The UGNAYAN Filipino Ministry is inviting you to the San Lorenzo Feast Day Mass at 1:00 PM on Sunday, September 26 at the upper church.
The ministry is inviting you to join live or virtually. Please wear your masks when entering the church and to social distance.
Join us for a week of prayer, special events, and celebrations as we remember and honor our patron saint, St. Francis of Assisi!
September 30th at 6:30 PM
San Damiano Hall
Join us as author Dr. Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, reads from her book of poems Love in the Time of Coronavirus: A Pandemic Pilgrimage and invites us to unpack our experience of the past year and half through her poetry.
October 2nd at 2:30 PM
San Damiano Hall
Meet author Maureen O’Brien as she reads from and signs her latest book, What was Lost: Seeking Refuge in the Psalms.
October 3rd at 2:00 PM
Main Church
October 3rd at 7:oo PM (6:30pm, Marie Puleo to give an introduction)
Main Church
October 4th at 5:00 PM and 6:00 PM
Main Church
As we celebrate St. Francis on October 4th, the church will be decorated with magnificent flowers. All of his teaching, preaching, healing and seeking what was lost gave glory to God. He used his gifts well. Let us fill the church with the beauty of God’s creation in honor of a saint who loved nature so much.
You are invited to donate flowers in memory of a loved one or for a special intention.
Join us as author Dr. Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, reads from her book of poems Love in the Time of Coronavirus: A Pandemic Pilgrimage and invites us to unpack our experience of the past year and half through her poetry.
During the course of the evening Dr. Angela Alaimo O’Donnell will read selected poems from her new book. Then a portion of the evening will allow attendees to discuss their experience of the pandemic. The evening will conclude with a short prayer service offering to God what we have been through together.
Dr. Angela will sign books after the prayer service. Copies of the book will be available to purchase that evening.
Join us:
Thursday, September 30th
6:30 PM
San Damiano Hall
This event is free and open to the public.
COVID safety measures: We ask all attendees to please wear a mask during this event.
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Click here for more FRANCIS WEEK 2021 events.
Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, PhD is a professor, poet, and writer at F
ordham University in New York City and serves as Associate Director of Fordham’s Curran Center for American Catholic Studies. Her publications include two chapbooks and seven collections of poems, most recently, Andalusian Hours (2020), a collection of 101 poems that channel the voice of Flannery O’Connor, and Love in the Time of Coronavirus: A Pandemic Pilgrimage (2021). In addition, O’Donnell has published a prize-winning memoir, Mortal Blessings (2014) and a book of hours based on the practical theology of Flannery O’Connor, The Province of Joy (2012), and her biography Flannery O’Connor: Fiction Fired by Faith (2015) was awarded first prize for excellence in publishing from The Association of Catholic Publishers. Her new critical book on Flannery O’Connor, Radical Ambivalence: Race in Flannery O’Connor was published by Fordham University Press in 2020.
FRANCIS WEEK 2021 EVENT:
Meet author Maureen O’Brien as she reads from and signs her latest book, What was Lost: Seeking Refuge in the Psalms.
When you hit rock bottom, it isn’t rainbows and butterflies that you need—it’s the words to express your deepest emotions without being judged for them. In this spiritual memoir, author Maureen O’Brien finds her words in the psalms. As a cancer survivor and heartbroken divorcee, O’Brien made a seemingly simple commitment to praying one psalm a day, no matter how uninspired she felt. And as she returned to the ancient poems day after day, she discovered something surprising: while the psalms did give her comfort, solace, and hope, they also gave her permission to rage, cry, and grieve. And what she found was that her most honest emotions pulled her nearer to God, not further away. This, O’Brien writes, is the gift of the psalms. At once relatable and inspiring, What Was Lost stands like a lighthouse on a stormy night, offering the reader a clear path to be led home. Maureen will read from her memoir, and eagerly take questions and welcomes personal stories from the audience. A book signing follows.
About Maureen: Maureen O’Brien is the author of the novel b-mother. Her award-winning short stories and poems have been published widely in magazines and anthologies. She lives in Connecticut where she taught creative writing to teenagers for twenty-five years. She holds an M.A in creative writing and a B.A. in philosophy and religion. The contrasts of life—sunrise and dusk, crying and laughter–never cease to amaze her.
Saturday, October 2, 2021
2:30 PM
San Damiano Hall
COVID safety measures: We ask all attendees to please wear a mask during this event.
