Today, July 14,is the Feast of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American canonized to sainthood. She is the patron saint to Indigenous Americans and ecology.

She lived by the motto “Who will teach me what is most pleasing to God, that I may do it?”

Like her, let us live our lives with a God focus and concern for others.

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, pray for us!

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha by Br. Robert Lentz, OFM

Statement of Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, on the July 4 mass shooting in Highland Park

(posted on the website of the Archdiocese of Chicago, July 4, 2022)

I have been watching the news in horror as at least 6 are dead and many more were wounded after a gunman opened fire as families attended an Independence Day parade in Highland Park. What should have been a peaceful celebration of our nation’s founding ended in unspeakable tragedy.

Please join me in praying for the victims and their loved ones, who never imagined a July 4 celebration could become a killing ground. Pray too for the safety of first responders as they pursue the person responsible for this tragedy. They bravely rushed into the danger to treat victims and to protect others from harm.

The parade reportedly had a heavy presence of police and fire vehicles, yet this shooter was able to wound at least two dozen people before he stopped, or was stopped, and fled. Victims ranged in age from 8 to 85. Weapons designed to rapidly destroy human bodies have no place in civil society.

It is barely July, and this year the United States is already experiencing more than one mass shooting a day. Chicago Police reported at least 55 shot and 7 killed since Friday, and the holiday weekend is not yet over. Gun violence is now the leading cause of death for U.S. children.

Whatever one makes of the right to bear arms, there is plenty of room for prudential judgment in interpreting the Second Amendment so as to enact serious, broadly popular gun-safety measures. The Senate finally passed a significant, yet modest, gun-safety bill last month. But clearly more must be done.

The right to bear arms does not eclipse the right to life, or the right of all Americans to go about their lives free of the fear that they might be shredded by bullets at any moment. Gun violence is a life issue. We must continue to pray that all our officials, elected and unelected alike, will redouble their commitment to keeping safe the people they have sworn to serve.

Pope Francis wrote to the people of Chicagoland in 2016: “As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, humanity ‘must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.’ I urge all people, especially young men and women, to respond to Dr. King’s prophetic words and know that a culture of nonviolence is not an unattainable dream, but a path that has produced decisive results.”

May the Lord of mercy embrace in love those who have died, bring healing to the wounded, comfort to their loved ones, and courage to all of us, so that we may respond to this tragedy united as God’s children to build a path to safety and peace.

(Photo: CNS/Cheney Orr, Reuters)

5/28/22

How St. Francis of Assisi’s RCIA Program Changed Me

By Katherine Cullen, MFA, LMSW

If you had told me one or two years ago that I would convert to Catholicism, I would not have believed you. I was convinced I wasn’t “good enough” to set foot inside a church—let alone a Roman Catholic one. 

My parents had me baptized and raised in the Protestant faith. But when their marriage ended in 2001 and two airplanes tore through the Twin Towers 80 blocks south of my home in Manhattan, my faith faltered. I drifted away from the church, from prayer, and ultimately from the moral and spiritual structure these practices gave me. It took me two decades to find my way back to a relationship with God. And that reunion would not have been possible without the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) program at St. Francis of Assisi Church.

I first came to St. Francis on November 27th, 2021 with the man who would later that year become my husband. He was a Catholic, and I had implored him to bring me to one of the Masses he spoke so fondly about and regularly attended. I was nervous as we ambled up the steps at the church’s entryway, fearful someone might tell me I wasn’t fit to be here. That I didn’t belong. Yet the sight of two smiling ushers assured me, and their greeting encapsulated how I instantly felt in this place of worship: Welcome. Further assurance arrived as my future husband pointed out that to the right of our pew was a statue of St. Andrew Kim—the saint whose feast day falls on my birthday.

I followed the lead of the parishioners around me, standing and sitting, kneeling, and praying as they did. As readers came and went from the lectern, as Father Barry delivered a homily on how the latest movie he’d seen applied to the Gospel, my concern that I would feel like an outsider given my ignorance of the Catholic liturgy melted away. Though I wasn’t familiar with every detail of the Mass, I was nevertheless so very moved by and inexplicably woven into it. As I watched a beautifully diverse line of people process towards the altar to receive the Eucharist, I wanted to know how I could become a part of this community.

Several days of Googling “how to become a Catholic” later, I reached out to Joe Nuzzi, Director of Evangelization at St. Francis of Assisi Church, to inquire about the parish’s RCIA program. He invited me to sit in on that evening’s class. The topics alone—salvation history, earthly versus mystical conceptions of time—were enough to sell me on officially enrolling. But what stuck out so profoundly to me was the warmth, wisdom, and down-to-earth-ness of the RCIA volunteer staff, other students, and most of all, of Joe himself.

