Peace in this New Year

I pray that we will each, no matter our faith or religion, feel peace in our hearts throughout this New Year; in thoughts and feelings, in intentions and in actions, among family and friends, and those we call strangers, let us cease bloodshed, let us put aside our differences and instead celebrate the shared unity of the Holy Spirit, our Father, and let us accept and embrace each other as brother and sister.

Meditation on the Nativity

 

“I was born, born for you, in a cave, in December, in the cold, homeless, in the middle of a winter’s night, in the unheard-of poverty of the extremely poor, in solitude, in an abandonment unique in this world.”

The Spiritual Autobiography

of Charles de Foucauld

Edited by Jean-Francois Six

Father, I abandon myself into your hands ...  today.

Bl. Charles of Jesus Feast Day - December 1st

"Only one thing is necessary:
  that is to do at every 
  moment what is most
  pleasing to Jesus."

  Bl. Charles de Foucauld

Growing fraternity

Vatican Library open to the public:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giW78KX6RYs&feature=uploademail

The link above was sent to me by Ken in New Orleans who is trying to start a Lay Fraternity.  Deborah in Richmond VA, who attended the NA conference this past June, is also looking for like minded companions to start a fraternity.  Please keep their efforts in prayer. 

Dan in Charlotte NC recently became an "isolated member" of the Lay Fraternity.  

Welcome all! 

Most interesting your comment Lorraine. Community life is a challenge, never ended. I wish we had sometimes the kind of support the Chilian minors found around them. The powerful support of relatives,friends, country... and the world certainly impacted the way they reacted to turmoil, nurturing a deep feeling of hope, enhancing their capacity for resilience. Shouldn't our faith have the same power knowing that God entrusted us with the mission to build His Body and be His Image in this world of ours, having let us to our own judgement guided and illuminated by His Spirit of Love and Mercy? Thank you.

Alain

Miracle of the Chilean Miners

"Sure, I follow the herd---not out of brainless obedience, mind you but out of a deep and abiding respect for the concept of community."  (one of my favorite cartoons)

I've been thinking of the "miracle of the Chilean miners' rescue" and the interaction of the men as they waited to be rescued.  They recognized each others gifts and most of the needs of the group were met. They respected each others' differences and weaknesses.   I found this to be a beautiful example of community, fraternity, universal brotherhood. The value of a supportive community was on display for the world to see (over and over on television).  As much as the rescue was a miracle, their caring and respect for one another was an awesome witness of how we could live our daily lives, our Nazareth.  Thank you, God, for "the miracle of community".

Prayer Request - Mt Vernon

I received very sad news today from Martin Ong of Mt Vernon that Stella DeFreitas's son Danny, 27 yrs old, died unexpectedly either yesterday or early this morning.  Stella was in Ireland on a trip  and was flying back to NY today.   Please join us in prayer for Danny, Stella and their family, as well as the fraternity at Sacred Heart in Mt Vernon.


In loving service,
Frank O'Sullivan 
North American Responsible
Lay Fraternity of Charles de Foucauld    

Report from Mexico Meeting on 2012 International Conference

Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, México

 25 August 2010

Bicentennial year of Mexico’s Independence

Letter to the brothers and sisters of the lay fraternities of America

The coordinators of the sub-regions of North, Central and South America, together with our representatives of the International Team gathered in Patzcuaro, Michoacan, Mexico from the 20^th to the 24^th of August at the PROESA, IAP center where we lodged and assembled, and were hosted by Daniel Leal.

We deeply mourn the loss of our brother Patricio Rice, who together with his wife Fatima was responsible of the South American continental region.  He passed away on July 7^th of 2010 as he returned from Ireland after a work related trip on human rights.

Initially, on the 20^th and 21^st, two Mexican couples shared on their knowledge and living the spirituality of the message of Charles de Foucauld for decades.  Then, each region presented a report on the life of their fraternities.  We reflected on the journey traveled by each fraternity since the Rio de Janeiro Assembly in Brazil in 2000, and also on the agreements from the continental encounter in Santiago Chile in January of 2009.  We recollected on the Arusha Assembly in 2006 and reviewed the final messages from the reunions of the International Team of Spa, Belgium in 2008 and in Luxor Egypt in 2010.

We analyzed the challenge and the richness of the theme “To Risk the Encounter”, proposed by the International Team in Luxor for the next International Assembly of the lay fraternities which will take place in Europe in July of 2012, consistent with the rotational criteria of the continents which directed the International Team towards this choice.

