Brother JR: are you/is he OK? And a thank you

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Continuing prayer for your and your brothers.

Our Father, who art in heaven.
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace.
Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, mother of God,
Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
Amen
 
Praying for you and your intentions, Brother.

**:signofcross:
**
Prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel
St Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle;
……be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray
……and do thou,
O prince of the heavenly host,
by the power of God,
……thrust into Hell Satan
……and all the other evil spirits
……who prowl about the world
……seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.

The Memorare
Remember,
O most gracious Virgin Mary,
that never was it known,
that anyone who fled to thy protection,
implored thy help
or sought thy intercession,
was left unaided.
Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee,
O Virgin of virgins, my Mother.
To thee I come, before thee I stand,
sinful and sorrowful.
O Mother of the Word Incarnate,
despise not my petition,
but in thy mercy hear and answer me.
Amen.

Litany of Humility
O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed,**
Deliver me, Jesus.**
From the desire of being loved…
From the desire of being extolled …
From the desire of being honored …
From the desire of being praised …
From the desire of being preferred to others…
From the desire of being consulted …
From the desire of being approved …
From the fear of being humiliated …
From the fear of being despised…
From the fear of suffering rebukes …
From the fear of being calumniated …
From the fear of being forgotten …
From the fear of being ridiculed …
From the fear of being wronged …
From the fear of being suspected …

That others may be loved more than I,**
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.**
That others may be esteemed more than I …
That, in the opinion of the world,
……others may increase and I may decrease …
That others may be chosen and I set aside …
That others may be praised and I unnoticed …
That others may be preferred to me in everything…
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become
……as holy as I should…
Amen.
:signofcross:
Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val (1865-1930),
Secretary of State for Pope Saint Pius X

Let Nothing Disturb You
Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things are passing away:
God never.

Patience,
Obtains all things,
Whoever has God
Lacks nothing:
God alone suffices.

Santa Teresa de Jesús
**(Santa Teresa de Ávila)

.
**
 
I had a dream about Brother Jay last night. Don’t think that has ever happened before.

Hope he is doing well. Brother is always in my prayers.
 
My dearest brothers and sisters:

Thank you so much for keeping this thread running. It means that you’re praying for us and that you have not forgotten us. Allow me to fill you in.

I’m still in my wheelchair and will probably be there for a long time. However, I have made some progress walking with a walker, albeit short distances, about 10 yards before my legs weaken. I’m having some trouble keeping my weight down, because my body retains water. This is a small problem, because there is always the concern that the water may go to my lungs as happened in April 2015. For one who has heart problems and diabetes, this kind of strain on the lungs is not good.

On the positive side of things is that I’m very happy. Most of my time is spent writing, giving talks, doing spiritual direction, praying and playing with my pups. Of course the brothers are delightful. That also makes me very happy. We have a new inquirer. Please pray for him. His first name is Tom. Hopefully, he’ll ask to join us. Another of our novices made vows earlier in January and another is coming up in March.

We now have a good problem. We have two houses, as our community is still growing. However, the two houses are now full. As you may already know, the Franciscans of Life not only preach the Gospel of Life to a culture of death, but we are also sent to recover those customs and traditions of the first generation Franciscans (13th century), which are still applicable and possible today. While we don’t sleep on dirt floors using rocks for pillows, we do practice serious poverty in our manner of living. Here are some pictures of how we live.

Just click on the pictures to enlarge them.

View attachment 22820 This is a "bird’s eye view of the cells in which we sleep. Each cell holds two brothers. The distance from the curtain to the bed is about 18 inches.

View attachment 22821 This is a typical cell for two brothers. Each bed is assigned one flat sheet for the brother to cover himself if he feels cold and a blanket in winter.

View attachment 22822 This is a typical oratory where brothers do silent prayer and LOTH.

You can also follow us on our blog www.franciscansoflife.com and on facebook under Franciscans of Life.
 
Brother Jay, it is always so good to read one of your posts. Thank you for writing and letting us know how you and the community are doing.

I can’t speak for others here, but I, for one, miss your presence and wisdom on CAF very much.

God bless you, Brother!
 
Brother Jay, thank you for checking in with us. I just sent a request to join your Fb group. God Bless! <3
 
Happy Feast of the Presentation/Candlemas Day to you Br. JR. Good to hear from you. Continued prayers for your health & recovery & for all your fellow Brothers. You all are always in my prayers. God bless.
 
DearBrJR,
Hope you had a Blessed Easter. Blessed Divine Mercy Sunday to you. You are in my prayers. Praying for your continued health & recovery. God bless.
 
Brother JR, thank you for the pictures. I especially like the Oratory.
9 Glory Be’s for the children and Brother JR
 
Friends:

I am very sorry that I have been missing for several months since my last update. The truth of the matter is that I tire easily. I guess that’s to be expected when one’s approaching his 100th birthday, though I’m just turning 64 this year. I guess that puts me on the way to 100. 🙂

We had an amazing Holy Week. I want to thank all of you who sent me good wishes and prayers for a blessed Holy Week, especially Trad Cath and Clare. Brother Bernardo D’Carmine posted about our week on our page on Facebook. Just look for Franciscans of Life.

As usual, we cooperate with the local parish; so we went there for all of the services. The Easter Vigil was amazing. There were about 20 baptisms. These were adults coming into the faith. Of course they received Holy Communion and Confirmation that night.

The following Sunday, Mercy Sunday (First Sun of Easter), as you prefer, Fourteen converts were received into full communion with the Catholic Church.

It is rewarding to see this many people joining us in our Church.

