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April Meeting. The meeting will be held at the Marian Centre, St Matthew's Church, Page on Friday 28 April 2000 commencing at 8pm. Martin will lead us in consideration of 'Jubilee' and to discuss joint Fraternity activities.
Council has discussed the possibility of the Fraternity making a pilgrimage to St. Benedict's, Narrabundah, which is one of the designated places of pilgrimage in the Archdiocese during the Jubilee year. Over the weekend of 23-25 June 2000 it will be the focus of an Archdiocesan pilgrimage. Two options were considered: hold the Fraternity meeting two weeks early on 10 June and go in a body to St. Bendict's on Saturday 24 June or not hold the Fraternity meeting on 24 June (4th Friday) but go in a body to St. Bendict's on the Saturday morning. In either case the program on the Saturday would be to join with the parish community for Morning Prayer (7.30am) and attend the parish Mass at 8am. The Fraternity would meet as a group at 8.30am for BYO breakfast and to deal with any urgent business.
It will be suggested to the Fraternity that as many as possible attend, in a group, Mass at St. Mary's, Braddon, at 12.30pm, Thursday 11 May 2000.
Another possible joint activity is to participate in the Anglican Fraternity's program, details of which had been provided by them to Cec. The 'Society of St Francis' has published a booklet "Proclaim the Year of the Lord's Favour" with a month by month program for Jubilee.
May Meeting. The meeting will be held at the Marian Centre, St Matthew's Church, Page on Friday 26 May 2000 commencing at 8pm. Tony will lead us in consideration of 'Fraternity'.
Annual Retreat. In attendance were Loui, Pam, Helene, Sylvia, Frank, Rex, Cec, Kevin and Martin. Loui has very kindly shared with us a few things that especially caught his attention at the retreat.
"I am praying that some of the graces we at the retreat received would flow on to the rest of our Fraternity. In that spirit and relying on God's help I am writing this to you.
The atmosphere and prayerfulness at the weekend summed up some of the thoughts Father Pat tried to convey to us. These included:
Jubilee is a time of celebrating in a thanksgiving spirit the Birthday of Jesus in whom is our salvation. And we are doing it so aptly each time when we celebrate the Eucharist - a thanksgiving Sacrifice.
I remarked to Fr Pat that when we talk about Mass we don't mention much the word sacrifice and he replied laconically: Sacrifice was done once on the Cross. And then he also emphasized the importance to concentrate on God's Love and not on our sacrifice or even our sins. As important as these are, in the context of such Love and when contemplating that God the Father did not spare His only Son for me, how can I go on sinning and doing so spitting on the face of my Saviour? Do I have any humanity in me if I say that only the fear of Hell will keep me on the straight path rather then such Love?
Another aspect of Jubilee we were reminded of was 'the fallow' aspect of it. Instead of doing too many things at times, we could perhaps concentrate on fewer things but doing them well. Or simply "waste" some time with God, give God a chance to talk to us. How often our prayer turns into a monologue.
I am afraid that these are very liberal interpretations of Fr Pat's words, but this is how I perceived them, and I hope that he will forgive me." Loui
Fr Eugene Teglia ofm has sent us another letter as follows.
Lumi 26 February 2000
PAX ET BONUM
I reciprocate your Xmas and New Millenium's Greetings I received right on Xmas Eve. Thank you so much also for your faithful sending of the Canberra Franciscan whose February issue I've just received. Actually reading through it, I found that I didn't send your Fraternity my wishes for the Jubilee Year. But as the Jubilarian Celebrations go on till January next year, I love renewing it.
Noticing your twinned Fraternity with Edmonton, Canada, I wish I could twin Lumi with Canberra. How would it grab you? Trouble is we're just starting anew with only three professed (some old ones have since emigrated and joined other Fraternities) and a dozen new candidates. Secondly, we have no Newsletter to send you. Only 4 of the members know some English. It's not so easy. However I do show them your papers and talked to them about you. I think some of them still remember Hélène when she used to visit us from time to time. Sorry, she stopped doing that!
Must tell you that a new Fraternity was born with the New Year. Some 50 km from here is the fine and big Mission Station of Ningil (Hélène knows it very well) presently run by 2 Polish Franciscan Priests who, after some thinking, started an SFO Fraternity in January this year with 10 candidates among whom are 6 teachers and 2 nurses. That brings to 9 the number of Fraternities in PNG, 5 of them in the Aitape Diocese. The only language we normally use is Pidgin English and in that language only are a few books I myself translated in the last 10 years or so. But I think that is enough for now. Enough, I mean, to give them the means to know and love Francis of Assisi. But there is a thing we'd love to get: a small (plastic or wooden) statue of St Francis to use for our meetings. You may throw the word around and see if something happens.
I truly thank the Lord for the association and friendship He caused to start and grow between us, since my last visit to Canberra a few years ago. Let's both benefit from it and - through us - all the other SFO members.
With love and Franciscan Blessing
Fr Eugene Teglia, ofm
Isolated Members. Pam and Sylvia are planning to visit Marjorie Mackay on 13 May 2000.
"The Three Companions" During discussions with Fr. Pat Colbourne at the Annual Retreat it was learned that there is at present no date set for the publication of this book.
Prayers. Please remember to pray for vocations:
"Gracious God, we pray that men and women might respond generously to Your call to ministry in the Church; --- And may You increase our Franciscan community by calling those dedicated to penance and the Gospel life."
Next Council Meeting. 8.00 pm on Wednesday 10 May 2000 at Hélène's.
Input for the Canberra Franciscan and requests to Jack Smith: phone 61-2-6258 3824 fax 61-2-6258 3151 jacksmth@ozemail.com.au