"New York Franciscan monks battle crime in Irish projects"

From Irish Central

Picture at left: Brother Shawn O'Connor, CFR

Since the beginning of the decade the Moyross estate in Limerick City has been a battle-ground for vicious gangland criminals.

Violent crime stalked the streets, making everyday life a nightmare.

But now, the estate is being turned around by a group of Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, from the Bronx, New York.

The Moyross estate was built in the late 1970s and is home to 5,500 residents. The vast majority of householders are local authority tenants.

Back in 2006, crime in Moyross was at its peak. The most famous incident took place when two innocent children who were sitting in their mother’s car were nearly burnt to death when three teenagers petrol bombed the vehicle. Violence was an everyday threat on the estate.

In 2007, the monks opened the friary in the troubled estate and over the past four years they have seen a vast improvement in the standard of living in the people living in the surrounding area.

Brother Shawn O’Connor said the monks' "primary purpose" was to "take care of the spiritual and material needs of the people, to give them a real sense of hope and a sense of knowledge that God cares for them and loves them."

Brother O’Connor is impressed by the changes that he has witnessed.

"We have seen quite a few changes. The biggest we have seen is with the people and the way they live their daily lives," said Brother O'Connor.

"Neighbors told us when we first moved in there, that (their) kids wouldn't play on the street very much or else with great caution. Now they are out there almost every day. I don't think anyone thinks anything of it to let their kids go out and safely play in the streets. That is one change, I don't know if that has anything specifically to do with us.

"It's gotten quieter there certainly, I know that. Obviously there are still things going on that everybody knows aren't so good. But there haven't been big violent events or things of that nature.

“If we can inspire people just to make that difference, no matter how small it might be, then you have made a difference. That is what we are trying to do at a tangible level."

The Franciscan Friars of the Renewal have now opened a second friary in Derry City.

"We won't go anyplace unless we get invited by a bishop,” said Brother O’Connor. “The two places we got invited to were Limerick and Derry and we accepted both of those. They are good places to be."

Franciscan Friars of the Renewal Novitiate Class of 2010

The Franciscan Friars of the Renewal 10 New Novices - 2010:

(l-r) Fr. Glenn Sudano, novice master; Br. Frantisek Marie Chloupek, Br. Vittorio Maria Pesce; Br. Jude Thaddeus Boyden; Br. Tobias Marie Redfield; Br. Simeon Mary Lewis; Fr. Maximilian Mary McGoldrick; Br. Seámus Mary Laracy; Br. Mark-Mary Maximilian Ames; Br. Angelus Immaculata Montgomery; Fr. Felipe Immaculée Casadia; and Fr. Mariusz Koch, community servant.

Franciscan Friars of the Renewal Postulant Class of 2009

(l-r) Fr. Gabriel Bakkar, Vocation Director; Br. Pius Gagne; Mark Ames (California); Rusty Montgomery (Nebraska); Simeon Lewis (Vermont); Eric Pesce (Pennsylvania); Eric Chloupek (Nebraska); Adam Boyden (Ohio); Andrew Pasternack (Ohio); Anthony Redfield (Delaware); Brendan Laracy (Massachusetts); Br. Aloysius Mazzone; Fr. Luke Fletcher, Postulant Director

From the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal website:

Grace and peace to you!

On September 8th, the Feast of the Birth of the Virgin Mary, the friars and sisters gathered to receive and welcome our nine new postulant brothers. Earlier in the day, the sisters gathered to do the same for their six new sister candidates, who will become postulants in February. Thanks be to God for his grace and mercy at work in the lives of our new brothers and sisters! Thanks be to God for this abundant harvest of vocations for the Church. Thanks be to God for their simple “yes” because it was through one particular “yes” that the Creator of the universe took flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary.

The men and women who join us each year are for us a real sign of God’s provision, mercy, and grace. This day is for us an opportunity to grow in a humble awareness of God’s blessings. The Lord increases our numbers, he multiplies our works, he gives us his joy, he anoints us with his Holy Spirit, he disciplines us as his sons and daughters, and he leaves us with his peace and joy even during the most difficult struggles – often with our own sinfulness.

