Helping out those in need

Our fraternity is making a donation to St. Teresita Parish in Ponce, Puerto Rico to assist in recovery of the recent earthquakes.  The Diocese of Ponce is where Fr. Jose grew up.  He is heading down there in the first week of February to personally deliver our donation as well as those from the Holy Family Parish community.  St. Teresita is actually administered by the Capuchins, so we have a really neat Franciscan Family connection.

Anniversary Celebration

For our January meeting, we held a 50th Anniversary Celebration of our Fraternity.  Actually, it was 51 years,but who's counting.  We sent out invitations to the families of our founders and some of our active/excused members were able to attend.  We even had a great cake!

Getting Ready for Christmas

After a beautiful Creche Service led by Kathleen, we once again set about one of our fraternity's traditional Advent activities:  filling bird seed  packets.

We worked in one of the classrooms today.

It was a little cozier, but not cramped by any means.

Five big pots of birdseed... 

And 500+ labels.

Horace and Ruth at the end of the "refill aisle.

And of course there are goodies for us, too.

More Animals

Our annual Blessing of he Animals took place on October 6 this year, two days after the Feast of St. Francis.  Several members of the fraternity were in attendance and  helped by providing  cider, munchkins, as well as pet treats.    It was a chilly cloudy day, but all seemed to enjoy joining in singing  of All Creatures of Our God and King and The Prayer of St. Francis.

Thanks to KathyM for contributing all these great pictures.  No captions necessary.

Franciscan Day 2019

It was a beautiful late summer day in Kennebunk, Maine for the annual region Franciscan Day.

The grounds of the Franciscan Guest House are peaceful as always.

Secular Franciscans from Plattsburgh to Cape Cod were in attendance.

After lunch there was time for a walk down to the beach.

Lots of people enjoying the sun and sand, but not too crowded.

Yeah, I like the beach.

St. Bernard Fraternity was well represented this year.
Arthur, Paul, Steve, Ruth, Joyce, and Barbara.

Picnic Time!

It's August and time for our annual fraternity picnic.  No council meeting, so general meeting, just time for fraternity and family to eat, socialize and enjoy each other's company.

Steve and Peg get started on the grill.  Not pictured is Paul who made our life easy this year by pre-cleaning the grill and making sure we had enough propane so we wouldn't have to scramble into the kitchen to finish cooking.

We had a wonderful crowd.

Your minister worried that there might not be enough food, but there was PLENTY!

Thanks to everyone who made it such a great day.

Profession of Kathy McGuirk, OFS

Our May meeting was the Profession Mass of Kathy McGuirk, OFS.  We celebrated at the regular 5:30pm Sunday evening Mass with the Holy Family community.

Our Vice Minister, Horace, read the introduction before Mass began.

Deacon Brian and Deacon Bill assisted at the Mass with Fr. Jose

Just after the Gospel, Kathy requested formal admission in the fraternity from Minister Steve and Formation Director Steve.
THIS IS WHAT I WANT.

Fr Jose conducted the actual Rite of Profession prior to the Final Blessing.

Kathy kneels receiving a blessing.

Kathy was then presented with the traditional profession gifts:  Book of the Gospels, Cross, and Candle.
Everyone in the congregation stayed through the entire Rite.

Afterward, we went downstairs to celebrate.

We had a nice celebration cake from the fraternity.

Actually we had two cakes.

There was plenty of food...

... and lots of people to help celebrate.

Congratulations, Kathy.

What a special occasion for us all!