Week ending 23 January 2014 Issue Number 1015 Discernment in a modern world by Jason Graves

In opening the Year for Consecrated Life, the pope renewed his call to the religious of the world to “wake up the world, [and] illuminate it with your prophetic and counter- cultural witness!” Indeed, what we as religious do in a modern world such as ours is extremely counter-cultural. Where once sending a son or daughter off to join the church was seen as a noble act, and even a status upgrade in many places, today those who are discerning a call to religious life are faced with many critical questions, most focusing on how one can so willingly choose to give up money, possessions, status, a family of one’s own, and, in some cases, even the ability to do as one pleases. Yet, in Jason Graves reading the signs of the times, as the church often calls us to do, many young men and women around the world are hearing the call of God to serve the world, even as they put off the lifestyle the world promotes, and put on the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. In choosing to do so, the value of good and honest discernment cannot be underestimated.

Recognizing this, shortly after celebrating the Christmas holiday with friends and family, the post-novitiate friars gathered at St. Lawrence Seminary in Mt. Calvary WI for an integration seminar focused on just that topic; discernment. Over a period of several days, the simply-professed friars and their formation team (some of which are transitioning in while others are transitioning out, all the while in the midst of their own discernment) met to approach the topic of discernment in several different ways. The friars began their first session discussing the topic of vulnerability, a topic that might seem an odd place to begin a conversation on discernment. Yet, as the friars soon realized as they shared their own stories, one must be willing to be vulnerable in order to open oneself to honest discernment; a discernment in which we are laid bare before God, warts and all, and still realize that God loves us. This type of vulnerability is especially difficult for male religious, when the world teaches that men are to be masters of their feelings, always strong and always in control. Again, we as religious are called to be counter-cultural.

The following day, the friars took up a different, though no less difficult topic to discuss, that of loneliness. To outside observers, it might seem a difficult thing to be lonely while living in community. Yet, to anyone who has lived this life for any length of time, one knows that loneliness is often the very thing that causes a friar’s life in community to unravel, and it is loneliness that is the great enemy of discernment. As Robert Wotypka put it, “I'm called to discern my vocation within, with my brothers, and through the world.” This sentiment argues that discernment is not a process that is meant to be undertaken alone. While a portion of the process is done internally, we are also called, as religious who live in intentional communities, to discern our vocation among the brothers as well. When one feels alone and isolated, the discernment process suffers. This is one area in which religious and the world can agree: no one wants to be alone. The remaining presentations focused on the concepts of happiness and awe. These topics were also appropriate in discussing discernment, since, as the pope teaches, religious should be joy- filled, and they should spread that joy to others. In order to do that, one element of discernment must be whether one can be happy in this consecrated life. The friars discussed what happiness truly means to them, and how happiness can be found in a communal setting. At the end of the day, I truly doubt any of us would still be here if we did not find at least a modicum of happiness in this life.

This integration seminar was quite modern and (L-R) Sitting: Truong Dinh, John Scherer, Joseph Taylor, John Celichowski; forward thinking as traditional discernment Standing: Jerry Cornish, Luis Iñiquez, Jason Graves, Robert Wotypka, Fred Cabras, Jason Salisbury, Joshua Minden, Mark Joseph Costello goes. Yet, it is possibly exactly the kind of thing and Quan Nguyen. the pope intended to kick-start in declaring a Year for Consecrated Life. With discernment well on our minds, the friars of St. Clare Community entered the new year with new tools and new perspectives, as we all try to live another year following our founder Francis, and as we continue to discern dedicating ourselves to this way of life forever. We all are grateful for the hospitality shown to us by our brothers at St. Lawrence, and to our brothers at St. Fidelis, whom we visited, and who are always willing to share their wisdom and experience with those of us who are just beginning our journey as Capuchin Franciscans. Our discernment might seem out of place in a modern world, but, as Robert once again said, “The Franciscan movement has (to date) always been counter-cultural, and to keep it vital we have to read the signs of the times, the same as all the church.” Please pray that all of our brothers in formation are able to read the signs of the times and to continue to discern God’s will for them in the world, in the church, and in our beloved order.

Establishment of St. Katharine Friary

The Provincial Council has established St. Katharine Friary at Crow Agency MT effective 1 February 2015. The friars ministering on the reservations will be attached to this new community.