Please pray that we learn more and more each day that it is only through God’s grace and mercy that he chooses to bless us as he does. Whatever good we do is not ours but is his alone. The Lord clearly has no problem using weak and rusty tools to carry out his work, because he certainly knows our faults, failures, and sinfulness. Let all the glory be his…please pray that we do not take any for ourselves!

Please pray for our nine new brothers who will now begin the six-month formation period prior to becoming friar novices, and the first stage of their lifelong formation period prior to becoming friar saints.

May Jesus and Mary reign in our hearts!

Ave Maria!

Br. Aloysius Marie Mazzone, CFR

St. Joseph Friary
Harlem, NY

Slideshow of Franciscan Friars of of the Renewal during Holy Week in Albuqurque

Click phot above or link below:

Slideshow

Wish I could post the article that goes with, but I don't have a subscription to the paper.

Franciscan Friars of the Renewal Novitiate Class of 2009

The 17 newest members of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal (CFR's)

(top row, l-r) Br. Pierre Toussaint Marie Guiteau, Br. Malachy Joseph Napier, Br. Gabriel Emmanuel Monahan, Br. Xavier Mariae Meiergerd, Br. Oisín Emmanuel Martin, Br. Bernardino Maria Soukup

(center row, l-r) Br. Guy LaFranz Bourgeois, Br. André Mary Manders, Br. Joseph Michael Fino, Br. Angelo Marie LeFever, Br. Alan Paul Fimister, Br. Joshua Mary Braum

(front row, l-r) Br. Isaiah Marie Hofmann, Br. Declan Joseph Gibson, Br. Peregrino Peña,
Br. Anthony Terrence Ocello, Br. Stephen Marie Dufrene

See more pictures from the novices' investiture HERE.

For those who are interested in joining the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal community this coming September, now is the time to apply. Please let them know if you are interested in submitting an application. They will have a formal two-week visit from July 5 - 19, 2009.

Contact: Fr. Gabriel Mary Bakkar, CFR
Vocation Director - Saint Joseph Friary
523 W. 142nd Street
New York, NY 10031
(212)281-4355

Read the CFR's March 2009 Vocations eLetter HERE.

Franciscan Friars of the Renewal Vocations eLetter

February 2009 Vocations eLetter from the Friars - Click HERE.

Franciscan Friars of the Renewal Postulant Class of 2008

I'm a little late on this one, considering the Friars posted it in September of 2008...

From the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal:

We are so grateful for the sixteen young men who have joined us as Postulants this year. Twelve years ago I was one of seventeen (our largest class so far). Working with these men has been like a trip down memory lane – “Did I ask that many questions when I was a Postulant?!”

Three days after they arrived we found ourselves in New Jersey for the funeral of the father of one of our priests. After the Mass, we all made our way to the adoration chapel to make our daily Holy Hour. We arrived just as a prayer group was starting. This small group of older people has been praying every week for years, praying especially for vocations. The effect of our arrival was like a miracle. They were weeping as they prayed. One woman thanked us again and again. Another woman said through her tears – “All these years and now we see who we have been praying for!” The Holy Spirit was encouraging them and humbling us.

Please pray for vocations. Pray for all those men and women who are joining various religious orders and seminaries. God is answering those prayers.

Pray that the Lord of the harvest will send more workers into His vineyard,

Fr. Luke Mary Fletcher, CFR
Postulant Director
St. Joseph Friary, Harlem, New York

CFR Postulant Class - 2008 (l-r) Aaron Ocello (NJ); Oisin Martin (Ireland); T.R. Hoffman (CA); Bob Monahan (IL); Alan Fimister (England); Joe Fino (OH); Larry Napier (GA); Declan Gibson (Ireland); Stephen Dufrene (Louisiana); Alain Guiteau (NY); Emmanuel Pena (NY); Matthew Bourgeois (LA); Mike LeFever (VA); Matthew Manders (IA); Eric Forrest (GA); Kris Meiergerd (KS); Fr. Luke Fletcher, CFR, Postulant Director; Fr. Gabriel Bakkar, CFR, Vocation Director.

