Join us in giving thanks to God for the furry and feathery creatures that bring us so much joy and companionship!
The service was broadcasted live on our Franciscan Friars Youtube Channel.
#animalblessing #allcreaturesgreatandsmall #stfrancisofassisi #patronsaintofanimals #feastofstfrancisofassisi
A patient said to the friar, “Young man, there is no medicine that can cure me. My problem is here (pointing to his forehead). I know too much, I worry too much, I want to control too much. Only God, in the end, can help. But I am still overanxious.” The friar replied, “Sir, do you believe that God will be good enough for you?” The patient broke down in tears and after a good five minutes of silence, he asked for prayer to surrender, to believe in God, to have the faith of a child again.
This encounter took place when the friar was providing pastoral care for the sick in Mount Alvernia Hospital as part of his Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) programme.
Six student friars – Cosmas Francis, Crispus Mosinoh, Gerald Terence, Sixtus Pitah, Gerald Tan and Robin Toha – are taking the CPE programme that runs from 2 July to 20 November. The programme will help them learn how to provide pastoral service to persons in crisis through action-reflection instructional methods and supervised practice in real-world settings.
They are on attachment with Mount Alvernia Hospital for the 20-week programme, journeying with patients and staff as they learn. A typical two-week cycle comprises six days of providing care for the patients, one day serving as communion and baby blessing ministers on the weekend, one day of group supervision and seminar, and a session of individual supervision.
Through his encounter with the leper, St Francis of Assisi learned to be truly human, humble and obedient to God and his fellow brothers and sisters. Through journeying with patients and staff, the friars are learning to remember to praise God at all times. Through encounters with the sick – such as the one above – the friars learn that we are all first and foremost human beings made in the image and likeness of God, made by love and to love.
Through the experiences in this programme, the friars are reminded once again of their first call – to be brothers to everyone, and called to care for one another. In caring for one another, our God, who is God of relationship, is truly present among us.
Indeed, as it says in Proverbs,
“Iron is sharpened by iron; one person is sharpened by contact with another.”
-Proverbs 27:17
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As part of the Season of Creation (1st Sept-4th Oct) ,Friar Esmond Chua, OFM challenges three youths to a 72 hours Eco-Friendly Challenge. Will they be able to survive their individual challenges? Watch the video to find out how our youths did on this challenge and learn how our faith plays an integral part in living a sustainable lifestyle and caring for our common home.
To celebrate Catholic200SG, our Franciscan Parish in Singapore (St Mary of the Angel) is organising a month-long event that will get people off their screens, out and about and movin’ with their family and friends! There will be Catholic200SG giveaways and special prizes to be won!
Watch our friars lead the way!
Find out more and register at: https://stmary.sg/getmoving/
The Canticle of the Creatures is a hymn of praise that recapitulates Francis’ journey to God in and through the beautiful things of creation… But the Canticle also represents a lifetime of conversion, as Francis strove to be a brother to all things and to praise God in the cloister of the universe despite his sufferings, feelings of abandonment and darkness. In the Canticle, composed one year before he died and while he was laying ill in a small dark hut near San Damiano, Francis sang of the human family (brother-sister- mother) as the model for all relationships. The Canticle of the Creatures is the capstone of his theological vision.
The Canticle reminds us that we humans are as dependent on the elements of creation as they are dependent on us. With his marvellous respect for creatures of all kinds, for sun, moon, stars, water, wind, fire and earth, Francis came to see that all creation gives praise to God. Brother Sun and Sister Moon praise God just by being sun and moon. …
As the final song of his life, the Canticle reveals to us Francis’ deep reflection on the mystery of the Incarnation. For Francis it is the Incarnation that gives insight into the goodness of the created world as the sacrament of God. Creation and Incarnation are intimately united in such a way that we cannot truly grasp our relationship to creation apart from understanding our relationship to Jesus Christ.
Francis’ relationship to Christ did not follow a narrow path but grew to the widest possible horizon. The deeper he grew in relationship with Christ, the more he found himself intimately related to the things of creation as brother. We might say that his relationship with Christ changed his internal focus. He developed a deeper consciousness of “relatedness” and came to realise he was related to all things no matter how small, because everything shared in the primordial goodness of God, the source of his own life. Francis discovered that he was part of the cosmic family of creation.
An excerpt from Ilia Delio, OSF, “A Franciscan View of Creation: Learning to Live in a Sacramental World.” Volume 2 of The Franciscan Heritage Series. Published by The Franciscan Institute, St Bonaventure University, St Bonaventure, NY, 2003.