February is dedicated to the Holy Family

Agenda

2:00 Opening: Prayers from Ritual, Business Meeting

2:20 Ongoing Formation

3:00 Divine Mercy Chapter

3:10  Refreshments: As you wish, please keep it simple.

3:40 Evening Prayer, Liturgy of the Hours

4:00 Adjournment
… followed by Council Meeting.

Fair Share for those who have not contributed yet remains $55.00 per year, due February 2023, latest 

O Sacred Banquet
A Reflection by Fred Schaeffer, OFS

O Sacred Banquet, in Latin, O sacrum convivium, is a spiritual song composed by Oliver Messiaen, a French composer (1908-1992) and organist. Besides being a great classical composer, he was also an ornithologist and had a great interest in bird calls. His compositions also include chamber music and orchestral works.

I love all sorts of classical spiritual music, particularly organ and voice. One can sit and listen and absorb that type of music and it becomes part of ones’ prayer life. O sacrum convivium is about the Blessed Sacrament and I feel I can’t get enough immersion in God’s love and glory, and I get that through contemplative prayer and music, often at the same time. Having been a contemplative monk for almost five years, I have been immersed in that silent prayer life and even before that time. I have spent a lot of time by myself in post-war Holland when mother wasn’t available due to illness, and I’ve learned to use that time well. Many youngsters left to their own devices didn’t do well. Lack of parental guidance in the formative years can be detrimental to proper formation. In my experience, it all worked out for the best with His help. Part of this is because of my Dutch-German background: Dutch stubbornness and German personal discipline. I’ll admit that if things don’t go my way, I can be very ornery. But I am working on that – metanoia!

The battle of the will, how to handle temptation, which way to go, that can prove to be a "Dark Night of the Soul" (St. John of the Cross). You see, in true love there is pain...the pain that results from giving your soul to God. That's not easy by any means. In order to give our soul to God, we must totally abandon oneself to Him. We must accept that God is in control. We are not. I may be a big shot here on earth, but where it comes to my relationship with God, I am his servant. I am a mere flyspeck.

And you know what, pretty soon your relationship with those in your family and acquaintances will soften and you will treat others in a more Christian way. You see, the best way to evangelize Jesus Christ is to emulate Him! As this relationship with Jesus progresses you will again be able to see the good in people rather than the negative side, you have received the greatest manifestation of His love possible, and He allows you to come to Him each and every day. As He offers Himself to you in this manner, you know you have been redeemed, and your journey to a life with Him, either here on earth or in heaven continues to develop. “I found an interesting definition of contemplative prayer from the pen of the Carthusian Dom Thomas Verner Moore. "Contemplative prayer is a means of uniting the soul more closely to God by a living experience of the Divine Presence, which, while it lasts, is essentially a more or less perfect union of mind and heart, of intellect and will of the creature with the Creator. It is attended with a feeling of peace, joy, happiness, and great delight, which makes the soul yearn to will only what God wills and do only what He desires." Surely these words need prayerful pondering for their full benefit to be received.

“Believing you can do contemplative prayer is important as a motivating factor and because it is true! However, there is something else you should keep in mind. You will need to adapt, at least some, perhaps much, of what you read to you and your personality and your own life. You need to often recall the words of the Benedictine author Dom John Chapman, O.S.B. "Pray as you can, not as you cannot."
 
“Contemplative prayer requires sacrifices. These sacrifices are not called for while you are praying but in preparation for your time of prayer. Contemplative prayer requires what monks and nuns have done for centuries—kept silent, stayed home, ignored curiosity about unimportant things, shunned listening to idle talk, etc. All of this comes down to fostering and protecting recollection. Recollection is having a still mind, a control of the attention and a focusing of all interests. A person whose mind or attention is scattered and going here and there is not preparing for contemplative prayer. It is a prayerful day that will prepare you for contemplative prayer.” Br. Craig Driscoll (1958-2015*) 

Contemplation is also part of the Secular Franciscan Rule. I refer you to Rule 8:” As Jesus was the true worshipper of the Father, so let prayer and contemplation be the soul of all they are and do. Let them participate in the sacramental life of the Church, above all the Eucharist. Let them join in liturgical prayer in one of the forms proposed by the Church, reliving the mysteries of the life of Christ.”