Photo at left: Fr. Bernard Murphy, CFR Community Servant (Superior), blesses the postulant crosses. The private ceremony was held on September 8th in the South Bronx.

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Photo at left: Aaron Ocello, from New Jersey, receives the postulant cross from Fr. Luke Fletcher, CFR Postulant Director.

H/t to Black Cordelias

Franciscan Friars of the Renewal - Assumption Hermitage

"Brother Charles" has put up a post with pictures on his blog "A Minor Friar" about his recent stay at one of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal Hermitages. I'll post a few of his pictures here, but go to his blog to see the rest and read about the hermitage.

I don't know about you, but what I wouldn't give for about five days in this hermitage!

Religious Communities and Young Vocations

"A Monastic Kind of Life"
From SLATE
By Harold Fickett
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The Catholic Church has always seen the contemplative life as the "Air Force" in its spiritual struggle, as the Rev. David Toups of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops commented—a conduit of spiritual power. Though the number of young people entering monasteries, convents, and the priesthood has drastically dropped from the mid-20th century, some new approaches to religious vocations have inspired some young people in America to embrace this idea, replenishing several of the older religious orders and filling new ones. One such community with a young population, nestled in the Ozarks, is a place that could symbolize Catholicism's true hope for renewal in our time. Founded in 1999, the Clear Creek Monastery has grown from 13 to 30 monks who are intent on building a community that will "last for a thousand years." Clear Creek is also part of the "reform of the reform," a rethinking of Vatican II that has led a number of religious orders—such as the Dominican Sisters in Nashville, the Sisters for Life in New York, and Benedict Groeschel's Franciscan Friars of the Renewal—to rediscover their original mission and flourish.

The growth in these orders provides a striking contrast to the continuing decline in Catholic monastic and religious life generally. In 1965, there were twice as many religious priests and brothers as today. There are just one-third as many nuns. According to Sister Mary Bendyna, executive director of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, the average monk is in his early 70s, the average nun in her mid-70s. The mission of many orders has become simply caring for their aging populations as they sell properties and consolidate with others.

The Vatican II document dealing with monasticism, Perfectae caritatis, counseled both "a constant return to the sources" of the Christian life and "their adaptation to the changed conditions of our time." Issued in October 1965, this re-examination of the religious life came as the cultural revolution of the 1960s began its magical mystery tour. It was received with wild and contradictory enthusiasms by a restive population of monks and nuns. Many of the large Catholic families of the World War II generation sought spiritual favor—or simply status—by giving one of their children to the church. These donated priests, nuns, and monks often wanted to leave or instead sought to accommodate the religious life's demands to their personal ambitions. For a time, the life of Catholic religious orders became about social justice issues, psychological issues, peace studies, interreligious dialogue, the ecology movement—everything and anything, seemingly, except the central proposition: that one can know a loving God and be transformed.

The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Los Angeles are the most famous example of the combustible combination of the times and the dissatisfaction of many religious. In 1966, humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers led a series of "encounter sessions" with the sisters, urging them to seek personal fulfillment. Within the next several years, the order nearly vanished. In many orders at the time, the vow of chastity was widely ignored.

Russell Hittinger, the Warren professor of Catholic studies at the University of Tulsa, admits that many of those who entered religious life before Vatican II simply did not have a calling. Those who truly have a call to monasticism—or other forms of the religious life—begin by falling in love with the pursuit of holiness, as did the monks of Clear Creek.

The Clear Creek story goes back to the University of Kansas. In the early 1970s, six young men who would become founding monks of Clear Creek were students in the Pearson College Integrated Humanities Program. Literally hundreds of Pearson's students became Catholic converts, inspired by professor John Senior, who conceived of a contemplative monastery close to the Lawrence campus. After he learned of a traditional Benedictine monastery in Fontgombault, France, he sent two young men off on a scouting mission with an instruction: "Bring back an abbot." These American students, and the others who soon followed, went to France thinking they would soon return to establish a monastery, bringing renewal to American Catholicism and society. But the demands of monastic life and obedience soon revealed this to be youthful presumption.