Every Tuesday from that day until my confirmation on April 16, 2022 became a day I looked forward to all week, no matter how tired my day job left me. So too did each Sunday, when us catechumens (or RCIA students) were dismissed from the 5pm Mass to “Break Open The Word” and reflect on the context, meaning, and personal resonance of Jesus’s life and teachings.

The energy and enthusiasm sparked by our weekly sessions sustained me through even the hardest of days doing field based social work with severely mentally ill adults, coping with my father’s Alzheimer’s, and discerning what the next steps of my career were. Through them, I learned how to make more room for God in my heart. This might explain why I found myself becoming more loving, calmer, hopeful, and spiritually stronger as the RCIA program progressed.

I believe that the insight, sense of belonging, healing and growth I have experienced is a unique function of the community and staff at St. Francis of Assisi Church. I strongly encourage anyone curious to learn more about the Catholic faith to explore our parish’s RCIA program—and for already confirmed Catholics wishing to deepen their spirituality and sense of community, to sponsor a catechumen. If your experience is anything like mine it will be nothing short of life changing.

Each year the friars at the Church of St. Francis remember fathers and father figures, living and deceased, in a week of prayer starting on Father’s Day.  This year, Father’s Day cards were offered to remember the following:

(these are listed in the order in which they were received)

Anthony Cerchio, deceased

Gregory Paul Conyers

Tom Hopkins

Fr. Michel Francis Falce 

Fr. Peter Poonoly

Rt. Rev. Paul Moore,Jr

President Joseph Biden

Francesco Nuzzi

Padre Santiago Mallen Temme, CSSR

Thomas Aquinas Gilbride

Charles Francis Gilbride

Joseph Fagan 

Edward Cooper

John Sheridan

Joseph John Gilbride

Francisco Castro Astacio

Axel Molina

Gary Savage

Dave Conyers

Bruce M. Vigliotta

Kevin Romero

Enrique Tavarez, Adrian Hernandez

Anthony Hughes

Louis DiDio

Joseph Cialdella

Alvin  Rico, Carlo Divinagracia, Butch, Jeff, Brian and Erwin Valenciano, Alfredo Diaz, Silvio Toro

Alfredo Ranola, Clemente Ranola, Robert Ranola, Henry Ranola, Edward Cohen, Daniel Cohen, Mario A. Regalado

Edward Jefferson Francisco, Mykel Allan Regalado, Myro Angelo Regalado, Tyrone Bernales

Fermin Candia

Ernesto Policarpio, Jr., Armando Hugo, Jr., Ernest J. Liguori, Dimalanta Ranola

Christian Hogarth

Jim Clancy, Stephen Williams

Sean Clancy, James Bell

Vinny Clancy, James Cavanagh, Larry O’Conner, Dean Chris Wagner

Phil Guarrosi, Vick Emanuel Felix

Bob Cosgrove, Vito Arena, Bernard Clancy

Anthony Zangla, Joseph Arena, Sal Macchione, Ralph Santiago, Joseph Zangla, Mark Weiner, Nick Bibbo, Vinny Puleo, Tony, Jim Conza, Terry Guinness, Michael O’Connor, Tim O’Connor, Stephen Mahi, John Massotti

Sean Bel-Fitzgerald

Luis Torres, Lee Turner, Leocadio Molina, John Joe Gilleece

Teofil, Francis, Paul, John Zaremski, 

Joseph Rutkowski, Michael and James Rutkowski, Richard Burgess

Bobby Adlawan, Fernando A. Lacerona

Fermin Candia, Ernest J. Liguori, Dimalanta J. Liguori

Dieudonne Berthana, deceased 

The Friars and Staff would like to thank the hundreds of people who came to pray with us yesterday for the Feast of St. Anthony. What a joy it was to have the church full— mass after mass and your voices ringing from the rafters. Mark your calendars for next year, June 13, 2023- the feast will fall on the 13th Tuesday.

It will be a grand celebration.

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Flowers were donated to adorn the church and give thanks to God for St. Anthony on his special day by parishioners and visitors with prayers and intentions.  We add our prayers as we ask for St. Anthony to intercede for these and for all who are devoted to this beloved saint.

IN MEMORY OF:

Ginny Carrington
For the members of the Cipriani family
Galina Davidic
Nelida Dumeng
Beulah Estwick
Frances Fakouri
Catherine Gavia
Caesar & Jeanne Garcia
Anthony Giovino, Sr
For the members of the Giovino and Cino families
Teddy Gonzales
Adrinenne Gunther & Family
Mercedes Gunther
Thomas Gunther
Kennedy Gunther
Johnny Gunther
The Gunther Family
Diane & Butch Istre
Gaitri Khan
Todd Lippincott and Family
Lisa Martin
Bill Minor
Janice & Joyce Morrissey
Chrissy Nelson
Samantha Nicole Pablo
Samuela Perrotto
Sophia Angela Regalado
Father George P. Reilly, OFM
Janet Rhorer
John, Grace, Johnny Rible
Toni Romero
Jaime San Juan
Jussein San Juan
Cathy de los Santos
James & Joyce Schanck
Jessie Q. Sotto
Jose Uy
Gregoria Mendoza Uy
Deceased members of Vitti and Conetta Families
Josh Williams and Family
Vera James
Thomas & Theresa

