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April 2007 |
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May the Lord give you His peace! A most blessed Easter to all - Christ is Risen! My favorite book on the resurrection is found here. On April 28, 2007, our community will celebrate our twentieth anniversary. Twenty years is a very short period of time in the history of the Church. We are just getting started! This year I will focus on various aspects of the CFR way of life in particular. |
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  When some people think of friars, they might think of a cookie jar of Friar Tuck from Robin Hood. The very word friar means brother (Latin fratres). A friar is not a monk. Although I did not see it, I was told that there is a funny line in a recent movie, Nacho Libre, "I'm not a monk, I'm a friar!" St. Francis did not want to follow the patterns of monastic life. Friars are like monks on the move. We have both priests and brothers in our community. The brothers do not offer the sacraments- Mass, Confession, etc. Most of the Capuchin saints and blessed's were brothers. St. Francis was not a priest. Our Br. Crispin recently talked about the brotherhood on Fr. Groeshel's Sunday Night Live EWTN program (audio archive found here). |
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 Brotherhood was important in my own vocational discernment. I absolutely loved the brotherhood of my household at Franciscan University of Steubenville (households are like fraternities without the sinful stuff). This was one sign pointing me in the direction of the CFRs. Even as a priest in the CFRs, I live my priesthood in the context of our brotherhood. We share a common life. We all cook, clean and participate in the daily routines. In the past there have been times of tension between priests and brothers, sometimes giving rise to anti-clericalism. Because we are a new community, we do not experience this in our way of life. I have felt the beautiful complimentarity of priesthood and brotherhood so many times. For example: Palm Sunday night we offered a Lenten Penance Service at the prison on Riker's Island. Like so many of our parish missions, the brothers led music and meditations while we priests heard confessions. We experience a lot of team work in the CFRs! |
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An Outstanding Document from the Vatican: |
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+ Feb. 2, 1994, "Fraternal Life in Community" by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life: found here |
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 Community and Growth by Jean Vanier. A must read book on living in community!! found here |
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N.B. The official "two-week visit" for those men hoping to join us as Postulants in September 2007, will be July 16-30, 2007 (We are flexible if you can not make those dates). Please let us know soon. |
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God bless you,
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 Fr. Luke Mary Fletcher, CFR Saint Joseph Friary 523 W. 142nd Street New York, NY 10031 (212)281-4355 (212)234-8871 fax Archive eLetters |
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There are three basic elements to the CFR way of life, likened to a three-legged stool: prayer, fraternity and apostolate. The order is important, our founders wanted to recapture the importance of brotherhood in the religious life. This is clearly articulated in several documents from the Vatican. From a deep prayer life flows our brotherhood in community. Out of our prayer and brotherhood we are strengthened to serve in the apostolate. Our apostolate is two-fold: hands on work with the poor and evangelization. On first meeting many people they often ask, "What do you guys do?" Prayer is first. The Mass is the source and summit of our day. 
This month I would like to comment on our life of fraternity, our brotherhood. One of Mel Gibson's favorite moments in The Passion of the Christ is from the fifth station of the cross, when Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the cross. There is a moment in the movie when we see the arms of Simon and Jesus interlock under the weight of the cross (just when Christ gets up from His first fall after Simon begins to help Him). Mel once commented that he felt a beautiful expression of human brotherhood emerge from that moment in the film. I was immediately struck by the visual similarity to the Franciscan Coat of Arms. We see the arms of Francis and Jesus interlock around the cross. Franciscan life is a brotherhood. We don't carry our cross alone. I find it difficult to describe our fraternal life, it must be experienced. Some people flourish in a close community environment. Like Jesus and the 12 Apostles, St. Francis sent the friars out two-by-two. The Church Fathers commented that Jesus did this for the sake of the two-fold command of love, love God and neighbor. 
We are praying for you and your discernment everyday, especially on Wednesdays. Let us set our hands to the plow in the Lord's vineyard and not look back! "The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be
rewarded according to his own labor"