The Franciscans

Profiles in Catholicism
May 27, 2021
10 min read

Updated: May 26

Prayer for the 7 Franciscan Capuchins in Nigeria die in car accident

Good and glorious Risen Christ,

When I read a story like this I immediately try to remember the goodness of each person/priest mentioned and the beauty of what they gave to the Catholic Church .By responding to your call, Oh Christ, you have made the Body of Christ so The statement from their house: “Thirteen of our brothers departed the Ridgeway Community, Enugu state, for Obudu, Cross Rivers state, Nigeria, but unfortunately had a fatal accident. Dear Lord, help us to understand how quickly they offered themselves but left the world. In our world today, each and every person/priest is so important to the Body of Christ filled with loving care. Seven of the brothers died as a result of the accident, while six of them sustained various degrees of injuries. We will miss these sacred men/priest from the Body of Christ but know that they will receive eternal rest. We will pray for those injured and show them our steadfast love for them by our prayers and care for others. The injured brothers have been transferred to Enugu for proper treatment. We wish that they all will heal rapidly and with little pain so that they may return to the work they promised to do for you, Oh Lord. In the statement, Anyanwu entrusted the souls of his deceased confreres to the “merciful love of God” and invited the people of God to “join us in praying for the happy repose of their souls.” He said funeral arrangements will be “communicated in due course.” We send blessings and graces for all those in grief and sadness.

by Eileen Quinn Knight, Ph.D. Profiles in Catholicism

Prayer for vocations to the Franciscan Order

“Lady Poverty”

Dear Lord, St. Francis suffered the sufferings of Christ and simplified his life to the point of almost perpetual penance.

But yet, unlike us, he was happy without a car, the internet,

television, a phone, perhaps because he saw the twin poverty

of low wages to make many more products and the effect of

being distracted by a lot of possessions that possess our time.

Nevertheless, Lord, St. Francis inspires us in the garden with

reusing the many plastic boxes, whether for grapes, strawberries,

or slices of chicken, to protect the vegetable seeds growing in

the old ice-cream tubs, yoghurt pots, and even proper plant pots.

As a family of ten, Mary, we use and reuse clothes and toys,

play-time in the parks, on walks, in the woods, marvelling, even

now at the many and diverse shapes and sizes of leaves, and dots

of colour even in the familiar candle-blossoms of the conker tree.

Growing, as our children do, and outgrowing the garden, the

yard and edge of the grass begin to be places to grow our own

runner beans, lettuce, garlic, tomatoes, and courgettes, in boxes

used for recycling, old bins and buckets, now full of fruit skins.

Dear Mary, how you must have mended and darned, sewed and

cut, cloth and old clothes, woven or skin, that made and remade

what your family wore as they grew and worked and toiled in

the heat, drying out what was already dry, oiled and cracking.

In your trade, St. Joseph, were you able to keep the scraps of

wood to burn for warmth in the cold nights or for cooking? Or

did you even save the scraps and make a toy, a stool, a table,

for use at home or to earn a little extra at the maker’s market?

So now, when I mend a shelf or even the car, though cars were

not of your time, still I ask and even beg for help, to keep it on a

wall a bit longer or on the road another year, although the time

is coming when we will need to pray for more than we can earn.

Dear St. Joseph, keep those that abound across the global world, scarcely scrabbling for the minerals needed by the latest smart cars, costing more than a housing estate and earning and selling for

more than a million times more than the scrabblers in the dirt.

Oh Holy Family, you know what you needed to live and you lived for busy in others and hunted, like an animal, for all that can be sold more

than shared, robbed more than farmed, is still here to grow and feed.

by Francis Etheredge Profiles Catholicism

Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

Where there is sadness, joy.