We decided that the theme is timely and created for our American continent a sub-theme  “ To Meet in order to Share  the Joy of the Beatitudes”.  We invite each sub -region: South, Central and North, to guide the fraternities of their respective countries toward the reflection of texts supporting this theme, enriching it with other contributions that will be made available to all fraternities.  The theme should be adapted to the practice of living the fraternity in the American Continent.  Its synthesis on the reflections of each of the fraternities should reflect the life and the concerns of each group.

We recommend special attention to the role of the delegates as representatives of the countries as with its number and their selection criteria, keeping in mind that in the next International Assembly, each country will send delegates corresponding to the number of fraternities they hold.  Regarding each continent, we must also elect a new representative of America to the International Team.

During this encounter we lived moments of strength in prayer and living together.  We shared two liturgical celebrations, the first presided by Paco, Little Brother of the Gospel from  Chapulco, Puebla, Mexico.  On Sunday, the celebration  was presided by Don Alberto Suarez Inda, the Archbishop of Morelia, accompanied by the  parish priest of Santa Ana, Chiapitiro (Lacustre Region).  Also present were members of the communities near the lake region of Patzcuaro.

We thank Daniel Leal, responsible of the Central sub-region, who received and cared for us with affection and simplicity creating a kind atmosphere for the realization of our meeting.  We also thank , Santiago, Little Brother of the Gospel from  Ciudad Hidalgo, Michoacan, who accompanied us as interpreter and to the Little Sisters of Jesus, represented by Rosalia who received us and facilitated our arrival in Patzcuaro.

We reconfirm the decisions realized in the Arusha Assembly and the Chile Encounter, and invite all members of the fraternities in assuming the responsibility to ensure financial recourse to satisfy the need for interchange, formation and participation in meetings and assemblies at the local, continental and international levels.

We appeal to the national responsibles to maintain the regional responsables informed on the financial situation of each country and of the efforts undertaken to solidify the objectives of the Arusha Assembly and the Chile Encounter.  At the end of our meeting we received the terrible news of the murder of seventy two migrants from four nationalities, Brazilian, Salvadoran, Guatemalans, and Ecuadorians, fifty-eight men and fourteen women, in San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico.

In the spirit of the pursuit of peace and justice we remain in communication with all of the fraternities of America.  With a great fraternal embrace.

Frank O’Sullivan – North Region (United States,  Canada)

Jim Pelikan – North Region (United States, Canadá)

Daniel Leal – Central Region (México, Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Cuba, Nicaragua y Guyana)

Fátima Cabrera – Southern Region (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Perú, Bolivia y Brasil.)

Roberto Delgado  Carvalho –International Team

Gislene Carvalho  –International Team

TASSC International Commemorates the Life & Legacy of Patrick Rice

Friday, October 1, 7:00 - 8:30 pm at St. Aloysius Catholic Church

Patrick Rice was a dear friend to all who knew him, and a passionate defender of human rights. As an Irish missionary worker-priest and later superior of the Little Brothers of Charles de Foucauld, he was one of the few to survive torture in Argentina, where more than 30,000 were detained and disappeared from 1976-1983.He was a founding member and served both as the executive secretary (1981-1987) and as a senior adviser to the executive committee (1999-2010) of FEDEFAM (the Latin American Federation of Association of  Relatives of Disappeared-Detainees). He was the General Coordinator of the International Coalition against Enforced Disappearances (ICAED), and was instrumental in the getting the UN General Assembly to pass a Convention for the Protection of All Persons against Enforced Disappearance on December 20, 2006.Patrick was a member of TASSC International, and taught the first Human Rights Training program to 35 survivors in June, 2010. In 2008 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the National University of Ireland in Cork, Ireland, the place of his birth. He is survived by his wife Fatima Cabrera, who is also a survivor of torture, and three children: Carlos, Amy, and Blanca.
TASSC International

4121 Harewood Rd. NE, Suite B, Washington DC 20017
For more information call: (202) 529-2991 or (202) 841-4032

Birth Date

September 15...Happy Birthday Br. Charles!

Turning 50 today, September 15, 2010, I am reminded of what Brother Charles wrote on January 1908:

"Already fifty years old, and I should have something to show for myself and for others. And instead, I am more miserable and useless than ever, and have not accomplished the least good for others. The saying, 'You will know them by their fruits,' only shows me for what I am."

