Christmas Eve Mass December 25, 2019

Children's choir turned YouTube success launches first original carol

Christmas Eve Mass December 25, 2019

Pope Francis turns 83

Calm the Soul

This video was done by the Poor Clares in Galway, Ireland.

All proceeds go to the homeless.

Pope Francis will celebrate Mass for 100th anniversary of John Paul II's...

"O Come, O Come, Immanuel" in English & Hebrew LIVE in Jerusalem! // Dav...

Pope visits exhibit with nativity scenes from around the world

Pope Francis to celebrate Immaculate Conception with visit Piazza Spagna

2019 Christmas Decorations at the White House

Newest New York bishop inspired by Pope Francis' pastoral leadership whi...

The Church Has Let Me Down

Thanksgiving November 28, 2019

Best images of pope's trip to Thailand

Reciprocal affection between pope and Buddhist Supreme Patriarch of Thai...

Dialogue and reconciliation in the Middle East – The Pope Video 11 – Nov...

Don't Become a Priest

I Will Follow -vocation

Austen Ivereigh's book “Wounded Shepherd,” complete analysis of Pope Fra...

Been Waiting to Share This for Seven Months...

Synod studies proposal to establish special Catholic rite in Amazon

The Church's Stance on the Death Penalty

Monks change from farm to brewing business in new documentary

Add your prayer request below and we will remember you at the Monastery of Saint Clare in Chesterfield, NJ

Surf city - Retreat October 9th to October 15

Pope canonizes Cardinal Newman and Irma Dulce: “faith grows when it take...

Surf City - Retreat October 9th to October 15

Surf City - Retreat October 9th to October 15

What Happened To The Liturgy at Vatican II?

Remembering the Greatest Saint

Feast of Saint Francis October 4th, 2019

Feast of Saint Francis October 4th, 2019

Radio Atlantis presents: Brother Sun Sister Moon, CD.

What is Franciscan Theology?

Rosh Hashanah Rock Anthem

Pope Francis to General Audience: Today's institutions will fail if God ...

Hibiscus is our courtyard

An Open Letter to Christians

Pope explains relics of St. Peter he gave Orthodox Patriarch in June

Pope Francis' steps to live out the role of Catholic bishop

The Church is CHANGING

These are the 13 new members of the College of Cardinals

Little Church (Brother Sun, Sister Moon)

September 1 Creation

World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation

Pope Francis has proclaimed a “World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation,” which will be celebrated annually on September 1.

Inspired by the Laudato Si’ encyclical, the Global Catholic Climate Movement invites Catholics to celebrate the “Season of Creation” worldwide, following the example of other Christian denominations and the Catholic Bishops of the Philippines. The season begins on September 1 and ends on October 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi.

Visit the Global Catholic Climate Movement’s web page Season of Creation to read how to reduce your ecological footprint, how to advocate and how to pray. You can also access resources for each week of the Season of Creation.

A Christian Prayer in Union with Creation 
by Pope Francis

Father, we praise you with all your creatures.
They came forth from your all-powerful hand;
they are yours, filled with your presence and your tender love.
Praise be to you!

Son of God, Jesus,
through you all things were made.
You were formed in the womb of Mary our Mother,
you became part of this earth,
and you gazed upon this world with human eyes.
Today you are alive in every creature
in your risen glory.
Praise be to you!

Holy Spirit, by your light
you guide this world towards the Father’s love
and accompany creation as it groans in travail.
You also dwell in our hearts
and you inspire us to do what is good.
Praise be to you!

Triune Lord, wondrous community of infinite love,
teach us to contemplate you
in the beauty of the universe,
for all things speak of you.
Awaken our praise and thankfulness
for every being that you have made.
Give us the grace to feel profoundly joined
to everything that is.

God of love, show us our place in this world
as channels of your love
for all the creatures of this earth,
for not one of them is forgotten in your sight.
Enlighten those who possess power and money
that they may avoid the sin of indifference,
that they may love the common good, advance the weak,
and care for this world in which we live.
The poor and the earth are crying out.
O Lord, seize us with your power and light,
help us to protect all life,
to prepare for a better future,
for the coming of your Kingdom
of justice, peace, love and beauty.
Praise be to you!

Amen.

