Ave Maria!

Fr. Joseph Michael McShane the Vocations Director for the Franciscans of the Immaculate in N. America delivers his first episode of our new weekly series on vocations. This will be dedicated to discerning what God is calling us to do with our lives, focussing on the very special calling to the priesthood and religious life. It will be based on our very popular book Come & Follow Me which has many spiritual treasures from the lives and sayings of the saints to help inspire young men and women to give themselves totally to God. This episode will discuss what is a vocation and the importance of taking time to discern what you are being called to.

Come & Follow Me By Fr. Stefano Maneli, Founder the Franciscans of the Immaculate. Help get this book distributed in Parishes, adoration chapels, CCD classes, vocation directors, for the renewal of the Church. Volume discounts available.

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Ave Maria!

This is our second interview with Fr. Don Calloway, MIC, which our Roving Reporter, Friar Roderic Mary, was able to shoot in Steubenville, Ohio, whilst on our recent Airmaria field trip. Fr. Don Callowayis the Director of Vocations for the Marians of the Immaculate Conception. He has written two books on Mary and several CDs and DVDs and has participated in our International Symposium on Marian Coredemption.

This week’s interview is on Our Lady and how her role as Coredeemer is central to making sense of our greatest concern today, Suffering.

Ave Maria!

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Ave Maria!

Friar Joseph: I ask that by professing the Rule and Life of the Order of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate I may be able to follow the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ and with his holy operation follow in his footsteps all the days of my life.

Ave Maria!

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FI News #30 – Homily at the Investiture of Postulants ( 15min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

Fr. Johannes gives a homily during the Investiture of the Postulants at Mount Saint Francis. At this beautiful event, Fr. speaks of the value of the religious vocation and the urgent need for this witness today. Watch these young men put on the “new man” in Christ!

Ave Maria!

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Roving Reporter #38 – Fra Gabriel Mary on skateboarding, religious life, and evangelization ( 16min) >>> Play

Ave Maria from the Land Down Under! In this Roving Reporter, Fra Gabriel discusses his unique apostolate – skateboarding, and how this unique apostolate fits into the daily life of a Franciscan of the Immaculate. Ave Maria! +++

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Homily #080723 ( 12min) Play – “We all have a mission from God in this world”. In today’s homily Father Ignatius talks about God’s call for each and everyone of us, and how He gives us the graces necessary to carry it out, if we cooperate.
Ave Maria! Mass readings
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FI News #34 – Italian vocation video of the Poor Clares of the Immaculate ( 5min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

Here’s a video in Italian. It is a vocation video for the Clarisse dell’Immacolata (Poor Clares of the Immaculate) which is another order started by our founder Fr. Stefano Manelli. It is an order of Poor Clares that follows the Traccia with the Marian vow as do the Franciscans of the Immaculate. Currently they have four convents, all in Italy and have about sixty sisters and are fully contemplative as opposed to the FI sisters who are both active and contemplative. This slide-show video features their convent in Pastena in Lazio. We will probably make an English version of this but we thought we should just get this Italian version up straight away to add a little foreign language flair on AirMaria and to give some exposure to this blessed community.

Ave Maria!

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FI News #37 – The life and charism of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate. ( 04min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

Here is the short version of our vocations video. The long one (8 min) is to come out in a week or two. Enjoy this video of our charism and life as Franciscan friars totally consecrated to the Immaculate and if you know anyone who is discerning a vocation or you think has a vocation, please forward them the link. And most of all, please pray for vocations. For more information call FI Vocations Director at: 812-825-4742 or go to marymediatrix.com.

Ave Maria!

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FI News #45 – Introducing the Poor Clares of the Immaculate ( 5min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

FI Friars, Sisters, Tertiaries…and now the 4th branch: the Poor Clares of the Immaculate. This vocations video comes from the newest addition to the FI family in Italy, where upwards of 60 Poor Clare sisters are already living the life of Total Consecration to Mary.

The video includes lovely music and photos, and is narrated by one of our Poor Clare sisters who generously shares part of her vocation story. What an inspiring video, and what a beautiful life! In the words of St. Clare: “His Love will make you happy.”

For more information on vocations to the Poor Clares of the Immaculate, there’s an address you can write to at the end of the video.

Ave Maria!

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Ave Maria Meditations

I set off in search of the source of my vocation. It is beating there … in the Upper Room in Jerusalem. I thank God that during the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 I was able to pray precisely there-in the Upper Room (Mark 14:15), where the Last Supper took place.

THE SOURCE OF MY VOCATION

by The Servant of God, Pope John Paul II

I transport myse1f in thought to that memorable Thursday when Christ, having loved his own to the end (Jn.13:1), instituted the Apostles as priests of the New Covenant. I see Him bending down before each of us, succesors of the Apostles, to wash our feet. I hear Him, as if He were speaking to me-to us-these words: “Do you realize what I have done for you? You call Me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the Master and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought also to wash one anothers feet. I have given you an example to follow, so that as I have done for you, you also should do” (John 13:12-16).

Together with Peter, Andrew, James, and John … let us continue to listen: “As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you. Remain in My love! If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love. I have told you this so that My joy might be in you and your joy might be complete. This is My commandment: love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down ones life for ones friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you” (Jn 15:9-14).

Is not the mysterium caritatis of our vocation contained in these sayings? These words of Christ, spo­ken at the hour for which He had come (Jn.12:27), are at the root of every vocation in the Church. From them flows the life-giving sap that nourishes every vocation: those of the Apostles and their suc­cessors, but also every other vocation, because the Son wishes to be a friend to everyone: because He gave His life for all. Here we find what is most important, most valuable, and most sacred: the love of the Father and the love of Christ for us, His and our joy, and also our friendship and fidelity, which ex­press themselves in the fulfillment of the commandments.

These words also contain the goal and the meaning of our vocation: to “go and bear fruit that will last” (Jn 15:16). The bond of love unites all things; substantially it unites the Divine Persons, but on a different level it also unites human beings and their different vocations. We have entrusted our life to Christ, who loved us first and, as the Good Shepherd, offered His life for us.

The Apostles heard Christ’s words and applied them to themselves as their personal vocation. So too we, their successors, shepherds of Christ’s Church, cannot but feel impelled to be the first to respond to this love, faithfully fulfilling the commandments and offering our life every day for the friends of our Lord. “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).

In the homily I preached in Saint Peter’s Square on October 16, 2003, on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of my pontificate, I said: “While Jesus was saying these words, the Apostles did not realize that He was referring to Him­self. Not even His beloved Apostle John knew it. He understood on Calvary, at the foot of the Cross, when he saw Jesus silently giving up His life for ‘His sheep.’

When the time came for John and the oth­er Apostles to assume this same mission they then remembered His words. They realized that they would be able to fulfill their mission only because he had assured them that He Himself would be work­ing among them. “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will last” (Jn.15:16). Not you, but I!-says Christ. This is the foundation of the efficacy of a bishop’s pastoral mission.

“Always be faithful to an intense interior life, nourished above all by the celebration of the Holy Mass, Eucharistic devotion and daily meditation.  Only through the Eucharist is it possible to maintain the innocence of children, the purity of the young, matrimonial chastity and fidelity, priestly and religious consecration”

(Pope John Paul II, Servant of God).

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