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The Canticle - Divine Mercy Fraternity's newsletter |
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Minister:
Helen Caldarone, SFO
Vice-Minister: Fred Schaeffer, SFO
Secretary: Jennie Donlin, SFO
Treasurer: Sarah Hardy, SFO
Formation Dir.: Gene Caldarone, SFO
Councillors-at-Large
George Thomas, SFO
Marguerite Rysdyke, SFO
Spiritual Assisitant
Fr. Richard P. LaCorte, SFO
Webmaster & Canticle Editor
Fred Schaeffer, SFO |
The Canticle
January 2005
Divine Mercy Fraternity
Secular Franciscan Order
Vero Beach,
Florida
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Commissioners
Work:
Jack
Solloway, SFO
Family: Susan Solloway, SFO
Peace and Justice: Sarah Hardy, SFO
Youth: Jim Catrambone, SFO
Ecology: Fred Schaeffer, SFO
Formation
Assistant Director: Donna M. Haro, SFO
Team Member: Caroline DiGennaro, SFO
Team Member: Carmela LaMarttina, SFO
Team Member: Jennie Donlin, SFO
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Regular
Meeting:
Sun., Jan. 9 - South Rm. St. Helen=s
Christian Living Ctr., Vero Beach. 2 pm.
Council
meeting:
Sat., Jan. 15 - Hibiscus Café, Vero Beach at 9 am.
Agenda
and Schedule for meeting: 1:30 pm - Initial Formation sessions before the
meeting.
2:00 - Meeting called to order. Opening
Prayer, Reports, Old/New Business.
2:20 -
Bonnie Keeney, Dir. of St. Helen=s
Neighborhood Apostolate, will speak to the fraternity briefly.
2:30 -
Ongoing Formation. Fr. Richard LaCorte, SFO will address us on the general
topic: The Secular Franciscan=s
role in today=s
culture in the year 2005. (What would St. Francis do if he was alive
today?) Q & A session will follow if time permits.
3:10 – Break and refreshments
3:25 – The Liturgy of the Hours and the
Divine Mercy Chaplet in the Chapel.
3:55 – Closing Prayer and Dismissal
Refreshment Committee for January: Caroline DiGennaro, Jennie Donlin – Snacks
Sarah Hardy – Soda and/or fruit drinks
Remember
in your prayers:
Our fraternity member, Jerry Carey SFO, who continues to suffer from an
ongoing infection which prevents him from attending our meetings, John
Matthews who recuperates at home following a hospital stay, and Marcella
Richards whose condition continues to be quite serious.
Rite of
Admission
is
scheduled at the regular February 13th meeting for our Inquirers
– Adele Lamour, Marie Louis-Jacques and Elizabeth Smith. This is a
joyful event in their lives and in the life of our fraternity. (Formation
leaders are asked to ensure that all study requirements and paperwork have
been completed beforehand.)
From
the Minister=s
Desk:
As I write this, I am listening to reports from Southeast Asia of over
60,000 deaths from the tsunami and millions injured and homeless. It is
said that over 30% of these casualties are children. It took rich and poor,
old and young, natives and tourists, saints and sinners
Awith the suddenness of pains overtaking a
woman in labor@.
. .it was the
Aend
of the world@
for those in its path. Pray for them all! Of the many
Asermons@ we can read into this disaster. . .the
most powerful one, I believe, is the necessity of being prepared for death
always. Add that intention to daily prayers for yourself and all your loved
ones (if it isn=t
there already).
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1 Solemnity of the Mother of God.
3 Holy Name of Jesus.
5 Bl. Diego José of Cádiz (priest)
7 Bl. Angela of Foligno, religious of III Order.
12 St. Bernard of Corleone, religious of I Order.
14 Bl. Odoric of Pordenone, priest of I Order. |
16 Sts .Berard, priest, and companions, protomartyrs of the Order.
18 St. Charles of Sezze, I Order
20 St. Eustochia Calafato, II Order
27 St. Angela Merici, virgin of
III
Order, founder.
30 St. Hyacinth of Mariscotti, virgin of III Order.
31 St. John Bosco, priest of III Order, founder. |
page -2-
Jan 7 - Blessed Angela of Foligno 1248-1309
Angela was born in 1248 of a prominent family in Foligno,
three leagues from
Assisi. As a young woman, and also as a wife and mother, she lived only for
the world and its vain pleasures. But the grace of God intended to make of
her a vessel of election for the comfort and salvation of many. A ray of the
divine mercy touched her soul and so strongly affected her as to bring about
a conversion.
At the command of her confessor she committed to writing the
manner of her conversion in eighteen spiritual steps. "Enlightened by
grace," she wrote in this account. "I realized my sinfulness; I was seized
with a great fear of being damned, and I shed a flood of tears. I went to
confession to be relieved of my sins, but through shame I concealed the most
grievous ones, but still I went to Communion. Now my conscience tortured me
day and night. I called upon St. Francis for help, and, moved by an inner
impulse, I went into a church where a Franciscan Father was then preaching.
"I gathered courage to confess all my sins to him, and I did
this immediately after the sermon. With zeal and perseverance I performed
the penance he imposed, but my heart continued to be full of bitterness and
shame. I recognized that the divine mercy has saved me from hell, hence I
resolved to do rigorous penance; nothing seemed too difficult for me,
because I felt I belonged in hell. I called upon the saints, and especially
upon the Blessed Virgin, to intercede with God for me.
"It appeared to me now as if they has compassion on me, and
I felt the fire of divine love enkindled within me so that I could pray as I
never prayed before. I had also received a special grace to contemplate the
cross in which Christ had suffered so much for my sins. Sorrow, love, and
the desire to sacrifice everything for Him filled my soul."
About this time God harkened to the earnest desire of the
penitent: her mother died, then her husband, and soon afterwards all her
children. These tragic events were very painful to her; but she made the
sacrifice with resignation to the will of God. Being freed from these ties,
she dispossessed herself of all her temporal goods with the consent of her
confessor, so that being poor herself, she might walk in the footsteps of
her poor Savior. She also entered the Third Order of St. Francis, and
presently found herself the superior and guide of others who followed in her
path. Many women joined her, even to the point of taking the three vows. She
encouraged them in works of charity, in nursing the sick, and in going
personally from door to door to beg for the needs of the poor.
Meanwhile, Angela became still more immersed in the
contemplation of the Passion of Christ, and she chose the Sorrowful Mother
and the faithful disciple John as her patrons. The sight of the wounds which
her Lord suffered for her sins urged her to the practice of still greater
austerities. Once our Lord showed her that His Heart is a safe refuge in all
the storms of life. She was soon to be in need of such a refuge.
God permitted her to be
afflicted with severe temptations. The most horrible and loathsome
representations distressed her soul. The fire of concupiscence raged so
furiously that she said: "I would rather have beheld myself surrounded with
flames and permitted myself to be continually roasted that to endure such
things." Still, she called out to God, "Glory be to Thee, O Lord! Thy cross
is my resting place." These painful trials lasted over two years; but then
the purified and tried servant of the Lord was filled with great
consolation. She obtained a marvelous insight into divine things and was
very frequently found in ecstasy. For many years Holy Communion was her only
food, until at last, completely purified, she entered into the eternal joy
of the Supreme Good on January 4, 1309.
Pope Innocent XII approved the continual devotion paid to her at her tomb in
Foligno. He beatified her in 1693.
(from: The Franciscan
Book of Saints, ed. by Marion Habig, ofm., © 1959 Franciscan Herald
Press) Used with Permission
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