The February 2023 meeting was cancelled at the last minute due to sickness, which meant Helen and Fred could not get to St. Helen’s because our “drivers” (Joanne and Jean) were sick. Given there are only six Active members plus Chuck who is Seasonal (OFS), we had to cancel. Hope everyone is healed and revigorated! 

St. Joseph • March 19

Joseph was "a just man". This praise bestowed by the Holy Spirit and the privilege of having been chosen by God to be the foster-father of Jesus and the Spouse of the Virgin Mother, are the foundations of the honor paid to St. Joseph by the Church. (Catholic Encyclopedia)

St. Joseph is the patron saint against doubt and hesitation. He is patron of the Americas and Canada; of bursars; cabinetmakers; carpenters; confectioners; craftsmen; dying people; emigrants; engineers; expectant mothers; families; fathers. We ask him to assist us in a happy death. Please pray for his assistance when they're house hunting; or immigrating to another country, We ask for his protection to keep our interior souls holy. He is the patron saint of all laborers; of people in doubt; of pioneers and pregnant women. He's widely known as the Protector of the Church. He is also invoked as protector of many individual dioceses around the world.

As we come nearer to March 19th, let us ask St. Joseph to help us get to know Jesus better. St. Joseph, pray for us.

Reminder: Palm Sunday falls on April 2, 2023, the beginning of Holy Week

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 

Sanctuary 

A Reflection by Fred Schaeffer, OFS

We have a very special place where we meet God. Some call that place "the Soul"; others, "Conscience"; Saint John Paul II referred to it as the Sanctuary. It is really all of the above. For most people, it is a place of mystery, a place least understood, and people do not dwell on it too much because of the pressures of life. Perhaps only mystics think about these things. We ought to at least be aware of our "Inner Sanctum"— that place where we go only to meet God. We go there alone.

"Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, sounds in his heart at the right moment. . . . For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God. . . . His conscience is man's most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths." (Art. 1776, CCC)

In this deepest part of our Sanctuary, we yearn for what is good. Yet it is the human person who must decide between good and evil. In that way, God has given us "free will" and as many have experienced, sometimes this free will presents us with difficult choices, because people are "only human", as some will say. "Only human" seems to imply that people are prone to fall into sin. Only human means not perfect. If we listen to that voice of God deep within us, we'll begin to realize that "only human" doesn't hold up as an excuse for weakness. Nevertheless, we carry around with us the results of Original Sin, and this has weakened us. We can and should try to overcome sin. 

With God's help, we can. People we know as great Saints have tried to overcome sin but it was a daily struggle. St. Augustine struggled as his writings proved out, but he fought a valiant fight because when he failed, he asked God to forgive him, and he tried again. Daily conversion - that is what we need in order to turn back to God!

Daily conversion is an attempt to strive to better ourselves. Daily conversion - that is what we need in order to turn back to God! When to turn back to God? All the time. Daily! The struggle does not end Jesus talks to us every day. If we do not hear Him, listen harder. Shut out meaningless thoughts that get us off-track. Franciscans and other people committed to the Lord, know that in order stay close to Jesus, they've got to seek Him every minute of the day.