Vine and Branches - Capuchin Franciscans, Province of St. Mary

Vine and Branches
A not too fancy Vocation Newsletter from the
Capuchin Franciscan Province of Saint Mary
Autumn, 2015
“Autumn…the time when everything bursts with its last beauty,
as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale”
Lauren DeStefano
Dear Brother,
May our God of Love and Peace be with you...
An author (Lee Maynard) once wrote, "Autumn, the one season of the year that God seemed
to have put there just for the beauty of it"...and, there is so much beauty around us, within us
and in each person we are blessed to meet each day...every day, in every season. Our vocations,
our calling, invite us to seek out that beauty...that Grace...to acknowledge it, to proclaim it and
make it known.
St. Francis found beauty in all of creation, in all that the Artist painted and created
for us...and also in the lepers. As we prepare to celebrate another feast day in
honor of "The Mirror of Christ", let us continue to marvel at Autumn, which
"carries more gold in its pocket than all other seasons", thank the Creator for the
wonderful gift of so many brothers beginning and continuing on their Capuchin
journey. And also to search out the lepers of our society and seek to find the beauty
in them.
“Autumn is the season of liberty. Instead of being green, leaves can choose between yellow,
red, brown, orange”.
Vows of poverty, chastity and obedience which religious make grants them liberty…freedom.
Free to live simply without worrying about losing material goods. Free to choose to belong to
multiple families; to love and be loved by many rather than having to concentrate on one
family. The freedom one feels knowing that he is exactly where the good Lord wants him to be
at this point in his life.
Over this summer two friars pronounced their temporary vows for the first time of
poverty, chastity and obedience after completing their year of novitiate.
Brother Paul Fesefeldt and Brother Augusto deMoura.
They were assigned to San Lorenzo Friary, one of our houses of study in Jamaica Plain,
Massachusetts.
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Seven other friars renewed their vows for another year after completing their summer
assignments. We've asked them to share some reflections about their Capuchin journey thus far.
John Alvarado
My life as a friar in formation has been a really great experience. This is my
third year and being a brother never gets dull. I am still trying to keep my heart
open to the voice of God, to silence my mind and to focus on the love that God
has shown me these past years. I would like to show other people that God is
still alive in them and still loves them very much. This world could be a burden
to some, but if I could just ease the pain for a second, I know I am doing God’s
will.
George Alvarado
My journey thus far, going to my fourth year with the Capuchins and renewing
my simple vows for a second, has been one of growth. When I look back at all
that I have gone through, the man I was then and the man I am today, there is a
certain joy of all that I was and am still able to accomplish. I’m not saying that
it hasn’t been hard, there have been many trials and difficulties in regard to my
formational journey and family, yet my brothers and God have always pulled me
through it all. My fraternity has supported and affirmed me to accomplish and
strive for more, something that I never really took into account when I joined. The selfawareness and self-knowledge gained in these past four years as a simply professed friar has
made me a better man today. I thank the friars, my family, and others I have had the pleasure of
ministering to throughout the various places I have worked. I know that there will always be a
journey ahead of me, one with great things to come. I am assured that this journey I am on will
come with obstacles and challenges yet I am not fearful because of my brothers, prayer and
reliance on God. I am extremely confident that the Lord will continue to use me and guide me
where he wishes and I know that I will strive for better because I have gained much these past
three years as a Capuchin Franciscan friar. I pray and hope that the Lord will show me my
path along the way and thus continue to be an instrument for him to others.
Michael Lettko
This past summer I had the great experience of continuing to live at our house
of formation in Jamaica Plain MA, while having shoulder reconstructive
surgery at the local VA hospital. I found this to be a great chance to experience
fraternity in my recovery both at the friary and at the VA. My brothers helped
me with tasks that I was unable to do and to support me while I healed. Also,
the opportunity to be at the VA multiple times a week interacting with the staff
and other veterans allowed me to minister and be ministered to. The fellowship
I felt with my fellow veterans helped me to enter into a deeper relationship with the suffering of
others, and that of myself; it was a spiritually profound awakening moment for me. The
opportunity to express this pain through prayer and with that of Christ crucified deeply
awakened a more spiritually profound awareness of the marginalized and how important our
ongoing mission is….to reach out to those on the periphery. As we renewed our vows at the end
of the summer it was a joyful and peaceful feeling of belonging. I pray that God allows me the
grace to continue on with His work and this Capuchin life.
