by Fr. Robert Abbatiello

Peace and every blessing to you and your families during this wonderful season of joy! From Thanksgiving through Advent to the celebrations of Christmas and a new year of grace—may these days be filled with a new hope and an awareness of the presence of Christ in your life each day!

One of my responsibilities as provincial minister of the Province of St. Mary is to make a formal visit to each friar in each of our fraternities and ministries. These visitations include praying with the friars, enjoying their company, and sharing a meal and recreation with them. Visitation gives each friar the opportunity to speak one-on-one with the provincial minister to share any concerns, special requests, or needs; offer suggestions about the life of the Province; and to relate pertinent, often very personal, information that the brothers wish to confide with me. 

Our provincial territory extends from Port Jefferson, N.Y., to Falmouth, Me. Outside of the continental United States, it also includes the delegation of Guam and Hawaii, the delegation of Japan, and the Custody of Our Lady of Hope in Central America, comprised of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. I have enjoyed my visits thus far with the brothers, learning more about them individually and about their fraternal and ministerial experiences. May I share with you a few reflections on my visitations thus far?

Our brothers love being friars! They are deeply committed to a strong prayer life. This includes praying morning and evening prayer together, communal meditation, Eucharistic adoration, recitation of the rosary, and more. You can be sure that in our community prayers we regularly remember you— our extended family, benefactors, and friends.

Our brothers are doing well in observing the call to live simply and humbly, in fraternity, and to be good stewards of the many blessings God has bestowed on us. Their gratitude finds expression in their willingness to serve God’s people in so many different ways. The friars are willing to share the many responsibilities associated with fraternal living: shopping, cooking, cleaning, and maintaining facilities. In our increasingly materialistic society, which lauds autonomy and individualism and frowns upon interdependence and holding things in common, we are reminded by the Sacred Scriptures and our Capuchin Constitutions that bearing witness to a simple way of life, in community, is still possible!

Our friars are actively engaged and find tremendous satisfaction in serving the materially and spiritually poor through Capuchin Mobile Ministries, our food pantries, our refugee ministries, and our hospital ministries, to name a few.  

The friars embrace the mission of evangelization, sharing the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They enjoy teaching, preaching, working with teens and young adults, and collaborating with other religious and lay men and women. Our priest friars love celebrating the sacraments and bringing people of all ages closer to God.

We depend heavily on your prayerful support, spiritual companionship, and kind generosity. And so this is a perfect time of the year to thank you, most sincerely, on behalf of all the friars in the Province of St. Mary for being so much a part of who we are and what we do. You certainly share in our joy as you help us to share our Franciscan charisms each and every day. May God bless you and yours in abundance!