Author: capuchinsistersofstjoseph

Dear Family, Friends, and Benefactors,

Pax et Bonum! This past week, we celebrated the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. We were blessed with a beautiful sung Mass, where we remembered all of your intentions. How appropriate that this feast is followed tomorrow by that of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary, since we cannot reflect upon the Cross without contemplating her standing with unwavering Faith and love at its foot. On Wednesday, we will celebrate the feast of the Stigmata of our Seraphic Father and Founder, St. Francis of Assisi. St. Bonaventure wrote of him that he was adorned with the Sacred Stigmata and bore the image of the Crucified, not carved in wood or stone by the hand of an artist, but engraved upon his flesh by the finger of the living God. These three feasts make for a very beautiful and grace filled week in the Franciscan Order, an Order particularly devoted to the Passion and Death of Our Lord, Jesus Christ.

We have a few pieces of news to share with you. This past week, we welcomed a young lady from Louisiana who is discerning her vocation to the religious life. Every religious vocation, especially in this time of crisis in the Church, is a miracle and a great grace for holy mother Church. It seems to be almost entirely forgotten that the lives of prayer and sacrifices of the religious are especially necessary to stay the hand of God and draw down from heaven the graces of conversion for our families, our cities, our country, and the entire world. Please keep her in your prayers. Also, we were recently surprised with the gift (on loan) of a tabernacle. It is a very old but very beautiful piece that needs repair. We are now very joyfully working on all that is necessary to make it ready for the Divine Guest. A friend, who is extremely talented at woodworking, has offered to make the repairs, and the Sisters will complete all of the silk, linen and embroidery work. We are praying very fervently for benefactors so that we may construct a little portable chapel here while we continue to implore heaven to help us find a permanent home. We ask your prayers for this intention also, as it is necessary that we have a permanent home in order to continue to accept vocations and grow our Franciscan convent.

Finally, we wish to share with you some reflections that we hope may be of help, especially to mothers. We often hear from parents regarding their teenage children. The problems, as well as the solutions, are generally the same. What is modeled for the children shapes who they will become. If the Faith is not the center of your home-life, it cannot be expected that it will be the center of your child’s life. The most important duty in the lives of parents is the formation of their children. This is not a personal opinion but, rather, the teaching of the Church. Time wasted is time that can never be returned to you and, in the blink of an eye, the children are grown, and the consequences of a tepid home life have taken deep root. If, then, you are troubled that your children are being swept along in the current of the world, it is necessary to take a look at life in your family home.

First, does your family pray together, and what place does prayer hold in your home? The family Rosary is so important! In fact, at all six of her apparitions in Fatima, Our Lady asked for the Rosary to be said every day and warned that it, along with devotion to the Immaculate Heart, is the last remedy for the world. Your children need to see mom and dad on their knees with a dedicated time to pray. So often, we hear the term “Rosary ride.” It seems that it has become a trend to pray the Rosary in the car while on the way to some event. While it can readily be understood that this may be necessary from time to time and a very good custom for an extra Rosary, what message does it give when the daily Rosary is specifically set aside for a car ride, so that it can be checked off of the to-do list in order to do things one considers more important or more enjoyable at home? Does it foster a love for prayer and reflection on the mysteries of our Faith? The same could be said for holy Mass when families make it a custom to arrive at the last minute and leave immediately after Mass, without making a preparation for or thanksgiving after Holy Communion. Do you and/or your children miss Mass on Sundays or holy days in order to take part in sporting or other events? This is a violation of a precept of the Church, a grave sin, and yet it seems to be more and more common. We deceive ourselves if we say our Faith is the most important thing in our lives while putting prayer and the holy Mass in the second place. These are good questions by which to examine ourselves.

A formation in strong moral principles is also extremely important. We frequently hear about teenage girls leaving home as quickly as possible after graduating, “dating” young men of questionable character, and making bad decisions that come with life-altering consequences. It is true that even if parents do everything possible to properly form their children and set a good example in the home, many will still stray from the Faith and make bad decisions. The current of the world is very strong, and swimming against the current requires great fortitude, which can only be attained by prayer and sacrifice, which children should learn from their parents.

Concerning this formation of your children, it is necessary to ask what place the television holds in your home? Even in what are considered “more wholesome” movies or shows, the values of the world are often presented, and your children are being formed by what they see and hear. Most notably are the tendencies to present divorced and remarried couples as acceptable and even the norm, entitled or back-talking children, career women who do not submit to their husbands and husbands who do not honor their wives, immodest fashions, “dating” and company-keeping, even among children, which is an occasion of mortal sin, etc., etc. etc. The show may be considered “clean”, but what are your children learning as they watch these shows day after day? In the sixteenth century, St. Teresa of Avila was shown her place in hell for reading what were called “chivalry books.” Certainly those books were nothing in comparison to what is on television today.