Fred Schaeffer, OFS 1/7/2023 

*(Above quotations used with permission; Br. Craig was Fred Schaeffer's former superior when he was with the Monks of Adoration. He passed away a few years ago.) For more information see- https://www.reflections-dmf-ofs.org/ascent-to-interior-prayer 

Ash Wednesday is on February 22, 2023

 February Secular Franciscan Saints & Blessed

 01 Blessed Viridiana de Attavantis (d.1242)

 04 St. Joseph of Leonissa 1556=1612
06 Sts Peter Baptist, and Companions d. 1597 

 07 St. Colette 1381-1447   

 15 Transfer of the Body of St. Anthony of Padua   

 19 St. Conrad of Piacenza 1290-1351

 22 Margaret of Cortona (d.1297) 

Pretending Nothing is Wrong

We are good at pretending there is nothing wrong in our soul. Yet, all except perhaps a (living) saint , will have been tempted by some form of evil today, and may have given in. Sin is a serious issue to which we commit on purpose. When we don't commit an evil act on purpose, or with purpose aforethought, as the law might put it, then we are not sinning. But this is an area which needs lots of honest self-examination.

That self-examination can be done, or is best done with the help of the Holy Spirit, in our inner consultations and conversations with Jesus. Unfortunately, due to the evil portrayed nightly on our televisions, rape, murder, theft, calumny, terror, etc., so often that we have become desensitized to this portrayal of evil, our thinking and inner peace is diverted to evil and we do not even realize it. Are we pretending nothing is wrong? God, I hope not. We must maintain a healthy understanding of what is good and what is evil so we may be able to differentiate when we are tempted. I’ve stopped looking at “crime dramas” altogether. Well, except for medical dramas.

Why do people like these stories? Because they portray actions presented for shock value, perhaps. Do these actions drive people to commit crimes sometime in their lives or make them capable of doing so? I do not know the definitive answer to that question, but the other day there was a report of an arrest of a 10-year old kid who allegedly murdered his mother with a single gunshot to the head. If this report is proven true, that is a sad, sad tragedy. I can only pray that our Lord have mercy on the soul of the accused, accused because the perpetrator hasn't had his day in court yet.

Murder is not an uncommon crime, as is well known. However, it occurs every day in some parts of the world. The Sudan comes to mind, and we are asked to pray for the victims there, and really those committing these horrible deeds are victims too - victims of revolution and hatred. There are other nations in the world where people simply disappear when someone makes a unilateral decision to do away with them.

We cannot pretend there is nothing wrong, but we are astonished there is so much evil. We cannot begin to deal with all the wrong in this world in others. We have to begin with ourselves. We have to begin to get back to this understanding what is evil and what is not. This can be done by inner conversion, by turned back to the Lord, and seeking help from a faith community. We cannot blame a church for its shortsightedness, its hypocrisy in denying sinful conditions, we must first begin at home. Ask Our Lord forgiveness, do not judge others (leave that to God); of course if you see wrongs committed against young people, that should be brought to the attention of proper authorities, but other than that, we really have to begin at home and we cannot pretend all is well with us. Incrementally we all share in the human condition, and we must take responsibility.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, in order to secure our Salvation, died for all of us on a Cross. This was no accident, it was foretold in the Old Testament. And it happened, and we can achieve eternal happiness, provided we do not mess things up further. I pray that all people who read these teachings and reflections will not pretend nothing is wrong, but will be active in the fight against evil. Remember, the eyes are the windows to the soul, so be careful what your eyes see, night after night after night.

May God bless you and keep you out of harms' way!

Fred Schaeffer, OFS
2011, rev. January 12, 2023 

  Divine Mercy Fraternity gathers monthly, Second Sunday 2:00 PM (Apr-May: Third Sunday), St. Helen Church, St. Patrick’s Room in Vero Beach, FL