In 1999, a full 25 years after leaving for France, six of the original University of Kansas students, along with seven fellow monks, returned to America to start Clear Creek, establishing the first foundation for men of the Benedictine Congregation of Solesmes in America. On a 1,200-acre tract of land once owned by an infamous moonshiner, the Clear Creek monks use the old Latin rites both for Mass and the daily offices. Indeed, a return to traditional practices is a common element among those religious orders experiencing renewal. Many young nuns, for example, choose to wear a traditional habit even when their older religious sisters choose modest secular fashions.

Scores of families have purchased land nearby to raise their families in the shadow of the monastery, where they often join the monks in their liturgical celebrations. These families tend to be the crunchiest of the Crunchy Cons, into home schooling, the "local foods, local markets" movement, and sustainable farming. This growing community is one of the surest signs of Clear Creek's importance. This follows the classic spiritual pattern: Saints traipse off into the wilderness, and the world eventually follows, unbidden, as with the Cistercians, who turned the swamps and fens of Europe into arable land and saw communities spring up around them.

The emergence of Clear Creek and other growing monastic communities suggests there will always be young people who ask whether their devotion to God should take precedence over their own personal ambitions and even the natural desire for a family. (The A&E special God or the Girl was an insightful documentary about this.) Today's young people, who have grown up in a highly commercialized and manipulated landscape, are particularly eager to connect with a more authentic way of living. Far from being pressured into pursuing religious vocations, they find their families often protest, feeling they are losing their children to a life that's too isolated.

But after the first heady period of romance comes a long and difficult obedience, as every monk or nun eventually recognizes. Fidelity can result in humility, though, which is the deepest source of the beauty to be seen at Clear Creek and other monastic foundations. From its rich liturgical rites to the pastoral details of its life as a working farm, as the monks raise sheep, make furniture, tend their orchard, and care for a huge vegetable garden, Clear Creek is what a monastery is meant to be—a sign of paradise.

Father Anderson says, "We were only a bunch of bums, but by becoming nothing, you can be a part of something great."

Harold Fickett is an associate editor of GodSpy.com and the author of The Living Christ and other books.

"Feeding Body and Soul in the South Bronx"

From The New York Times

By Mathew R. Warren

Photos by Christian Hansen

Click HERE to go to the NYTimes story to see a good video about the CFR's

Hearing a knock at the door, Brother Nicholas White peeked through a small cross-shaped window and opened the door at St. Crispin’s Friary in the South Bronx. On the steps outside, a man stood and asked for a blessing. Without hesitating, Brother Nicholas put his hand on the man’s shoulder, closed his eyes and prayed with him.

The man, Wilbert Barber, who has been a frequent visitor, had been homeless until recently and was now in an apartment paid for with public assistance. “I needed prayer, I needed God’s protection,” said Mr. Barber, 48. “I can’t make it without God.”

Nourishment, spiritual and material, is something that the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal have been dispensing since 1987 when a group of friars started the religious community in the South Bronx to serve neighborhoods with a variety of problems.

The order has grown steadily, attracting men from across the country willing to give up material possessions and devote their lives to prayer and charity. The order now has 120 friars and 14 friaries worldwide.

Brother Nicholas, 32, is from Ohio, and has been in the South Bronx for more than a year. He has a close-cropped head and a red beard, and wears a gray robe with a hood, sandals and a wooden cross attached to rosary beads that hang from a rope tied around his waist.

The friars, who take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, spend four to five hours a day praying and most of the rest of their time trying to help the poor. They depend almost entirely on donations to support themselves and their charities, which include a homeless shelter, a youth center and food handouts.

Brother Nicholas was working as an audio engineer when he went through what he described as a religious conversion, a calling to a devout life. While doing research on the Internet he came across the Web site of the Friars of the Renewal.

