holy Cross Cathedral and have a tour of the Kennedy Library. It will be a full two days. Pray for us!
-Fr. Andrew Reitz, O.F.M.