FOR THE SPECIAL INTENTIONS OF:

In thanksgiving to St. Anthony and for peace in Ukraine

Agatha Afriyie
Jose Aquino
Clara Ayala
For the special intentions of the Cavanaugh Family
Theresa Concert
Natalie Danna
Deborah DiRago
Paula Fencini
Masda Figaro
Jonathan Fitzgerald
Anthony Giovino
Louis Giovino
Mary and Sam Giovino
Giovino Family
Antony Kozhipatt
Mrs. Gloria Pascual
Marie Pohl
Nicholas Scott
Ouida Scott
Renaldo Scott
Samuel Scott
Healing for Barbara & Henry Sonntag
In Thanksgiving for my daughter Tricia and for her special intentions. Thank you St. Anthony

You are invited to donate a lily for the feast of St. Anthony.  The lilies will adorn the church and give thanks to God for St. Anthony on his special day!  Please send us the name of a loved one or a special intention that you would like to be prayed for on June 13th.

Flower donations are due by June 10, 2022

For all mothers living and deceased especially those remembered by their loved ones:

Mary Begley
Chris Boyer
Francesca Bruschi
Bruschi Family Mothers (Living and Deceased)
Marie Cerchio
Julia Clancy
Melissa Clancy
Marie Clancy
Alice Clancy, Emilia Caloman
Arlene Cosgrove
Loretta Crichlow, living
Nancy Crichlow, living
Deborah Dailey
Mary K. Fisher
Luisa Lorna Z. Gatchalian, deceased
Barbara Guarino
Bianca Guarrosi
Josie Guzzone
Eileen M. Hengler
Hilary F. Jochmans
Laetitia Kavanagh
Joanie Kiviker
Berthana Leconte
Victoria Lee
Doris Lee-Bruschi
Elizabeth Linnane
Sally Macchione & Fam
Julie Maria
Nicki Massa
Diane Massatti
Amneris McDonnell & Inez
Joan McElroy
Doris Mohr
Maita M. Navarro
Dieudonne Nelson
Bernette O’Connor
Claudia O’Connor
Evelyn O’Connor
Marian O’Donnell & Agnes Tuzo
Louise Owens
Kimberly Piergallini
Pizzurro Family Mothers (living and deceased)
Wyn Ponuis
Helen Puleo
Rose Sanderson
Dori Santiago
Sarina Schell
Barbara Sonntag
Melanie Calzetti Spahr
Linda Toomey
Diane Weiner
Alice Woods
Patti Zangler

A resurrection is occurring at St. Francis of Assisi – our community is coming back to life after the long pause caused by the pandemic. While we are not totally out of the woods with the virus, vaccines have made it possible for us to return to gathering in person and many, many people have returned to attending events in person again.

According to Edward Trochimczuk, our Director of Volunteer Ministries, during Holy Week we had over 300 people in attendance at every service . We had many of our regular parishioners return in person and we were joined by many visitors. Many people said they missed the services and the sense of community they feel at St. Francis and some people reflected that the Easter Vigil brought a sense of new beginnings for them. The robust fire, the baptismal water and the music drew them into new beginnings.

Our fall adult education semester was attended by over 200 women and men from all over New York City and beyond who were drawn to study the scriptures, the Mass, ways to pray, literature and poetry.  Many of these classes are back in person but we will also continue to offer them by zoom because we now draw people from as far as California to attend these courses.

Scripture sharing groups, like Tea with Jesus, our Thursday night lector’s group and Tuesdays with Fr. Tom continue to connect people to each other and to the Word of God.

In Acts of the Apostles the early converts to Christianity dedicated themselves to four things: “They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers.” (Acts 2:42). While we can preach and we can pray together on livestream and zoom, we cannot share the Eucharist together nor can we attend to our communal life.  The fullness of the Christian experience requires people be present together in person. We had to go through a painful time of separation – and rightfully so – to get through the danger the virus posed before vaccines were available.  But now it is time to gather again and many people have heard that call and are returning.

We are committed to rebuilding this community and exploring new ways to be Church in our city. The pause of the pandemic caused many of us realize how important our St. Francis community is, and it gave us the space and time away from what we “normally do” to explore other avenues to bring the Gospel out into the world.

If we allow the Spirit to move us, hopefully we will not emerge from the tomb like Lazarus – bound and tied up, but like Jesus, filled with the Spirit of God, transformed and empowered to go beyond what we were before.

We are glad for everyone who has returned and for all of the new people who have joined us.

It’s good to be back!

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful and kindle in us the fire of Your love. Send forth Your Spirit and we shall be created. And You will renew the face of the earth.