“I saw a picture of a friar in a beard with his habit on and his hood up and bare feet, sitting on the floor praying the rosary, and I was like: you mean to tell me people are actually doing that?” Brother Nicholas said.

“I was floored,” he added. “I recognized an authenticity that here was a group of men that desired to live the Gospel and nothing more.”

Every brother at St. Crispin’s has his own small room, sparsely furnished with a chair and a desk and a thin mat on the floor on which they sleep. Some keep books or musical instruments, but they have no televisions, cellphones or computers.

“It’s funny that we have all this communication and media that are good and could be used for much good, but somehow there’s a lack of communication still,” said Brother Juanmaria Arroyo Acevedo, who at 24 is the youngest friar at St. Crispin’s.

For Brother Paolo Kim, 25, who arrived from California three years ago, becoming a friar gave him a different view of the city than most people his age ever have. (The friary is at 420 East 156th Street, between Melrose and Elton Avenues.)

“Being a friar allows us to experience what it’s like to live a life that is less distracted than the contemporary lifestyle that most young people, especially in New York City, would experience on a day-to-day basis,” Brother Paolo said.

The combination of living with the bare minimum and working with an impoverished community is what draws many of the friars to New York.

“I felt that this is what fulfills my life, this is what gives it meaning,” Brother Juanmaria said. “When I put whatever talents that I have in the service of other people, then I feel useful, that I have dignity.”

Every week the friars visit the homes of people who have asked for help with food. Beyond distributing the food, their purpose is to establish a relationship and to offer friendship and counsel.

Brother Juanmaria visited recently with Maria Quiñones, 82, who lives at the Jackson Houses, a project within walking distance of St. Crispin’s.

“When somebody visits you in your home, it makes you feel good,” Ms. Quiñones said, as she showed Brother Juanmaria photos of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren while her two parakeets, Nene and Chula, chirped away in their cage.

“The friars do a lot of good things for us,” said Ms. Quiñones, who has received food from the brothers for more than 10 years.

While their charity work has made them feel welcome in the neighborhood, many of the friars still have some difficulty adjusting to the area.

“I’m from the northeast coast of Puerto Rico, where you can see a beautiful beach in my backyard,” Brother Juanmaria said. “Coming up here, you’re stuck in between buildings and traffic.”

He joked that every winter he experiences a “vocational crisis.”

The oldest and longest-serving resident at St. Crispin’s, the Rev. Rich Roemer, 39, who grew up in Wisconsin, said he certainly felt out of place when he first arrived in 1990. He remembers a friar telling him people would assume that he was a cop because young white men were not common in the South Bronx.

“That sort of tipped me off that I wasn’t in the Midwest anymore,” said Father Rich, whose curly brown beard reaches below his collarbone. “I suppose I was a bit fearful in some ways, but it turned out to be really a great blessing.”

Father Rich took final vows and became a priest 13 years ago. Brothers and priests take the same vows though the brothers cannot perform sacraments because they are not ordained.

“Early on, definitely it was the decision to live a life of chastity, not to get married, is the big hurdle to making a decision to enter this life,” Father Rich said. “As time goes on there’s still a natural struggle that goes on with that, but also in some ways the vow of obedience becomes more difficult. You try to surrender your plans, your time, where you are going to live.”

“This is a radical investment in the afterlife,” he added.

Father Rich recalled that when he was 23, a reporter talked with him for an article about St. Crispin’s and its relationship with the tenants of a neighboring building.

“There’s a new door on it, but other than that I think it’s pretty much the same,” Father Rich said of the building, whose tenants still struggle with poverty. “Some families still get help from us with food.”

Brother Nicholas said he intended to take his final vows and stay on at St. Crispin’s. “Those are my plans,” he said, “to commit to this way of life for the rest of my life.”

Franciscan Friars of the Renewal Vocations eLetter

Click HERE for the December vocations eLetter from the CFR's.