The community got together for a great Easter dinner. Both houses were at the motherhouse. Brother Leo and I went to the supermarket. Now, as you probably know, I’m confined to a wheelchair. But when I go to market, I ride one of those buggies. So there we were in the vegetable section, selecting our weekly vegetables. Brother calls me over to look at some bananas. The next thing you hear is the rumbling of what sounded like an earthquake in the distance. I pushed the lever to go forward. Somehow, I ended up going backward into a display of potatoes. Needless to say, there were potatoes all over the floor and one very embarrassed ol man riding a buggy.

Please keep up your prayers. I’m working on a book, but my health poses a sight inconvenience. I tire quickly. I’ve been having some serious problems with fluid retention. I’m gaining anywhere from three to five pounds at a time in water. I’m only losing about two per day. It’s tough on the heart, lungs and kidneys. I often have serious kidney pain.

This is funny. As you all know, Mother Angelica died on Easter Sunday. I had known Mother. We were not pen pals, but we had met several times and spoken at great lengths. She had a wonderful sense of humor. She was usually in a great deal of pain herself. She was kind of a role model for me; because I learned to accept pain as a blessing from God and an opportunity to get ahead on my Purgatory.

As the story goes, the following Sunday, we had Holy Mass followed by Sext, adoration, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and other prayers. There must have been about 500 people present. Since I’m in a wheelchair, I get to sit in the front row. There I sat begging the Lord for his mercy. I’m well aware that I don’t even deserve Purgatory, because of my sins. I was begging with the Lord, who is sitting right across from me in the monstrance. After I finished groveling before the Lord, I sat quietly just looking at Him. I could swear that I heard Mother Angelica’s voice, in her usual casual manner, “Well Honey, if you want to get to Purgatory you need to stop whining about how uncomfortable that wheelchair is. It’s better than a cross.”

I don’t know if I dosed off for a moment and dreamed it or if I was simply daydreaming. I never discard the possibility of private “communication” between eternity and us. I also know that such messages come in many envelopes, most often through the most natural events, such as Joseph’s dreams where he hears Gabriel’s words. In any case, I felt very stupid all of a sudden; but at the same time I wanted to laugh. I know that’s something Mother would have said, if she had heard the many times that I’ve complained that the wheelchair is very uncomfortable.

Anyway, whether I dozed off or was last in a daydream, neither of those conditions precludes God from responding to my begging for the mercy to reach Purgatory. The very response itself is an act of Mercy. God does not have to speak to us, not after the way we treat Him and often ignore Him. My Easter lesson has been that between a wheelchair and a cross, I got the better deal. Jesus got ‘nailed’. I need to stop whining. About the bloody chair.

Before I close, I just want to share one more experience of God’s mercy. My neurologist ordered an MRI. So I go in and do the bloody thing. I am claustrophobic and the local MRI is done in a cylinder. I laid there for about 30 minutes, prayed the Holy Rosary and I think I napped. In any case, when I went back to the neurologist for the results, she shows me the images and points to a blood stain on the brain. I thought to myself, “If that’s what I think it is, how did I not notice?” Sure enough, she points to the stain and said, “That’s your stroke. It’s fairly significant an is had a lot to do with you difficulty walking.” I said to her, “What stroke? I’ve never had stroke.” To which she responded, “Yes you did and by the looks of it appears to have taken place about the same time that you lost the strength in your legs.” I was amazed. I never felt anything other than what seemed like electricity coming up my legs. When I tried to get up, my legs were not strong enough.

Here’s the deal. In His mercy, the Lord allowed me to have a stroke on top of a diabetic crisis and water in the lungs and the only thing that the doctor can tell me is that” I’ll never be able to such things as play soccer. The truth is that I haven’t played soccer for over 20 years… No great loss there.

This has been my Holy Week and Easter journey this year. If you want to know about what the brothers and I are doing these days, visit our blog at www.franciscansoflife.com .
Let us continue to pray for each other and to grow in mercy toward those who are on the opposite side of the street from us. Draw them in. Seduce them to come closer to our faith by living it with simplicity and joy.
 
This update made my day. 🙂
God bless you.
That does sound like something Mother Angelica would say, LOL

We miss your wisdom, and pray for your healing and strength. And the children, of course.
What a beautiful example of submitting to the Holy Will of God.

Prayers!
Clare
 
Not a day goes by, Brother Jay, that I do not commend you to Our Blessed Mother.

God bless you and Our Lady keep you enclosed within Her Immaculate Heart!

You are very much missed.
 
JReducation said:
I could swear that I heard Mother Angelica’s voice, in her usual casual manner, “Well Honey, if you want to get to Purgatory you need to stop whining about how uncomfortable that wheelchair is. It’s better than a cross.”.
Click to expand...
What a beautiful story. I think this line will stick with me for years to come. I will remember you in my prayers every time I have potatos. It may not be as good as Lomar, but it will at least stick with me (the prayer, not the potatos).

Your post made my day!
 
In my heart,you will always be wearing those spiritual cleats on,Brother…🙂
We miss you!
And see…that February went by and one of these days you may want to tell us about Brother Leo.
Much love to you and thanks for.letting us know about you!
 
May God bless you brother J.R.
I’m glad you are well enough to post today.
I miss your posts but I am glad you are able to continue to help others. May our Lady keep you and your brothers and the children dear to your heart in her prayers.
Amen.
 
Dear Br. JR, it’s always so spiritually uplifting to hear from you. Continued prayers for your health & recovery. Praying for the intentions of you & your fellow Brothers. God bless all of you. Stay well, keep in touch.
Pax et Bonum.
 
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