Dear Friends,
May the Lord give you peace! On Sunday next May 10th 2015 our General Chapter begins in Assisi. In his Christmas message to the Brothers, all those months ago our Minister General Michael Anthony Perry OFM wrote: As we prepare ourselves spiritually and fraternally to celebrate the General Chapter of 2015, let us invoke the loving care of the humble Virgin Mother of Bethlehem, asking her to pray 
for us to her Beloved Son, that He who made himself our “lesser brother,” may stir up in us anew His Spirit that renews the face of the earth. Let us pray for the beginning of a profound renewal of the entire Order, from the vocation of each Brother, to the enlivening of fraternal charity and shared misssion in the local fraternity, to the life and evangelizing mission of the Provinces and Custodies and, indeed, of the whole Order. And let us pray for the renewal of all of humanity and of creation, for the dawning of God’s kingdom of justice, peace, truth, love and forgiveness. May we embrace these divine qualities in the same spirit of humility in which God embraces us.”
I encourage all who read this to pray for us in a very special way over the next month. As the delegates at Chapter discuss, pray and eventually make decisions regarding the renewal of the ‘Entire Order’ we depend on your ‘UNITY IN PRAYER’ with us.
Many blessings,
Fraternally,
Pat