October 17, 2006
Sunday marked the 150th anniversary of the beginnings of the Capuchin Order in the United States, by Frs. Francis Haas and Bonaventure Frey. These two Swiss diocesan priests were remarkably inspired by the Holy Spirit to bring their favorite Order to America, even though they were not yet members of it when they set out to do so. They began a friary in Mt. Calvary, WI, which soon blossomed into a school and developed in the course of a century into two large provinces. Other provinces began later in the US, but were not directly founded by them.
Yesterday (Monday) the Church celebrated the memorial of Saint Margaret Alacoque, a great promoter of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. See the connection? . . .
If you are interested in connecting these dots, let me explain. Fr. Francis Haas, after many great adventures in planting the Capuchin Order in American soil, found, after 30 years or so, that the vigor and spirit of his province, while he was still provincial minister, seemed to be waning. He became convinced that the best remedy to the lack of zeal that he perceived was to promote a great devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He took up the pen and the pulpit with renewed zeal himself, to combat modernism with the message of Divine Mercy and the power of Humble Love Incarnate.
The Heart of Christ continues to break through barriers of those who would otherwise keep God at a distance, for a variety of reasons. The universal appeal of the Sacred Heart struck me when I walked into a little storefront Baptist church in our neighborhood in the South Bronx some years ago and beheld a beautiful tapestry of the Sacred Heart hanging front and center in their sanctuary. In our own technological culture which can so easily distance us from personal encounters, both human and Divine, what other remedy need we look to than the human heart of the Son of God, that adorably approachable Furnace of eternal love?
Fr. Richard Roemer, CFR
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