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Click here for our full FRANCIS WEEK 2021 list of events
Do you love your pet?
Well, God does too!
St. Francis of Assisi is the patron saint of animals and it’s part of our Franciscan tradition to bless our furry friends on or near Francis’ feast day.
So bring your cat or dog, fish or frog, or any friend you have to get blessed.
Please gather with your pet near the entrance of the church on W. 31st Street and join us for a procession into the church for the blessing.
The Adult Education Center received a much needed renovation this summer using money raised through our RENEW & REBUILD Campaign. The building is now open and ready to host ministry meetings, adult education courses, self-help groups and more.
Fr. Tom and the staff would like to invite everyone to an open house and after Mass hospitality on Saturday September 25th and Sunday September 26th after all of the Masses.
Refreshments will be offered room 1B and staff will be present to show people around the building.
Come and see how we are building for a better and brighter future at St. Francis of Assisi.
Join us!
Join “Tuesdays with Fr. Tom” Scripture Sharing Group at 7:00pm. We will reflect on the upcoming Gospel passage for the week. Join us for every session or feel free to drop in whenever you can.
If you would like more information for the zoom meetings please email Edward Trochimczuk at: etrochimczuk@stfrancisnyc.org.
We invite all of you to join us this Saturday, August 21 at 11AM as the Holy Name Province welcomes three brothers for their Solemn Profession.
It will be a beautiful celebration that takes place in the upper church.
It is especially special for us here at the Church of St. Francis of Assisi, as one of the men came from our pews, Brother James Bernard.
If time allows, please plan to join us for this special day.
Join us for a candlelight prayer service for these two countries who desperately need our support.
Our voices are heard in heaven!
We can and need to ask God to intervene and to give us insight for ways we can respond with the love of Christ.
Monday, August 23, 7pm
in the upper church
A Week of Prayer to Mary, Untier of Knots will be held from Monday to Friday, August 23 to August 27, after the 12:00 PM and 5:00 PM Masses.
Here is the novena prayer for this week:
Introduction
The devotion to Mary, Untier of Knots was inspired by a painting created in 1700 for the Church of St. Peter am Perlach in Augsburg, Germany. In the image, Mary stands above a crescent moon, crushing a serpent under her foot. An angel passes a knotted white ribbon to Mary who unties knots in the ribbon. Another angel receives the smooth, unknotted portion.
Both the painting and the devotion to Mary, Untier of Knots, trace their roots to the second-century bishop, Saint Irenaeus of Lyons. Referring to Mary’s role as the Second Eve, Saint Irenaeus wrote that “the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. For what Eve had bound fast through unbelief, thus did Mary set free through faith” (Against Heresies).
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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
— Amen.
Let us pray for all who are having difficulty with the knots of their lives.
— Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all struggling families, we pray:— Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all beset by financial struggles, we pray:— Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all seeking employment, we pray:— Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all suffering from mental and physical illness, we pray:— Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all bound by political ideologies, we pray:— Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all the homeless and the destitute, we pray:— Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all burdened with loneliness, fears or worries, we pray:— Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all living with addictions, we pray:— Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all estranged from the church, we pray:— Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all who have been abused by the church, we pray:— Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all enduring religious or ethnic persecution, we pray: — Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all overwhelmed by shame or despair, we pray: — Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all traumatized by violence or neglect, we pray:— Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all targeted by racism or discrimination, we pray:— Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all struggling to let go of grudges, we pray:— Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all working to protect our planet, we pray:— Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all seeking peace, we pray:— Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With confidence in God let us pray:
Holy Mary, full of grace,
during your life you accepted with great humility the holy will of the Father
and the legacy of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
You were never entangled with confusion.
As you did for the young couple at the wedding feast of Cana, you intercede for us in all of our difficulties.
With simplicity and patience, you have given us an example
of how to untangle the knots in our complicated lives.
By being our mother forever,
you arrange and make clear
the path that unites us to Our Lord.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, and our mother,
untie the knots that beset our lives.
Receive us into your hands,
as well as those for whom we pray.
Blessed Virgin Mary, through your grace, your intercession, and by your example, deliver us from evil,
and untie the knots that keep us from being united to God so that free of all that binds us,
we may find Him in all things, keep Him in our hearts,
serving Him always in our brothers and sisters. Amen.
Through the intercession of Holy Mary, Untier of Knots, may almighty God bless you:
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
— Amen.
