At the end of October, the Assistant General for North America Fr Joseph Farrell, in the company of Provincial Anthony Pizzo, visited the Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel in Chicago. Over the course of a week the General Councillor was able to see the work being done in parishes, shrines and schools in the Midwest of the United States and in Canada.
Part of the visit involved, as Father Joseph told us, celebrating Mass for the friars of the Blessed Stephen Bellesini Community in Crown Point, Indiana, and subsequently sharing a delicious lunch with them. This community is dedicated to the care of 13 elderly friars in need of a bit of support in matters of health from their brothers. "This is a dynamic mixed generation community and it is immediately obvious how much the younger and the not-so younger men interact and care for each other in a spirit of brotherly love," Fr Farrell tells us shortly after returning from his time with the Bellesini community, a place where "they are always happy to welcome the other friars and pre-novices of the Province.”
Ordinary Provincial Chapter in California: "There is a sense of gratitude that encourages the Province"
The Province of St Augustine of California celebrated the second part of its Ordinary Provincial Chapter at Villanova Preparatory School in Ojai, California. The Chapter was presided over by Prior General Alejandro Moral Antón OSA. This part was very much in keeping with the style and structure of the first part of the Chapter held in January. The friars offered various presentations designed to stimulate debate and foster topics for reflection and discernment. Reports were presented by the commissions on work carried out since the last chapter. Prior Provincial Fr Gary Sanders, along with his council and provincial staff, are looking forward with renewed enthusiasm to the next four years and are planning to implement the chapter’s decisions subject to the availability of resources, both human and financial.
The Assistant General for North America told us, "The general sense of the chapter was one of gratitude for the service they could offer to the people of God through the various apostolates where the Order was working. It is this awareness of their own gratitude that encourages the men of the Province to look to the future with hope.”