St. Joan of Arc Region - OFS

09/10/2026

Love does not gloat over evil

Franciscan love does not need someone else to lose. Following Christ means refusing to make another person’s failure a source of satisfaction.

It is easy to say, “They deserved it.” Easy to feel relieved when someone who hurt us finally falls. Easy to watch their consequences arrive and quietly think, “Good.”

But the Gospel goes deeper. Love does not celebrate another person's ruin. This does not mean pretending evil is good. St Francis did not confuse mercy with moral indifference. Consequences still exist. St Francis could be uncompromising about sin while still refusing hatred.

You can walk away without hatred.
You can tell the truth without cruelty.
You can accept consequences without celebrating them.
You can forgive without returning to what harmed you.

The real test comes when the person who hurt you begins to suffer. What happens inside you then? Do you want mercy or revenge? Do you want them to become better or simply to hurt as much as you did?

Franciscan way of life means releasing even the satisfaction of seeing someone fall. Because the moment you need another person's suffering to feel vindicated, they still have power over your heart.

🔹️ Catch the satisfaction
🔹️ Choose mercy, not revenge
🔹️ Refuse the gossip
🔹️ Give God the final word

Life is too short to build your peace around someone else’s downfall. People make mistakes, make poor choices, and eventually face the consequences of their actions. Let those consequences belong to them. You do not need to celebrate them, because every time you take pleasure in another person’s failure, you give that person another piece of your heart. Wish them wisdom. Wish them conversion. Then keep walking.

09/09/2026

When There Is Nothing Left
Do good while you still have time...

There comes a point in following Christ when everything becomes nothing. This is where everything you are desperately trying to preserve ends. Your possessions. Your reputation. Your plans. Your body. Your control. Even the things you thought you could not live without.

The saints and mystics repeatedly reflected on the tragedy of the soul that has reached eternity and sees clearly what mattered and what never did. In these accounts, the souls in Purgatory long for what we so casually postpone.

One last opportunity to go to confession.
One last opportunity to attend Mass.
One last opportunity to pray the Rosary.
One last opportunity to forgive.
One last opportunity to say sorry.

They would give anything for the opportunities we so easily take for granted.

When you finally realise that nothing in this world is yours to keep, you stop clinging...

You begin to let go....

So ask yourself today: What would I wish I had done differently before standing before God? What do I need to make right while I still have time? What am I holding onto that God is asking me to release?

Then do something about it.

Go to confession.
Go to Mass.
Pray the Rosary.
Forgive someone.
Give something away.
Call someone you have neglected.
Do one hidden act of charity.

One day, there will be no tomorrow...
One day, you will have no more time...

09/08/2026

Today we celebrate the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, nine months after the December 8 celebration of her Immaculate Conception, when she was conceived without original sin.

For more about the Nativity of Mary - https://ow.ly/CNYP50WFwF2

09/04/2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1llndO_hIjU

In anticipation of Mel Gibson's The Resurrection of The Christ, his...

08/27/2026

𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐫 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐞𝐥 𝐇𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐞, 𝐎𝐅𝐌 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐯., 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐔.𝐒. 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐚𝐣𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐞𝐧

At its August 2026 National Assembly in Phoenix, Ariz., the Conference of Major Superiors of Men (CMSM), the pontifically recognized national representative organization serving leaders of men’s religious congregations, monastic communities, and religious institutes in the United States, Our Lady of the Angels Province Minister Provincial Michael Heine, OFM Conv., was elected president-elect. Friar Michael is currently CMS Secretary-Treasurer, and he chais both the Finance Committee and the Formation and Vocation Committee. He will assume office on July 22, 2027

“It is an honor to be elected to serve the conference in this important position,” Friar Michael said. “I am particularly proud to be the second Conventual Franciscan elected president, following in the footsteps of Friar Canice Connors, OFM Conv., who served as CMSM President from 2001 to 2004.”

The Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, joined the conference, greeting attendees and presenting a personal letter from Pope Leo XIV. In his letter, the Holy Father spoke of community life as a place of sanctification and a source of inspiration: “I trust that these days of reflection, dialogue and prayer will allow you to discern ways to deepen the fraternal communion both within and among your Institutes, and in this way enable you to continue offering a united, joyful and authentic witness to Christ in the various communities and apostolates where you serve.”

CMSM, through the leadership of the religious institutes, monastic communities, and societies of apostolic life, addresses the life and concerns of the members of the institutes and societies in the United States, and the evangelizing mission of the institutes, monasteries, and societies in the context of church and culture in this country.

08/23/2026

BIG NEWS: the new Mass for the Care of Creation has finally been approved for use in the U.S.! ⛪️🌿🙏🏽🌎 This means that Catholics can celebrate the Mass for the Care of Creation on the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation (September 1)!

We strongly encourage you to reach out to your pastor and bishop to encourage their use of this new resource and to celebrate a Mass for the Care of Creation during this upcoming Season of Creation (September 1 through October 4). To help, we've gathered the approved texts, shared a special edition of Homily Helps, and compiled a webpage's worth of resources to help your community get started.

Learn more and access our resource page here: https://catholicclimatecovenant.org/resources/mass-for-the-care-of-creation-misa-por-el-cuidado-de-la-creacion/

08/17/2026

Fraternity is not just a group of people who like St Francis. It is a way of becoming brothers and sisters.

