Apostolic Commissions: “Family”
“In their family, they should cultivate the Franciscan spirit of
peace, fidelity, and respect for life, striving to make of it a sign of
a world already renewed in Christ.”
(Rule of SFO, par. 17.)
TASK: To promote family values in positive ways.
Chairs: Rena Xuereb & Ernestine Sedillo
ENGAGED ENCOUNTER
Nov. 13-15, 1998
Madonna Center, Albuquerque or in Santa Fe call: 424-0764
ENGAGED ENRICHMENT
Oct. 16-17 St. Charles, Albuq. Call: 884-7843;
Oct. 24-25, Risen Saviour,Albuq. Call: 821-1571.
PRECANA OF SANTA FE:
Oct. 29-31.Call: 982-9139
PRECANA EN ESPANOL:
Nov.14 Call:242-3658
MARRIAGE ENRICHMENT
Oct. 9-11,Oct. 16-18, Oct. 23- 25, Nov. 6-8. Call: 831-8117
MARRIAGE ENCOUNTER.
Nov. 20-22. Call: 831-1182
RETROUVAILLE (a program for troubled marriages)
Next one Jan. 15-17 at Madonna Center, Albuq. Call: 890-3495.
Miscellaneous
A Small Assisi in the Mountains of Thailand
The Secular Franciscan Order is fairly new in Thailand,
but a big step forward was taken with the dedication of the Chapel-St.
Mary of the Angels of the Portiuncula in the mountains of Chiang Rai province.
This took place on the feast of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, the patroness
of the SFO. The chapel was built and donated by a member of the SFO to
assist in catechetical study of th Akka hill tribe of the area and to help
spread the life style and charism of St. Francis of Assisi.
What my mother taught me:
Thinking on who has influenced me in my faith is my mother.
She was a good Catholic and a good mother. When we were bad, she would
never hit us, but she would say, “you are children of God.” Then she would
make us kneel down and pray.
This first thing that I remember her telling us when we were
young is, “Pan, Tata Dios.” By the time that I was 8 years old, I knew
all my prayers in Spanish, and she let me make my First Holy Communion.
My mother used to teach catechism. She was always making novenas to the
Santo Nono de Atocha and others. On the last day of the year, she would
have a velorio. We prayed until midnight, thanking god for the old year,
and then we prayed thanking God for the new year. We were taught to ask
for God’s blessings. Our Blessed Mother’s Rosary was always prayed by her,
and we always made it very long. When someone was expecting a baby, she
would right away
make a novena to San Ramon. We were taught to also respect our elders,
and we were
told to “always think before we speak.” I became sick with epilepsy
when I was small, and she was afraid that I would die, so she gave me Holy
Water to drink. The night that I had my first seizure, my father was away
at work and my other was worried that I would die. When I was in the second
grade, my family lived in a camp in the Sacrament Mountains where my father
was a lumberjack. Every morning the train passed by our house at 5 a.m.
with the logs. One morning a few of the logs came loose and rolled down
the mountain and hit the corner of our house. Everybody was shaken, of
course, but the only thing that was broken was a statue of St. Anthony.
My mother said “Thank you God,” because if the logs had not hit the corner
to the house they would have killed us all. God took my mother in July
of 1993, a week before she was to turn 96 years old. She lived to see her
children’s children to five generations.
Magazines:
St. Anthony Messenger, Oct 1998. Cover
story of 400 years of
Christianity in New Mexico.
The Cord,May/June 1998. Reflects on the life of secular
Franciscans today and
the twentieth anniversay of the Rule- excellent! Every SFO needs
to read!
Books:
Tales of an Endishodi-edited by Fr. Murray Bodo,OFM. A
fascinating book for
anyone interested in life among the Navajo and the work
of the Franciscan
missionaries during the first half of this century.
Laborers of the Harvest-edited by Fr. Cormac Antram,OFM. A work
depicting the
first 100 years of our Catholic and Franciscan presence on the Navajo
reservation.
IN A RUSH? NO TIME TO READ? We have tapes for check
out as well.
The library remains an untapped resource for further growth in Franciscan
reading!