Perhaps for a great many of us we do not see, or experience, the fruits of our labors in our own lifetime, and quite possibly this is the point; trusting and believing (and doing) regardless of what our own mind can process, believing even when, especially at times of challenge and suffering, we lose our way or misplace that burning clarity.

Thank you

Lorraine,

Hello from North Carolina. I wanted to thank you for all the help you've sent my way, including the book about Brother Charles of Jesus and the lovely prayer cards, of which I received in the mail yesterday.

Blessings and peace,

Dan Grotewohl

Connecting from Denver, CO

Lorraine!
Thank you so much for including me on your blog. Hello JCF members. I'm very happy to be connected from Denver. There are no lay JCF fraternities in Denver that I know of so now I have a link to all of you. There are a number of priest's fraternities though.
Peace & God bless! Sue Gomez

A Visit From France

Time goes so fast! Almost 2 months already since I had the privilege to attend the North American retreat in Boston! Summer gets to an end, fall activities are about to resume. Yet, here in Montreal, we've been faithful to our monthly rendezvous. About three weeks ago, we were pleased to welcome, for a short visit, Daniele and Vincent Ribier from one of the Paris fraternities. They stopped 2 days in Montreal, with the youngest of their five children, on their way to Nova Scotia where Daniele's sister has settled 3 years ago with her family. I had met Vincent a couple of years ago while attending the French National Assembly in Paris. Both, Daniele and himself, are agronomists and have been involved for many years in French-speaking countries in Africa helping with the development of efficient agricultural technologies. It was very nourishing to hear from their work but also from their commitment within the Fraternity in a metropolis the size of Paris, where Christian Faith has to find, nowadays, its way amongst all kinds of religious and non-religious beliefs. We actually share a lot in common since our own little French-speaking and former Catholic society, here in Quebec, has become, over the years, a very secular one.
I must leave you now since I have to get ready for work. I keep you in my thoughts and prayers. I look forward for reading Frank's comments as he comes back from Mexico.

Your brother,

Alain Blanchette

Buffalo Jesus Caritas

Thank you for inviting me to this blog. I will let the others know about it - unfortunately, they do not have e-mail. The Theme for the next Conference "Daring to Meet the Other" is something that the members of our fraternity have been experiencing for the past few years as we began to meet and got to know each other. At first, I was nervous that our group would fall apart, but at one meeting about 2 years ago, my friend looked at me and said, "See, it is going to be alright." Our group was getting close and had started to "gel." Because the people in our group have struggled with depression and problems we have also known isolation and lack of friends. What a joy it has been to have a meal, pray, do Review of Life and grow in fraternal love. We had a beautiful day of retreat on August 7th at the cabin my husband and I own in the foothills of the Alleghany mountains. We enjoyed the sun, good food, and a nature walk. Our group likes the say the Rosary so we prayed the Joyful Mysteries and then read the passages from Luke about Mary and Elizabeth and the birth of Jesus. Someday I hope we can have visitors from the other fraternities - it is a big cabin with 4-5 sleeping rooms and futons downstairs! Best Wishes and Prayers to all ...

Mexico meeting --- August 21st thru August 24th --- send your prayers

Roberto and Gislene, the  Lay Fraternity responsables for the Americas have called for a meeting in Mexico later this month to review the recommendations  agreed upon by the International Team this past April in order to prepare for the 2012 International Assembly in Europe, theme agreed upon is  "The meeting:  Daring to Meet the Other"  which I think could be a very fruitful focus for our fraternities  here in North America to pray on, reflect on and and share over the next 2 years.    I asked Jim Pelikan who has been to several international meetings to accompany to the meeting which will be held in Patzcuaro, Mexico August  21-24.  Please pray that we have a safe trip and that the meeting is successful.

written by Frank O'Sullivan on 8/6/2010

Eucharist Adoration

FYI

I found a website that lists churches across the United States and Canada that have Eucharistic Adoration. I do not know how current the information is.  I would recommend contacting a church to confirm before heading there.

In His presence always, Lorraine


http://www.therealpresence.org/chap_fr.htm

A powerful image created by an Italian artist, Bazzarin.

A warm hello to all of my brothers and sisters of the Foucauld Fraternity

Dear Lorraine,

This is a wonderful and exciting place to share with the community. It will bring much interaction and become a place to visit and see how each one of us is doing. I still plan to translate some of the writings that we received about Patricio Rice. In his memory and to keep him in our present thoughts and prayers I will post these translations as I complete them. I pray that he is our inspiration to bring the Kingdom to those who need it most.