Andrzej Skonieczny
It has now been a full year since the Novitiate, and a full year of living life as a
Capuchin Franciscan Friar. One thing that comes to mind as I prepare to
enter into my second year of temporary vows is that there is something to be
learned about Capuchin life every day, especially through our life in fraternity
and through the ministries that we do.
During the novitiate year, the vows were more of something to be studied, a
goal of some sort, or an ideal to live up to. However, after profession of first vows, when they
became a reality to everyday life, I was able to view my vocation through a new lens. Every
new day becomes an opportunity to grow deeper in my understanding of the vows I have
professed, a continual conversion to grow closer to Christ. I have had many experiences, most
of them in the ordinary events of life such as going to class and taking the subway, that have
allowed me to reflect deeper on the meaning of the life I have professed to live.
As I continue my formation, I look forward to beginning my philosophy studies, and to another
year of growing deeper in my understanding of what it means to be a Capuchin Franciscan
Friar.
Scott Surrency
I am currently in my fourth year of temporary vows and in my third year of
theological studies at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. I
spent this past summer doing a chaplaincy internship at Yale-New Haven
Hospital, which was just as rewarding as it was challenging. Not only was I
able to grow in terms of my pastoral ministry and identity, but I was also able to
see just how much I have been formed as a Capuchin friar and imbued with the
Franciscan spirit. I usually find it a little difficult to see the fruits of the initial
formation process since I am still directly engaged and involved in it. Full-time ministry this
summer afforded me the opportunity to step back and appreciate more fully the values and
resources I bring to ministry as a Capuchin Franciscan. As I get closer to the end of my time of
initial formation, I can see how everything – postulancy, novitiate, academic studies, fraternity
at both the local and the provincial level, contemplative prayer – all fits together, and that’s
very exciting to me. I am grateful both for the Grace God has given me to stick through the
tough times of my life as a friar so far, and for the patience shown to me by my brothers as I’ve
moved in and out of (and occasionally back into) those rough spots. It is my fervent and sincere
hope to make my final profession of vows next summer, and I am both enthused and humbled by
the prospect of ordination to the priesthood in a couple of years. I am genuinely curious to see
where my Capuchin vocation will take me in the future and what kind of people and places and
situations I will encounter.
Will Tarraza
It has been four years since I began this journey at St Michael Friary in
Brooklyn. This journey has brought me to Victoria, Kansas, Santa Ynez,
California, Boston, MA, Chiquimula, Guatemala, and Tampa, Florida. In all
these places, I encountered many different people from all different walks of
life. Each place I have been, the gift of relationship evokes the wonder of this
calling to be a lesser brother in the spirit of St. Francis. From sharing in a
brother’s sadness to celebrating with a family the birth of a child in a hospital,
the common human experience of life has allowed me to see that I am part of something greater
than myself. I am part of a worldwide fraternity that has existed for centuries and will exist long
after I am gone. Yet each individual friar contributes to this Order’s existence uniquely. It is
precisely in God’s love for each one of us that we are able to share this love with others. For
me, I feel humbled and privileged to be able to share in the lives of brothers and those we
minister. As I continue this journey in Boston where I have been for the past two years, I know
what little I do for the Kingdom of God and the friars in manifesting God’s love for the world
because it is God who leads. As the great Archbishop Oscar Romero once prayed, “The
kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our
lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is
complete. Which is a way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us… we are prophets
of a future not our own”.
Wherever God may lead me, I hope to be open to bring God’s love to whomever is in need and
to be open to all that God may have prepared for myself, the Order, the Church, and the world.
