Today, Monday, was a busy day. Lots of errands, running around to the bank, to the supermarket, to lunch, some computer work, re-installing Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 (which I use to construct these pages; the program had developed some problems I couldn't get rid of. Re-installation is easy, but one always wonders what will go wrong next. Fortunately, nothing did! I've been messing around with computers since 1975! That's when the company I was then working for in New York City got their first decent computers. These ran on a mainframe, and it was a world-wide system for a company with 19,000 employees. I can't recall when the first commercially available IBM-AT came out, I think it was in 1984 - just 25 years ago. Who would have known then, in 1984, that in 2009 we'd have computers that are much smaller and far more powerful than the old IBM-AT.

No, I'm not going to write about computers, but I mention it just to show, that a non-profit organization such as the S.F.O., which has representatives in about 110 countries around the globe, has been helped tremendously through the use of computers, e-mail and the Internet. I do not know how many of the approx. 430,000 Secular Franciscans use a computer. Given that many live in 3rd-world Nations, there won't be as many as demographics estimate but still most of the Ministers, Regional, National, and certainly CIOFS (International) officers can be reached "by electronic means." This saves an immense amount of slow-moving mail, time and postage. It unites us in a closer manner. What unites us even more, of course, is a common charism, prayer, and the 788 years we've been around. "The Rule of 1221 was written by St. Francis and Cardinal Ugolino. Brothers and Sisters of Penance, and later, "Tertiaries (as Secular Franciscans were then called) are forbidden to take oaths…and not allowed to carry weapons. Rule of Pope Nicolas IV is approved in 1289, with minor changes from the Rule of 1221.†" Our latest Rule approved in 1978, is in many ways similar to the first Rule, but fits more with the times we find ourselves in).

Naturally, I haven't been around for 788 years, but most Franciscans have read the history of the Franciscan Family of Orders and are very familiar with it. So at the end of this very busy day, I'm writing something, trying to catch up a little in my literary output of which there probably has been already more than enough. I spent two hours doing jail ministry this evening and listened to, talked to, and prayed with three men of various ages, who had different inmate experiences, some looking forward to long and others to shorter sentences. I often don't know when I begin a session how I can help the individual, but with the help of the Holy Spirit, it always comes out OK. If you trust in God, everything comes out OK. I'm re-reading the "Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska," the famous Polish nun who brought the knowledge of the Divine Mercy of Jesus into the forefront, and who had conversations with Mary, Jesus and some of the Angels/Saints in her contemplative prayer life. That's been my bed-time reading for a couple of months. This isn't a book you race through, but one can use it as a prayer and the root of further meditation and study. When you read that book, one begins to see that with God's help and our trust in Him, we will be OK no matter what the circumstances and difficulties in our lives. I try to tell the people I visit and counsel about these experiences to give them hope. Hope that better days are coming for them, when they return to Jesus and Mary and eventually back to Holy Mass. I don't know if they will remember these conversations when they finally get out of jail/prison, but all I can do is plant the seed and ask God to take care of the rest.

There are of course many examples of Apparitions, as I tried to briefly speak about in our "Marian Apparitions and Shrines" section - and maybe I'll find time to add to this listing of Apparitions as time goes on. There are many Shrines in Europe and in other areas of the world, not directly related to Apparitions, which I can write about some day.

I am happy that I am somewhat busy. There is so little on television that's any good, that the TV is no longer the alternative to doing volunteer or Church work (remember, I'm a retiree), but every once in a while there is an older movie that I enjoy seeing again. All these recent movies, particularly those made for television, that are predominantly about sex and violence, aren't conducive to the development of a close personal relationship with Jesus and His Mother... because the devil has this uncanny ability to interupt one's meditative thoughts with distracting garbage. Sure I watch some of the newer programming, but when it gets too bad, I switch it off. Some people no longer have the personal discipline to switch the TV off. That's pretty bad, when you've lost control of your senses and thoughts in that way. Someone asked me once, if I knew how come he got into hard drugs - I had to admit that I haven't a clue, because all of us are different and we cannot know what is in the other person's head at the point of falling into temptation. It was a moment of weakness to be sure. Maybe his best friend dared him to do it. And he wasn't strong enough to say "No Way!" Or, the reason could have been a systemic weakness implanted in the soul of that person through a bad beginning in life: parents who did not care, or were absent during pre-teen years, lack of parental supervision. Who knows - that's way too difficult a question to delve into. I'm not a psychiatrist. The bigger and more important question is how he is going to get out of that problem. I have some of the answers but it depends entirely on the person's ability to control his senses and emotions. And for most people, I would say, they'd probably never get there on their own - but with God's help all things are possible, even a complete healing.

These are my thoughts at the end of this long day. The clock just turned past midnight, so it is time to post this article. Until the next time I have a chance to sit down and tell you about my day, I wish you God's Blessing and Strength, so that you may know what to do, how to live, and most of all, how to stay out of trouble!

Peace and All Good,

Fred Schaeffer, SFO
November 10, 2009

(†) Source: Brief History - Thirteenth to Twenty-first Century; Excerpts from the 1980 Writings of Fr. Larry Landini, OFM

Franciscan Reflections Index