Franciscan Friars of the Renewal Vocations eLetter for June 2008

Yesterday I received the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal Vocations eLetter for June 2008 from Fr. Gabriel Mary Bakkar, CFR.

If you have been discerning a call to the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal it is not to late to apply for the fall. This from the vocations eletter:

"Please pray for all those who are looking into joining an order or a diocese this summer ... We will have around 24 men making the official two-week visit from June 14 - 28. It is not too late if you want to apply for joining this September, please let us know A.S.A.P.! "

HDNet Video on the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal

Thanks to Fr. Luke Mary Fletcher, CFR for sending me the link.

"Young adults holding vigil rewarded with papal handshake"

By Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Several hundred young adults holding a vigil behind the security perimeter around the house where Pope Benedict XVI was staying were rewarded April 18 with a papal handshake.

Helen Osman, director of communications for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said more than 1,000 people had gathered throughout the evening near the residence of the Vatican's permanent observer to the United Nations.

Members of the Sisters of Life, a religious order founded by the late Cardinal John J. O'Connor of New York, organized young people from three New York parishes to keep a vigil at the residence where Pope Benedict was staying.

"Some just came out of curiosity," but there also were members of the Legionaries of Christ, playing guitars and beating drums, and members of the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal and Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, she said.

Obviously, Osman said, they had let archdiocesan officials know of their plans and at about 8 p.m., the U.S. Secret Service began allowing small groups to pass the traffic blockade and approach the residence.

Pope Benedict came outside "after dinner" at about 9 p.m., said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman.

The pope spent about 10 minutes shaking hands with the young religious and other young adults who got the Secret Service nod.

They sang "Happy Birthday" to the pope; he waved to them and to a small group of media that had staked out the residence, then he went back inside.

"Support a Franciscan Vocation"

Back in August I posted "A Vocations Video of Sorts" , which was about a short film created by Eric Forrest about a young man in China being called to the priesthood, and his eventual martyrdom. Unfortunately the video had to be removed from YouTube as it was technically owned by the USC film school where Eric created it.

Fast forward. Eric has discerned that he is called to religious life, specifically with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, God willing. Yesterday he put up a website, "Support a Franciscan Vocation", to help pay down his student loan debt so that he can enter postulancy in the fall if accepted. Please check out his website and his blog for more information about him, his vocation story and how you can help support his vocation if you feel so moved - if not financially, at least with your prayers.

Update: Having noticed the clarification on Eric's website, I thought I should make it here as well. Eric has not yet been accepted to the CFR's, but he has applied. The paragraph above has been rewritten to make that a little more clear.

"Friar brings God's word to the poor in NYC"

From The Cornwall Standard Freeholder

By Greg Peerenboom

Christopher is the son of Robert and Pauline Kyte, a Long Sault youth who played with his three siblings in the quiet village of Long Sault. Now he has become Brother Gabriel Joseph who walks the 'hood in the South Bronx as a friar of St. Francis de Assisi.

The transformation is not in name only. Think of Friar Tuck from Robin Hood - except for the wide flowing beard which contrasts sharply with his closely shaven head.

The beard is a Franciscan tradition that originates during a time when the order was not accepted by some Catholics. The Franciscans took refuge with hermit monks and adopted their beards.

"Our area has improved a lot," said Gabriel Joseph, of the 12 blocks of inner city where the Franciscan Friars of Renewal comb the streets ministering to the destitute and disadvantaged.

"But one block from us, three kids were shot last year," he continued in a quiet but assured voice. "There's always prostitution and drug deals taking place as you walk by."

Gabriel's journey with God began like it does for many local youth. Raised in a Catholic household, he took part in Christian youth groups at St. Joseph Secondary School, then attended St. Peter's seminary at the University of Western Ontario in London, and finally, joined the youth ministry in Chatham, Ont.

Every step brought him closer to God, and to emulating his spiritual hero, Pope John Paul II.

"I was inspired by his generosity, especially during his illness."

John Paul's example was a great motivator to continue his search for spiritual fulfillment.