May God give you peace.
Anthony Zuba
God prepares special places for each of us. When the moment comes, Jesus
brings each of us to the special place where God is waiting for us. And Jesus
gives us the inner vision and wisdom to recognize which places are for
us. Initial formation with the Capuchins has showed me how to recognize the
places where Jesus will lead me to God. It has showed me how to recognize
the hour of God's choosing. Initial formation has done this because it has
showed me the unique person God is making me through the Holy Spirit.
Over the last four years, Jesus has brought me to several places: first to Brooklyn, then to
Victoria, Kansas, then to Santa Ynez, California, then to Boston. Now, Jesus brings me to New
York City to minister with the brothers and with God's people at our two parishes in midtown
Manhattan. It is less common these days for initial formation to occur outside a formation
house, yet it is a testament to the friars' faith that they see Jesus leading me to live the Gospel
here and now in New York City. We friars are of one heart and mind, whatever our particular
feelings and thoughts, that this is an opportunity from God, and it will be for the good of the
order, the Church, and for all people. And it will be good for me, too.
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"We bless you, God of seed and harvest and we bless each other that the beauty of this world
and the love that created it might be expressed through our lives and be a blessing to others,
now and always. Amen".
In June we were blessed by the ordination of three of our brothers...Victor Garcia, Michele
Vricella and Erik Lenhart. They have already begun their priestly ministries in their new
assignments and our prayers go with them:
Victor Garcia, Parochial Associate
St. Joseph the Worker Parish, East Patchogue, NY
Michele Vricella, Parochial Associate
Holy Cross/St. John the Baptist Parish, Manhattan
Erik Lenhart, Parochial Associate
St. Pius X Parish, Middletown, CT
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"A hidden fire burns perpetually upon the hearth of the world...In Autumn this great
conflagration becomes especially manifest. Then the flame that is slowly and mysteriously
consuming every green thing bursts into vivid radiance. Every blade of grass and every leaf
in the woodlands is cast into the great oven of nature: and the bright colors of their fading
are literally the flames of their consuming. The golden harvest-fields are glowing in the heart
of the furnace. By this Autumn fire, God every year purges the floor of nature. All effete
substances that have served their purpose in the old form are burnt up. Everywhere God
makes sweet and clean the earth with fire."
Hugh McMillan
Four brothers began their novitiate in San Lorenzo Friary, Santa Ynez, CA in July. "Slowly
and mysteriously" they will be transformed by the fire of the Holy Spirit. They pray each day
that some of the "old form are burnt up" and that God will use them to make the earth sweet.
Brothers Joseph Anderson, Brian Dorrian, Kevin Camilo, Victor Russak
On Sept. 7th, three candidates entered our postulancy program in St. Michael Friary,
Brooklyn, NY. Over 50 people attended including friars representing 10 friaries in our
province. The very meaningful ceremony was held in St. Michael Church and a delicious meal
was served in the friary garden.
Our newly accepted postulants are:
David Birkdale
New Hyde Park, NY
Scott Leet
Yonkers, NY
Francisco Serrano
Middletown, NY
"September is dressing itself in showy dahlias and splendid marigolds and starry zinnias.
October, the extravagant sister, has ordered an immense amount of the most gorgeous forest
tapestry for her grand reception".
Oliver Wendell Holmes
"In Autumn, don't go to the jewelers to see gold; go to the parks!"
Mehmet Murat Ildan
The 'gold' in our parks (friaries) are our local contact friars. They are brothers in each friary
who, though largely unheralded, play a crucial role in our vocation outreach efforts. Among
many other duties they welcome candidates for prayers and meals, keep candidates in the
intercessory prayers during Office and at Mass, keep updated vocation material in our
churches, encourage and arrange for friars to attend candidate discernment weekends and
reach out in their locales and try to interest men to consider our way of life. The vocation office
could not function without them and provinces of Capuchins and other religious communities
have begun similar programs based on our model. The efficacy of this outreach is due to the
incredible dedication of these friars who perform this ministry in addition to their many other
responsibilities.
