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THE ALL F 2007 QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER PUBLICATION OF OUR LADY OF THE ANGELS REGION S ECULAR F RANCISCAN O RDER CELEBRATING THE EIGHTH CENTENARY OF THE BIRTH OF ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY 1207—2007 HELLO DEAR BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN ST.FRANCIS, I am delighted to be able to place in your hands this 40TH issue of The Troubadour. This issue marks 10 years of communications published by Our Lady of the Angels Region! The response from you over the years, dear readers, has been gratifying. A great many letters, emails and phone calls come to me as your Editor. Many of you have shared personal and heart-stirring stories, some t h e have reached out for assistance with a particular problem, and many of you have told me of being inspired by the examples of the work being done by our brothers and sisters. E D Giving freely of our time and talents as we are able, individually or collectively as a Fraternity, we have each been inspired to follow Christ in the footsteps of St. Francis, and we I each have something special to share with others. But don’t just take my word for it, let me T show you what I mean. O Most recently, “Debbie” wrote, “it is through the help of others that we stay true on our R Franciscan journey.” From your communications, The Troubadour has been one source where LETTER from we have helped inspire one another on our Franciscan journey in thought, word, and deed. “Clare” wrote me that our newsletter, “...has so many wonderful articles, that it will enrich the prayer life of not only the members of the fraternity, but of many other people as well.” We heard from “Elizabeth” who stated that, “...there is something for everyone,” and Val shared, “...it’s chock full of great things, as usual!” ... and these comments are but a few examples of the many I have received throughout the years. So kudos to everyone. It’s your work and example which has reached out and inspired others. I continue to invite each of you to send submissions detailing the works that you or your fraternity are involved in— let’s get to know one another, so when we gather at Regional events, we are not strangers to one another. And let’s not keep our Secular Franciscan Order a well-kept secret any longer. Share your plans and upcoming events. Write that prayer, poem, short story or article that expresses the Franciscan feelings and love that is inside you. Articles educate and enlighten, they also give us hope and strength in difficult situations. In cases where it may be time sensitive for printing in the newsletter, remember we also have a Yahoo Group and Regional website where it might be posted. May God bless and inspire each and every one of us to share our dearest treasure—our faith and love in Jesus Christ. St. Francis wrote songs, prayers, poems, and offices for his own edification and for the people around him. We are called to share in the charism of St. Francis. Should we do any less? Your sister and servant, Anna VOLUME 10 • ISSUE 40 11 17 C ONTENTS MEDITATION ON COMMUNITY EVENTS 6 QUINQUENNIAL BANNER 18 2 ASSIST OUR TROOPS 12 FRATERNITY SHARING SFO’S IN ACTION— IN IRAQ DRIVE THE ICON OF ST. CLARE SAN DAMIANO DR. ANTHONY LAZZARA 7 —PART 2 ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY 3 BEATITUDES FOR REFLECTION/FORMATION 15 FRATERNITY SHARING PARISHIONERS PROGRAM ENTERED INTO ETERNAL LIFE CENTRAL NJ CLUSTER 8 THE FEAST OF ALL SOULS 19 4 REGIONAL CALENDAR WHAT’S COOKIN’ 16 RECOGNITION FORMATION DIRECTORS DAY IN ASSISI? FRATERNITY SHARING 5 9 ST. THOMAS MORE 20 FR. LEO HEINRICHS, OFM QUINQUENNIAL REPORT RITE OF PROFESSION CALL FOR ARTICLES 22 “Stay where you are. Find your own Calcutta. SFO’S Find the sick, the suffering and the lonely right there St. Francis is Dr. Lazzara’s where you are — in your own homes and in your IN A C ION hero, and inspired his becoming a own families, in your workplaces and in your schools... Secular Franciscan. He was RECIPIENT OF THEYou can find Calcuttaprofessed all over an the SFOworld, in if youJanuary, have 2007 SFO PEACE AWARD: the eyes to 1995,see. Everywhere, a member whereverof the St. you John go, you find peopleCapistrano who areFraternity unwanted, in unloved,Tampa, DR. ANTHONY LAZZARA, MD, SFO uncaredFlorida. for, just rejected by society — completely forgotten, completely left alone.” He doesn't talk openly NAFRA CHAPTER MEETING about his religion,Blessed but Mother he attends Teresa October 2—7, 2007 • Belleville, IL daily Mass. He says he has to go to Mass every night just to thank God and ask God to keep him going. ON A SUNNY, WARM DAY IN APRIL 1983, Either way, what could they Dr. Anthony Lazzara stepped off a plane possibly do about it? “We left it there,” in Lima, Peru. He had left behind in the Lazzara said. “We left.” That’s when he United States a tenured post at Emory decided he might do something else with University, in Atlanta, Georgia, where he his life. “I thought what I was doing in the was a professor of pediatrics, a leading States, anybody could do, really.” researcher on brain surgery in premature When a Franciscan priest visited infants, and a supervisor of neonatal his Atlanta parish to speak of the need wards in two Atlanta hospitals. He’d for missionaries in Third World countries, given up his job security and salary, his Dr. Lazzara felt as though God was It's never been easy for Dr. Lazzara. three-bedroom condo and his Datsun speaking directly to him. He sent letters Nine years after he arrived, he was told 280Z sportscar. He was living on easy around the world to charitable agencies, he needed to get a Peruvian medical street, it was all there—but it didn't really asking if there was a place where he was degree or go to prison. So, he very mean anything. truly needed. Six months later, he found reluctantly returned to the U.S. where he Dr. Lazzara carried a bag containing the place. Franciscans offered him a worked with indigent patients in southern some medical literature, a few books room in a clinic for the poor in Florida. But he knew he wasn’t doing and 3 basic medical instruments: Chaclacayo, located in the foothills of the what God meant for him to do. Then a a stethoscope, ophthalmoscope and an Andes Mountains, 30 miles from Lima, friend took his medical credentials to otoscope—a doctor’s desert island kit for Peru’s capital. one of Peru’s top medical schools, which simple checks of hearts, eyes and ears. immediately granted him a degree. Even When Dr. Lazzara started selling He spoke not a word of Spanish. his ailing, aging mother told him to get on his possessions a plane and back to where he belonged. He came to work at a clinic where and handed in his he could help treat sick and abandoned letter of resignation To do the work God has led him to, children. Why did he leave his work in to Emory, his Dr. Lazzara puts in a day beginning the United States to go to a country he colleagues were before dawn. From his room on the third had never seen and knew very little appalled. His family floor he can hear the children stirring about? “I felt an unease,” he says. feared for his below. There are four rooms on the “A feeling that I was not where I was safety. But they second floor, separating the infants, supposed to be. That the Lord would knew he had to go. the younger boys, the adolescent boys have me elsewhere.” and the girls. The nurses dress the In 1987, Dr. Lazzara bought a children, bathe them and get them ready Although Dr. Lazzara left the three-story house with pink walls and for the day. Catholic Church after medical school, he bars on the windows to serve as a clinic began to feel something was missing in in a safer, more modern, section of town At the time of this interview, the his life and started searching for a way to outside Lima. He furnished much of it doctor, his nurses and volunteers were serve God. He’d been studying the life of with donated furniture. The doctor hung treating 52 kids—the clinic is meant to Mother Teresa when a 1982 trip to a plaque next to the front door: handle 40. Dr. Lazzara makes his way Calcutta, India, changed everything. Hogar San Francisco de Asís—Home of through each room, assessing how each He and another doctor came out of a St. Francis of Assisi. The walls of the child fared during the night. He then restaurant in Calcutta to find a shape house are covered with pictures of Christ heads for the first floor to unlock the under a filthy blanket in the street. and St. Francis of Assisi, the rich man doors, open windows and turn on They hesitated. An animal? A child? who gave up everything to help the poor. the well pump. 33 Dr. Lazzara shares breakfast, lunch From time to time, medical students or doctors volunteer at his and dinner with his patients, and then clinic. Other volunteers come and go on a regular basis. Does it all ever seem like more supervises while they do the dishes and than he bargained for? “I think that every day,” he says.

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