One of the easiest things to misunderstand about a Secular Franciscan fraternity is what it actually is.

It is not simply a prayer group.
Not a Bible-study group.
Not a social club.
Not a support group.
Not a parish committee.
Not a group that meets once a month, has coffee, and goes home.

Those things may happen in fraternity but they are not its identity.

The local fraternity is the basic unit of the Secular Franciscan Order and a visible sign of the Church as a a privileged place where the Franciscan vocation grows, where members learn to live the Gospel together, and where their apostolic life is strengthened.

Fraternity means I don't just belong to a group. I belong to people.

People who will challenge me.
People who will pray for me.
People I may sometimes misunderstand.
People who may sometimes disappoint me.
People who don't always think like me.

And that's precisely where the Franciscan adventure begins. Because it is easy to love Franciscan spirituality. It is much harder to love Franciscan brothers and sisters.

St Francis didn't create a spirituality of comfortable isolation. His vocation was a vocation to live the Gospel in fraternal communion.

So what does real fraternity look like?

1. Show up — not just physically, but personally. Don't simply attend meetings. Bring your real self. Listen. Participate. Take responsibility. Fraternity requires presence, prayer and active collaboration from its members.

2. Stop asking 'What do I get?' Start asking, “What can I give?” A fraternity becomes alive when responsibility is shared, not when everything is left to the council, minister or a few enthusiastic people.

3. Learn to love people who are different from you. If everyone has to agree with you before you can call them brother or sister, that's not fraternity. Franciscan fraternity is a school of patience, forgiveness, dialogue and humility.

4. Don't disappear between meetings. Call someone. Visit someone. Pray for someone. Check in on the person who has gone quiet. Build relationships beyond the monthly gathering. Community takes intentional effort.

Fraternity is not a place where I come to prove that I am right. It is a place where Christ teaches me how to become more capable of love.

And perhaps this is the deepest Franciscan challenge: you don't choose your brothers and sisters because they are perfect. You learn to love them because Christ has placed them beside you.

“The Lord gave me brothers.”

And maybe sometimes the real prayer is:

Lord, teach me not only to be a Franciscan, teach me how to be a brother. Teach me how to be a sister. Teach me how to belong.

08/17/2026

Stay close to the Light
How to live around evil...

One of the hardest things about following Christ is discovering that you cannot always remove evil from your surroundings.

You may have to work alongside difficult people. You may encounter dishonesty, manipulation, jealousy, cruelty or injustice. Sometimes you may even be hurt by people who should have known better.

We learn how to stand in the middle of it without becoming part of it. The Catholic tradition is actually much more realistic about this than we sometimes are. We are called to love the person, but we are not required to approve of evil. We are called to forgiveness, but forgiveness does not mean removing every boundary. And peace is not simply the absence of conflict, sometimes protecting what is good requires courage, truth and action.

🔸️ Name evil honestly. Don't spiritualise everything. If something is dishonest, abusive, manipulative or unjust, call it what it is. Christian charity does not require pretending that wrong is right.

🔸️ Don't copy what you hate. This is the real battle. Someone lies to you and you lie back. Someone humiliates you and you humiliate them. Someone becomes cruel and slowly you become cruel too. That's how evil reproduces itself. The Gospel asks something harder: break the chain.

🔸️ Set boundaries without hatred. You can say no. You can leave. You can distance yourself. You can report wrongdoing. You can protect another person. Forgiveness does not mean giving someone unlimited access to hurt you again. Prudence means choosing the right response to the situation.

🔸️ Don't let anger become your identity. There is a difference between wanting justice and wanting revenge. The Church teaches that hatred and vengeance are not the Christian answer, while seeking justice and protecting people from harm can be morally necessary.

🔸️ Stay close to Christ. You cannot continuously stand in darkness without deliberately returning to the Light. Pray. Go to Mass. Receive the Eucharist worthily. Go to Confession. Read the Gospel. Spend time with people who strengthen your faith.

St Francis understood that holiness wasn't about escaping a broken world. It was about bringing Christ into it.

The story of St Francis and the wolf of Gubbio is especially powerful because St Francis encounters something genuinely dangerous, but he responds neither with naivete nor hatred. In the Little Flowers of St Francis, the wolf of Gubbio was terrorising the town and had killed people and animals. St Francis went out to meet the wolf, made the Sign of the Cross, and addressed it as “Brother Wolf.” He confronted the danger directly, but he also sought peace. The wolf eventually agreed to stop harming the people, while the townspeople agreed to provide for it. The story ends with a relationship of peace being established.

You don't have to become hard because the world is hard. You don't have to become cruel because someone was cruel to you. You don't have to become darkness to fight darkness.

And above all don't let evil teach you how to be evil. The evil we encounter can change us if we allow it. And perhaps that is the real battle, to make sure that the evil we encounter doesn't get inside us.

08/16/2026

A 2 1/2 year Spiritual Assistant course completed at St. Theodore Catholic Church in Lake Charles, LA. Stephanie Triche and Alison Fisher receive certificates of completion from Br. Juniper Crouch, OFM. Stephanie is a member of St. Joseph Fraternity in Baton Rouge and Alison is a member of Padre Pio Fraternity in Lacombe, LA.