In loving memory of all of our deceased brothers and sisters we pray to the Lord.

Fernando

In Memory of Patricio Rice - photo

In memory of Patricio Rice

news of the passing of Patricio Rice

from Frank O - July 8th

Dear sisters and brothers of the Lay Fraternity,

Some of you may have heard but wanted to make sure that everyone does know that Patricio Rice died last night of heart attack while passing through Miami on his way home from Europe to Argentina.  Please join us in prayer for the repose of his soul  as well as  in support of his wife Fatima and his children Carlos, Amy, and Blanca.

Mary, I would be grateful if you could make sure Sr Peggy knows so the Spanish speaking fraternities at Transfiguration are aware.    It was wonderful having Patricio with us at our Assembly last June at Trans and he will be sorely missed.

In the Heart of JESUS,

Frank
No American Facilitator
Lay Fraternity of Jesus Caritas

note from Alain in Montreal

blaa54 said... (Alain)

Hi Lorraine... and whoever will read this comment! I'm back in Montreal since Thursday evening with a lot of good memories in mind. The trip back wasn't as bad as the one to Boston but nevertheless I still had to sit more than an hour in White River Jct (waiting for a new driver to come) and then,few hours later, there was this Canadian border to cross... but I finally made it. I've just received an email from my brother Ciro bringing me a very bad news. He had just learned of the death of our Bro. Patricio Rice that some of you might have known. So far, I don't have many more details.Yet I know that Pat, a former LBG, had been very much committed to the Lay Fraternity, even on the International level. We'll keep him in our common prayers.

July 9, 2010 7:51 PM

2010 NA conference - one person's experience - please share yours

I am still digesting everything I heard at the conference.  It was a wonderful weekend.  Even though I didn't sleep much and was walking around like a zombie, I enjoyed every minute.  Greeting people at the beginning was so much fun. I rode with Frank to the Framingham bus depot to pick up Deborah S. who was from Richmond VA.  I had not recognized her name when she registered but thought she might have been in a fraternity for years and had not been at the conferences.  It turned out that she had learned about the fraternity on a trip to Africa where she met some Little Sisters of Jesus.  She found our conference on the web and decided to come to learn more. What a great surprise!

Alain B from Montreal was another new face at the conference.  Frank had known him many years ago.  Alain is a member of a lay fraternity in Montreal. Three of their seven members are bilingual so we hope to see them at future conferences.  

Stella and Gloria came from Mount Vernon NY.  They had been at the conference in Brooklyn last year just after their fraternity had been formed. Their enthusiasm was contagious.  That's a good kind of contagious!


The first day was mostly fellowship.  Friday night in the chapel we held the Foucauld Prayer Vigil from the Beatification celebration. Each day was bracketed with morning and evening prayer.  Adoration was available during free time.


Saturday was a busy day, as it usually is at our conferences.  At our morning session we had an opportunity to share our reflections on selected writings of Br. Charles. In the afternoon Fr. John Doyle, a Jesus Caritas priest who had spent many years in South America talked about the call to Social Justice. We are still reflecting on his words, "the kingdom is now". We had mass after this presentation. In the evening Janet C from New York spoke to us about her trip to the 2009 Americas Conference in Chile.  As an added, unexpected bonus Stella, also from New York, told us about her trip to the 2010 National Conference in Brazil.  Stella was born in Brazil, has relatives there, had heard about the conference and decided "why not go to the conference and visit relatives at the same time".  Both Janet and Stella shared what they had heard about the environmental concerns and poor treatment of employees.   After this we had time for refreshments and more fellowship.  We had so much more to talk about after attending these wonderful sessions. 

Sunday we had one session in the morning which was an interview of Fr Lenny about his personal journey with Br. Charles. I was interviewing him so I was able to see everyone's attentive face as he told how he first learned of Br. Charles from the Little Sisters in Boston while he was in the seminary, joined a Boston lay fraternity, met Little Sister Madeleine in Rome, traveled to Algeria to visit Charles' tomb and the places Charles had stayed. He also met Rene Voillaume on several occasions and corresponded with him.  Clearly, the time we had allowed was not enough to cover all the details and we will have to "interview" him again.

Saying good bye to everyone was so difficult.  Many new friendships were formed and we look forward to seeing each other at future conferences.   In the meantime, we promised to keep in touch.