There are 19 friars who have accepted our invitation to serve in this capacity for the 2015-2016
academic year. A very heartfelt ‘thank you’ to each of these brothers.
John McHugh – Capuchin Residence, Gray, ME
[email protected]
Paul Crawford – St. Anne/St. Augustin, Manchester, NH
[email protected]
Andrzej Skonieczny – San Lorenzo Friary/St. Francis of Assisi Friary,
Jamaica Plain, MA
[email protected]
Erik Lenhart – St. Pius X Friary, Middletown, CT
[email protected]
Bernard Maloney –St. Fidelis Friary, Interlaken, NY
[email protected]
Sal Cordaro – St. Joseph Friary, New Paltz, NY
[email protected]
Tom McNamara – St. Joachim Friary/CYFM – Beacon, NY
[email protected]
David Couturier – St. Bonaventure University – St. Bonaventure, NY
[email protected]
Joseph Flynn – St. Conrad Friary – White Plains, NY
[email protected]
Matthew Janeczko – Sacred Heart Friary/St. Clare Friary, Yonkers, NY
[email protected]
Sal Patricola – St. John the Baptist, New York City, NY
[email protected]
Bob Abbatiello – Good Shepherd Friary – New York City, NY
[email protected]
Michele Vricella – Holy Cross Residence – New York City, NY
[email protected]
Richard Mattox – Our Lady of Sorrows – New York City, NY
[email protected]
Michael Sevigny – St. Michael Friary – Brooklyn, NY
[email protected]
Victor Garcia – St. Joseph the Worker, Patchogue, NY
[email protected]
Regis Armstrong – Catholic University of America – Washington, DC
[email protected]
Michael Banks – St. John XXIII Friary – Seminole, FL
[email protected]
Gregory Reisert – St. John XXIII Friary – Seminole, FL
[email protected]
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"It was a fine Autumnal day; the sky was clear and serene, and nature wore that rich and
golden livery which we always associate with the idea of abundance. The forests had put on
their sober brown and yellow, while some trees of the tenderer kind had been nipped by the
frosts into brilliant dyes of orange, purple and scarlet..."
Washington Irving
Coming Up...An abundance of ‘rich and golden’ events:
Wednesday, September 23rd: Autumn begins
"Ah, yes, Autumn...when the trees blush at the thought of stripping naked in
public".
Robert Brault
Tuesday, September 29th: St. Michael Church, 225 Jerome St., Brooklyn, NY @ 7pm
Installation of Fr. Michael Sevigny as pastor and the Capuchins resuming pastoral care of the
parish
Saturday, October 3rd: 'Transitus Service' in all Capuchin parishes and formation houses
A prayer service commemorating the passing of St. Francis into Heaven
Sunday, October 4th: Celebration of the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi
Monday, October 12th: St. Pius X Church and Friary, 310 Westfield St., Middletown, CT @
11am
Fraternity Day...Mass and Meal celebrating our province’s brotherhood
Friday, October 30th thru Sunday, November 1st: St. Lawrence Friary, Beacon, NY
Candidate Discernment Weekend
Theme: The History of the Capuchin Franciscans and Capuchin Saints and Blesseds
Saturday, November 14th: Sacred Heart Church, 110 Shonnard Place, Yonkers, NY @
12noon
Celebration of 50th Anniversary of Priestly Ordination of Fr. Jim Gavin
Thursday, November 26th: Thanksgiving Day
“Give thanks to the Lord for He is good and His kindness endures forever” Chronicles 16:34
Monday, December 21st: Winter issue of Vine and Branches distributed
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We thank you for taking the time to read this and hope it has proved helpful to our friars by
keeping them informed of the many happenings of our men in formation. We also hope the
candidates considering us will come to know what a vibrant, exciting and inspiring group you
are considering.
Let us pray for each other as we continue on our Capuchin journey.
God's Love and mine,
Brother Tim...