"That was like a kick in the pants - what are you going to do now."

During his stay in Chatham, he became acquainted with the Franciscan Friars, who had established a mission in the South Bronx in 1987 - a time when that particular neighbourhood was awash with burned out cars and rampant violence.

"They wanted to live more like authentic Franciscans," Gabriel said of a life shorn of personal belongings, devoted to three vows: poverty, chastity and obedience.

Gabriel lays his robe belt on the table, showing the three knots symbolizing these vows, which the Franciscans make after three years of study and prayer at the mission.

It's a simple but intense life.

The brothers rise early before 6 a.m. to begin three hours of prayer and mass before they begin their ministries.

Some of their tasks include upkeep of their residence - a former convent - at the corner of 155th Street and Melrose Avenue (close to Yankee Stadium) and assisting at the former school next door, which is now a combination youth centre/homeless shelter/clinic. But their faith is truly tested when the friars spread out in pairs across about 12 blocks of inner city.

While by and large the residents welcome the friars' offers of prayer, food and assistance, others are mired in their troubles. Gabriel remembers one particular incident where a homeless man tried to strike him and his fellow friar after their refusal to give money for alcohol.

"What we try to do is offer to take them for lunch and buy them a sandwich."

The Franciscan Friars of Renewal have grown from eight members to about 115. Gabriel is only one of three Canadians, but he hopes his recent visit back home with eight of his fellows from New York will give local youth another spiritual avenue.

Franciscan Friars of the Renewal April 2008 Vocations Eletter

Fr. Gabriel Mary Bakkar, CFR and Br. Pius Marie Gagne, CFR, the new vocations team for the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal have sent out their Vocations E-Letter for April 2008. You can read it here.

They have also posted a slideshow of the first profession of vows for 2008. You can watch it by clicking on the picture to the left.

"Brother finds Christ after years of darkness"

From Catholic Voice of Omaha
By LISA MAXSON

Brother Martin Ervin, a member of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, became a religious brother after years of living away from God. He currently serves at a mission in Ireland. Lisa Maxson/Staff
He went from being a lost teenager who was heavily into partying, drinking and smoking marijuana to a charismatic member of a religious order serving the poor in Ireland.

Brother Martin Ervin's story of conversion is unique, but not uncommon, he said, because God changes lives every day.

The youngest of 10 children to Frank and Loretta Ervin of Omaha, Brother Martin, whose birth name was Stephen, grew up in a Catholic family where Sunday Mass and devotions to Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus were part of life. For a little while, he attended St. Margaret Mary School before graduating from Central High School.

But after struggling for several years with dyslexia, he developed a low self-esteem and a lack of motivation.

"I stopped searching to be popular in the way of being top in the class and the best at sports and I started to look for friends who would accept me in the way of being an odd person because I thought I was odd," he told the Catholic Voice during a visit to Omaha in February.

He made friends with people in the punk rock scene and eventually became the lead singer of a local punk rock band.

When he was young, the l3-year-old Ervin and his sister started lying to their parents about going to Sunday Mass. Instead they went to McDonalds.

"I didn't understand the Mass and I didn't even know what was happening when the priest said the prayers over the bread and wine and that the bread and wine became the Body and Blood of Jesus," Brother Martin said.

"Because I stopped receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus, I stopped receiving that life of God within me," he said. "I stopped going to confession and I didn't have an understanding of what the church teaches about the commandments."

He said he started choosing other things, like drinking and partying, to fill up the emptiness he felt by pushing God out of his life.

Brother Martin spent eight years in this lifestyle during which time he distanced himself from his family.

Family helps him

But he says it was his family that helped him return to Christ.

When he was 18, Brother Martin began working as a janitor in his older brother's photography studio. During the workday, his brother, Bob, who was going through his own conversion at the time, slowly began talking to him about the Scriptures, Eucharist, sacraments and what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

At first he was uncomfortable with the conversations, but Brother Martin said he was grateful for his brother's guidance.

