Secular Franciscan Order (OFS) Ordo Franciscanus Saecularis
We will meet on Saturday APRIL 26, the 4th Saturday of the month, not our usual 3rd Saturday which is Holy Saturday.
This year marks the eighth centenary (1224-2024) of the gift of stigmata of St. Francis of Assisi. As is customary for Francis, he would go up to Mount La Verna during Lent to pray in silence and to fast. While in La Verna in the year 1224, he received a vision of a man in the likeness of the crucified seraph. He was inspired to follow in Christ’s footstep, and later in the year, he received the gift of the stigmata. His desire to unite himself with Christ has been granted in the form of the five wounds on his body. In this season of Lent, let us spend time contemplating on God’s Word, prayerful fasting, and silence as Francis did 800 years ago.
For full details on the centenaries, click :
WELCOME TO ST. CONRAD’s FRATERNITY#57105
If you are interested in learning more about Franciscan spirituality, or possibly find yourself discerning a call to the Secular Franciscan Order, please join us. Inquiry is open to all Catholic men and women not members of another religious order or secular order and 18 years or older. Candidates must be practicing Catholics faithful to the teachings of the Church and loCareyal to the Apostolic See. The Secular Franciscan Order belongs to the Franciscan Family and is “formed by the organic union of all the Catholic fraternities, whose members, moved by the Holy Spirit, commit themselves through profession to live the Gospel after the manner of St. Francis in their secular state following the Rule approved by the Church” (Const. 1,3).
On October 23, 2023, the fraternity held its October meeting at a Ukrainian-Greek Catholic Church in Washington, DC , the Monastery of the Holy Cross. The day’s activities began with the Eastern rites of the Divine Liturgy that was concelebrated by the Abbott of the Monastery, Rev. Abbott Joseph Lee, Brother Elias, Brother Michael Meza, OFM CAP and Fr. Patrick Moynahan, OFM CAP.
Then, Fr. Joseph gave a short talk on ecumenism and the Synod and how he began his religious life by joining the Secular Franciscan Order.
The Secular Franciscan Order of St. Conrad was founded in 1971 in Annapolis, Maryland. Fr. Edwin Dorzweiler, OFM Cap was its first Spiritual Assistant, followed by 23 other brothers of the Office of Friar Minors, Capuchin Order of St. Augustine Province for the life of the fraternity.
In the beginning, fraternity members met at the St. Conrad’s Friary in Annapolis, Maryland until 1983, when the Friary was sold to a private investor. Since its founding, the membership grew in numbers and moved from one location to another in Annapolis called the Manresa Retreat House. When this facility was sold in 1993, the fraternity moved to St. Andrew by the Bay for a short time, then to Our Lady of the Fields Parish in Millersville, MD in 1995.
In January of 2006, the fraternity moved to where it is currently home to, the St. John the Evangelist Parish, in Severna Park, Maryland. During the outbreak of Covid19, the fraternity met online by Zoom from March 2020 to October 2021, during which time St. John the Evangelist’s Parish began its renovations. The fraternity met in temporary sites until the renovations at St. John’s were completed.
Today, we are back at our home in St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Severna Park, where we hold our regular monthly meetings on the third Saturday of the month, with Fr. Patrick Monahan, OFM CAP as our Spiritual Assistant.