Are your children exposed to bad companions? St. Teresa of Avila, St. Francis de Sales, St. John Bosco, St. Alphonsus Liguori, and many other saints warned of the dangers to the immortal souls of children by this occasion of sin. It is extremely important that your children, no matter what age, are not permitted to go out with friends without a chaperone. It only takes one brief moment, a glance, a picture, or a suggestion for your child’s curiosity to be aroused and innocence to be lost, even little by little. If you have not yet read it, we highly recommend the books , The Forty Dreams of St. John Bosco. If the dangers were so strong in that period, what would the saint think of the perils we expose our children to today?

Are your children attending public school? Many parents will argue they have no choice in this matter. It is not our purpose here to debate, so we will focus our attention on those parents who do have a choice and who, for reasons of sports, scholarships, or convenience, place the immortal souls of their children in danger. Not considering only the multitude of dangers your children are exposed to in public schools (the LGBTQ agenda, impurity, indoctrination with anti-Catholic teaching, to name only a few), the Catholic Church (prior to Vatican II) strongly cautioned against sending children to public schools and often explicitly forbade it, primarily viewing them as threats to the Catholic Faith due to their secular or Protestant foundations. The teaching of the Church is that the primary duty of parents is to ensure that their children receive a proper Catholic education and formation. In 1890, Pope Leo XIII identified public schools as hostile to religion and “the stronghold of the powers of darkness.” In 1929, Pope Pius XI reaffirmed that parents have the primary right and duty to educate their children and declared the secular school to be fundamentally flawed. Are sports and scholarships, which are here today and gone tomorrow, worth putting your child’s immortal soul at risk?

Mothers, how do you dress? Do you make concessions in order to “fit in” or appear more fashionable? Do you consider that Mary-like modesty is only for church, failing to consider that both in and out of Church Almighty God is present, and men are equally tempted by immodesty outside of the church as inside? Our Lady of Fatima warned in 1917 about immodest fashions and that more souls go to hell for sins of the flesh than any other sin. If she was offended by the fashions in 1917, what would she think of leggings, tight pants and jeans, shorts, mini-skirts, low cut tops, bathing suits, girls and boys swimming together half-naked, etc.? The clergy and the sisters are often met with the objection from women that fashions change with the times. The fashions of our world, a world over which Satan is the prince, are rapidly changing to undress the woman and to lead souls to sin and, ultimately, to hell. There are resources for modest clothing and, even if we must be creative, it is our duty to make war against the immodest fashions of our day. Remember that, at your judgment, you will render an account of your own sins of immodesty, as well as all of the sins that were committed as a result of your scandal.

Parents, do you correct your children, or is your home a democracy? Are your children permitted to tell you what they will and will not eat, what they do and do not want to do, what time they will get up in the morning and go to bed at night, etc? Are they allowed to speak disrespectfully to you or as if they are your equal? Unless a child learns to obey promptly and without question, he or she will become master of the household. You must exercise the necessary firmness with your children at an early age in these and all matters for, if you do not exercise your authority through laziness, poor judgment, or a mistaken notion of kindness and tenderness, you will quickly see that it is too late. These seemingly small things lead to a world of problems for the future of your children. If they are not taught to obey authority and to practice mortification and self-restraint while they are young, evil tendencies will set in, and they will likely have great difficulty controlling their need to gratify themselves, opening wide the door to sensuality and all manners of vice.

Finally, let us consider the topic company-keeping (“dating”). Company-keeping has for its purpose marriage. Even if the period of dating does not end with marriage because the couple discovers that marriage is out of the question for them, the purpose of testing and of finding out was still kept. When marriage is unlawful, impossible, or entirely out of the question (as is certainly the case with your school-age children), there is no moral justification for dating and exposing oneself to the intrinsic danger of such relationships. Teenagers who are permitted to date are placed in a very strong and dangerous occasion of mortal sin. Parents have the obligation of forming their children and helping them to understand this principle early in life. Your children should never be permitted to be alone in the company of the opposite sex. Parents who encourage or permit their children to date, or who think it is innocent or cute, place the souls of their children in danger and will have to carry that responsibility before God on the day of judgment. We cannot tell you how often we have received the calls from heart-broken parents whose children, after having been permitted to date, have ended up in serious moral troubles that will affect the rest of their lives and the lives of those involved.

In close, although this may seem overwhelming and discouraging, Almighty God gives us everything we need to perform well our duties of state and, if the difficulties are great, His grace is far greater. Begin now to pray with your children. Frequent the sacraments, recite the Rosary every day, and instruct your children in the catechism and the truths of our holy Catholic Faith. Establish your homes on the foundation of the Catholic Faith and enthrone them to the Sacred Heart. By so doing, your homes will become veritable strongholds of Faith, schools of virtue, abodes of peace and love, which the angels of God will delight to visit and which God Himself will look down upon with pleasure and bless with a foretaste of the joys of Heaven.

It is well to remember that “Children have not been given to parents as a present, which they may dispose of as they please, but as a trust, for which, if lost through their negligence, they must render an account to God.” St. Alphonsus Liguori

May God bless you!

Capuchin Sisters of St. Joseph