"Every day I went to work I realized it wasn't just going to be mopping floors. I was going to be taught a lesson," he said. "Some were tough lessons, but that was good because he was being honest and willing to really try and pull me out of the darkness I was living in. He was helping me see that there's more than just my own selfish life."

Slowly Brother Martin began to change his ways. He started to pray, visited with a priest, went to confession and attended Sunday Mass. He also started being more vocal about his faith to his friends, and stopped drinking and doing drugs.

Bob Ervin calls his brother's conversion and vocation to the religious life a "miracle."

"I'm really proud of him," he said, adding that he believes the struggles his brother experienced were necessary for him to be the kind of person he is today. "He's very charismatic. It's just an absolute miracle."

One day in the office, Brother Martin overheard his brother talking about vocations to the priesthood and religious life, and he said he felt something stir within him.

"As I was standing there, all of the sudden this little fire kind of burst in my heart and I felt myself say inside my heart, 'You're going to do that someday,'" he said.

Bob Ervin credits the Holy Spirit with inspiring his brother.

"I don't think I was on a mission to change him at all. It was the Holy Spirit. That's the thing about living the Catholic faith - if you actually live it, you can't really predict what's going to happen with it," he said.

"I do remember one talk we had when he told me he was thinking about his vocation. We talked for like four hours about how awesome it is to live with Christ."

Lifestyle changed

Brother Martin started watching the Catholic television station, EWTN, and came across Father Benedict Groeschel, a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal, with whom he immediately felt a connection.

"All the things he was talking about were confirming all the desires that I had in my soul," he said. "He talked about the community and the work with the poor and living a radical life for Christ and the need to reform our lives. I just thought it was incredible."

Although he explored the diocesan priesthood, Brother Martin felt called to Father Groeschel's order, especially after he visited the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal's headquarters in the Bronx in 1994. He joined the order as a religious brother in 1995.

"I'm a bridge to the priesthood in a way because sometimes people need someone to talk to before they go to confession or before they go back to Mass or they enter marriage," he said. "They're looking for someone to help them see that right path to walk on."

As a Franciscan, Brother Martin prays seven times a day, goes to daily Mass and prays in front of the Eucharist for an hour every day. He also works with the poor, prays peacefully outside abortion clinics, and evangelizes through retreats and street ministry.

Brother Martin spent eight years in the Bronx before moving to a mission house in London. Five months ago he was sent to help start a mission house in Ireland.

"Being in the community has been a blessing. It's not without its challenges. My brother, Bob, helped me realize that life is not just a one moment thing, but it's a daily conversion, it's a daily change and sometimes we fall back and then we have to get back up again. That's why we have the name in our community and I'm realizing that more and more. Every day we have to renew ourselves in Jesus and get back up again, sometimes 100 times a day and start over."

Franciscan Friars of the Renewal on Irish RTE Late Late Show

The Franciscan Friars of the Renewal were on the Late Late Show in Ireland last Friday night and the video has finally been uploaded onto the RTE website. Click on the picture above or HERE to watch a really good interview!

Correction on the time - Franciscan Friars and U2 on LIVE TV Tomorrow at 4:30pm EST

Thanks to Web for being persistent in correcting my mistake. I said in my previous post that the Friars would be on LIVE TV at 2:30am EST. That was incorrect. They should be on at 4:30pm EST, a much more reasonable time.

The Friars would be on a popular Irish late night show with the band U2. The Late Late Show airs this Friday, February 22nd, at 9:30pm in Ireland, which means 4:30pm (EST)here. You can watch it live on the internet by going to http://www.rte.ie/live/

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Picture is of the Friars at St. Patrick's Friary in Moyross, Limerick City, Ireland. Maybe you'll see some of them with Bono on live TV. Who would have thunk it?

UPDATE: Well, it wasn't meant to be. Those of you who tried to watch this on the internet, found out like me, that unless you have an Irish IP address you couldn't watch it. Had I more time I think I could have found away around it through an Irish Proxy server, but alas it wasn't meant to be. We can only hope that they will post the video from the show on the website. Check here to see if it is posted.