Katharine Drexel was born in Philadelphia on 26 November 26, l858. She was an American heiress who devoted her life and her sizeable fortune to establishing missions, schools and homes for African and Native American children in the United States. In 1884, during their first trip out West, the Drexel family visited Montana, where she saw first hand the poverty and destitution of the Indian missions. In 1887, in a private audience with Leo XIII, Katharine pleaded for priests to serve the American Indians. His fateful reply was that she, herself, should become that

Page 2 of 4 missionary. At the end of 1887, in St. Xavier Montana on the Crow Reservation, there were 50 students living at the school. By the following year two new buildings were built, a chapel and additional classrooms, with the financial help of Katharine Drexel.

In 1891, she founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Negroes. (Intending to extend the focus of her order, she later changed the word “Negroes” to “Colored People.”) On 12 February 1891, Katharine made her profession as the first Sister of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People. The initial vows of poverty, chastity and obedience were for five years, to which she added another vow: “To be the mother and servant of the Indian and Negro races according to the rule of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament; and not to undertake any work which would lead to the neglect or abandonment of the Indian and Colored races.” Katharine Drexel died on 3 March 1955 and was canonized on 1 October 2000 by John Paul II.

Each year beginning on February 1, an entire month of events are planned nationwide honoring the history and contributions of African Americans. The theme for 2015 is "A Century of Black Life, History and Culture."

Black History Month began in 1926 as part of an initiative by writer and educator Carter G. Woodson who launched Negro History Week in 1926.Woodson proclaimed that Negro History Week should always occur in the second week of February —between the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Since 1976, every American president has proclaimed February as Black History Month. Today, other countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom also devote an entire month to celebrating black history.

The lives of black Americans are worthy of celebration and further study, which our short profiles hope to encourage. The women and men included are writers, editors, journalists, publishers, trailblazers and change makers. They remind us of the rich contributions African Americans make and have made in the world of words. We’ll include a short profile in each of our issues during Black History Month.

John H. McWhorter, a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, writes and comments extensively on race, ethnicity, and cultural issues in the contemporary United States. His commentary has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and The National Review. McWhorter who received his Ph.D. in linguistics from Stanford University in 1993, has taught at the University of California Berkeley and Cornell University among other institutions. He is the author of All About the Beat: Why Hip Hop Can't Save Black America (2008); Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black America (2006): and Authentically Black: Essays for the Black Silent Majority (2003).

Page 3 of 4 Michael Greco, Sr., father of Michael Greco (SMP), died recently. Leopold Gleissner was hospitalized recently for 23...... Ben Markwell (B) pneumonia. Kevin Heagerty is in hospice care as his kidney functions 25-31...... Catholic Schools Week continue to deteriorate. 27. Int’l Day of Remembrance of Holocaust Victims Peter Kutch was hospitalized recently due to complications from diabetes. 28...... Walter Kasuboski (B) Ken Schuch, brother-in-law of Gus Cops, died recently. Thomas Zelinski (N) Neal Plale (B) Carl Schaefer has been hospitalized for elevated blood pressure and for continued observation. 29...... Joseph Maloney (B) Jude Duffy, former provincial minister of the Stigmata Joseph Smetana (B) Province, died recently at the age of 88. 30...... Liturgical Commission Video Conf Bob Heinrich, brother-in-law of David Matenaer, recently Solanus Center Adv. Bd. Mtg, Detroit underwent surgery after a fall. “Year of Consecrated Life” celebration, Holy Hill WI

31...... Milwaukee Area Cluster Mtg, Milwaukee Ana Martinez (B)

Thanks to all who prayed for me recently. — Leo Petrimoulx

Thank you to all the great Capuchins and others who sent a prayer up for me when I had my second hip operation. It is a month ago today, and all looks well. You are a valuable group to know! — Rose Marie Knoth

I’m sitting out here on the edge of January With the sun peeking meekly through the clouds and then the treetops And the wind biting, licking, and telling secrets to my ears. I’m sitting out here drinking my whiskey in a coffee mug my blood singing cayenne and cinnamon. I’m sitting out here listening to exhausts and dead leaves that crinkle the promises of those who walk by me, sitting out here on the edge of a cold concrete bench waiting for you. It’s January.

— Emmy Covington