A Funny Thing Happened to me on the Way to Canterbury

April 22, 22010

Peace and Good,

Last week I was in Buffalo for our Provincial Chapter. A chapter is a gathering of the friars every four years to take stock of where we are and where we would like to go. We gathered along with the friars of the other eastern province because we had to make an important decision, whether the two provinces would join. My province is St. Anthony's Province and it was founded to serve Polish immigrants. The other province is Immaculate Conception Province and they served the Irish, Germans, and Slovaks. We overlap on the east coast. We voted overwhelmingly to unite in 2014. It is a good thing. It will bring up the numbers up to over 200, and it will give us the opportunity to look at our religious lives and ask whether they need some adjustment.

I was very impressed at the spirit of the friars. This was a difficult decision, and we tried to do it in a spirit of prayer and response to the promptings of the Spirit. Once could sense an openness on the part of the friars. That is what our lives are supposed to be all about. St. Francis even wanted to declare the Holy Spirit the Minister General of our order, because the Spirit should be the guide of all of our actions (ministerial, personal, spiritual, etc.)

This week, I was supposed to be in Canterbury beginning my courses, and then came the volcano. I am finally booked to fly out next Tuesday, God willing. It actually worked out well for me, for I have been on the road extensively this past Spring, as you have read. This gave me nine days at home.

I finished one CD series: The Catholic Church: A History by William Cook. This was a course from the teaching company, 36 lectures. Cook was excellent, honest and fair in his presentation of the history of the Church. It was not that there was so much new that I learned, but it is always good to go over it once in a while to review the details.

My coming schedule is:

04/17/10 - 06/12/10 - International House of Franciscan Studies, Canterbury, England, U.K.

06/13/10 - 06/18/10 - Hyatt Regency Hotel, Hamburg, NY (Provincial Retreat)

06/19/10 - 07/01/10 - St. Victor's Major Seminary, Tamale, Ghana, West Africa p.o.c. Fr. David Azambawu(Seminarian Retreat)

07/04/10 - 07/10/10 - St. Francis Convent, Mishawaka, IN 46546 p.o.c. Sr. M. Dorothy

07/11/10 - 07/18/10 - Quellen Spiritual Center, Mendham, NJ 07945 p.o.c. Sr. Teresa Marie (Sisters' Retreat)

God bless and

Shalom

fr. Jude