Our Sister Frances Vass celebrated her 50 Years of entrance into the Poor Clare form of Life . Congratulations

Pope Francis Asks Us to Pray for Creation on September 1st

400 Friars in one place. What could go wrong...?

Celebrating the Feast of Saint Clare

Our Transitus with the Franciscan Secular Order , August 10, 2019

Summer Visitors

Our Summer visitors, Father Raymond T. Lennon SVD, Father Robert OFM Capuchin and postulants,
Father Frank Walter OFM and Father John Gallagher Cssr. So Glad to see you all.

Eight Hilarious Religious Jokes

July 7th to July 13- workshop at St. Bonaventure University for Poor Clares

The Day My Life Changed Forever - Congratulations

Around the Monastery June 30, 2019

Father Martin O'Reilly's celebration of his silver Jubilee with the Poor...

Tyler Perry Gives Powerful Speech Of Motivation As He Accepts Ultimate I...

Poem for the Eucharist

Gorge Herbert's poem  LOVE For the Eucharist today  . Simone Weil loved this poem though she never became a Catholic

Love bade me welcome. Yet my soul drew back

                              Guilty of dust and sin.

But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack

                             From my first entrance in,

Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,

                             If I lacked any thing.

 

A guest, I answered, worthy to be here:

                             Love said, You shall be he.

I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,

                             I cannot look on thee.

Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,

                             Who made the eyes but I?

 

Truth Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame

                             Go where it doth deserve.

And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?

                             My dear, then I will serve.

You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat: You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat: compare Luke 12:37. "Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when he commeth, shall find watching: Verily, I say unto you, That he shall gird himself, and make them to sit downe to meat, and will come foorth and serve them." (Authorized Version, 1611) Compare also to the second stanza of Herbert's poem "Faith": "Hungry I was, and had no meat: / I did conceit a most delicious feast; / I had it straight, and did as truly eat, / As ever did a welcome guest."

                             So I did sit and eat.

Source: George Herbert and the Seventeenth-Century Religious Poets  (W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1978)

Feast of Corpus Christi June 23, 2019

Corpus Christi Sunday June 23

Sion, lift thy voice and sing:
Praise thy Savior and thy King;
Praise with hymns thy Shepherd true:
Dare thy most to praise Him well;
For He doth all praise excel;
None can ever reach His due.

Special theme of praise is thine,
That true living Bread divine,
That life-giving flesh adored,
Which the brethren twelve received,
As most faithfully believed,
At the Supper of the Lord.

Let the chant be loud and high;
Sweet and tranquil be the joy
Felt to-day in every breast;
On this festival divine
Which recounts the origin
Of the glorious Eucharist.

At this table of the King,
Our new Paschal offering
Brings to end the olden rite;
Here, for empty shadows fled,
Is reality instead;
Here, instead of darkness, light.

His own act, at supper seated,
Christ ordained to be repeated,
In His memory divine;
Wherefore now, with adoration,
We the Host of our salvation
Consecrate from bread and wine.

Hear what holy Church maintaineth,
That the bread its substance changeth
Into Flesh, the wine to Blood.
Doth it pass thy comprehending?
Faith, the law of sight transcending,
Leaps to things not understood.

Here in outward signs are hidden
Priceless things, to sense forbidden;
Signs, not things, are all we see:-
Flesh from bread, and Blood from wine;
Yet is Christ, in either sign,
All entire confessed to be.

They too who of Him partake
Sever not, nor rend, nor break,
But entire their Lord receive.
Whether one or thousands eat,
All receive the selfsame meat,
Nor the less for others leave.

Both the wicked and the good
Eat of this celestial Food;
But with ends how opposite!
Here 'tis life; and there 'tis death;
The same, yet issuing to each
In a difference infinite.

Nor a single doubt retain,
When they break the Host in twain,
But that in each part remains
What was in the whole before;
Since the simple sign alone
Suffers change in state or form,
The Signified remaining One
And the Same forevermore

Lo! upon the Altar lies,
Hidden deep from human eyes,
Angels' Bread from Paradise
Made the food of mortal man:
Children's meat to dogs denied;
In old types foresignified;
In the manna from the skies,
In Isaac, and the Paschal Lamb.

Jesu! Shepherd of the sheep!
Thy true flock in safety keep.
Living Bread! Thy life supply;
Strengthen us, or else we die;
Fill us with celestial grace:
Thou, who feedest us below!
Source of all we have or know!
Grant that with Thy Saints above,
Sitting at the Feast of Love,
We may see Thee face to face. Amen