Rancho Guadalupe Dunes Preserve
At the beginning of their "Dessert Experience", the friar novices, along with Friar Marek and Friar Wayne, visited the Rancho Guadalupe Dunes Preserve in Santa Barbara County to meditate, pray, and enjoy fraternity
The "Desert Experience"
The "Desert Experience" as phrase, is often used to explain the beginning weeks or evens months of the novitiate. The desert experience is about going inward. It is a personal journey, a pilgrimage you freely welcome in order to listen to God speaking to your heart in a secluded land. The desert is where the prophets and all the holy ones met God in the Old Testament, It was the place that was far removed from distractions, noise, the common place, the comfortable and the expected. It is a physical, spiritual and mental departure from most things that are familiar to you, or that would connect you immediately with the wider world of social networking at any given need or whim.
Feast of Our Lady
of the Angels - Aug. 2
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On the 2nd Day of August, the friars of Saint Francis of Assisi Friary & Novitiate, celebrated the Feast of Our Lady of the Angels of the Portiuncula. On the same day, two Capuchin novices, Brother Sam and Brother Javier, joined the friars for the celebration and to get spiritual direction with Friars Marek and Joseph, which also their 25th and 35th Solemn Profession Anniversary, respectively.
The Portiuncula Indulgence
Cultural Day
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The friar novices with their directors
visited and toured the former house of Captain William Dana
and Maria Josefa Carillo Dana and their 21 children,
who once own the land where the Saint Francis of Assisi Friary and Novitiate now stands.
The tour was given by Helen, who is a volunteer of the Cultural Center,
who also treated the friars with a Mexican brownies and tea.
Thank you Helen and the staff of the Center!.
To learn more about the Dana Adobe & Cultural Center, please visit their website
Friars at work in the Vegetable Garden!
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The First Fruits
Friars' Random Photos
Feast of the Stigmata of Saint Francis
The Feast of the Stigmata of Saint Francis is celebrated by the Franciscan Family, every Sept. 17. This year, Friar Jude Winkler, OFM Conv., the Assistant General of the CFF celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, concelebrated by Fr. Larry Gosselin, OFM. To learn more about the celebration, click here.
Feast of Saint Joseph of Cupertino
On September 19, the Province of Saint Joseph of Cupertino, where the CFF Inter-provincial Novitiate is, celebrated the feast of their patron. The Novices with their Novice Directors, joined the Friars at Saint Paul in Pismo Beach for a Solemn Mass and Breakfast. They are joined with Friar Jude Winkler, OFM Conv. the Assistant General of the Conventual Franciscan Order and Fr. Larry Gosselin, OFM.
Saint Joseph of Cupertino, pray for us!
Inter-novitiate Class on Franciscan Preaching with
Dr. Barbara Spies, OSF
The friar novices attended an Inter-novitiate Conference on Franciscan Preaching with Dr. Barbara Spies, OSF at the Mission of Santa Barbara, where the OFM Novitiate is located.
