Fi News #100 – FI co-founder visits Perth, Australia ( 05 min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

Fr. Gabriel Pellettieri visited Perth again on what appears to be his “annual” visit.

Click here to see the AirMaria video from last year’s visit.

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Marchers protest abortion rights

Pro-life supporters prayed in front of the Planned Parenthood center on South College Avenue Monday, two days after the 38th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision regarding abortion.

The group — made up of area lay and ordained Catholics — started in St. Charles Catholic Church on the east side of the IU campus at about 11 a.m. and marched down Third Street.

Marchers protest abortion rights | City & State | Indiana Daily Student.

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Fi News #90 – Our new friary in Bloomington is making progress ( 04min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

See the progress on the new FI friary in Bloomington, Indiana. Volunteers and pros alike gather local rocks for the facade of the friary. Then you can see materials being lowered onto the roof to put the finishing touches on that. And finally you can see the new bells that will soon be added to the bell tower which you can see rising high above the roof.

Ave Maria!

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Fi News #82 – Marian Friary in Progress ( 06min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

Here is a video of the construction on the new Marian Friary of Our Lady Coredemptrix which started on March 25th, 2010 on the Feast of the Annunciation and shows the process up through August.The friary will be 22,000 square feet and have room for 28 friars with two floors, a partial basement and a bell tower that will be 86 feet high. The bell tower will have 3 bells from a local church that recently closed and the top 16 ft will be an illuminated cross. The friary is being built adjacent to the existing chapel on the property and will have direct access to the chapel’s main floor from the friary’s 2nd floor and to the chapel’s basement from the friary’s first floor.

The planned opening is spring 2011. Keep this project in your prayers.

Below are some pictures of some more progress since the video was taken. We will keep you posted

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Ave Maria!

Audio (MP3)

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Variety #87 – Those Bloom’n Butterflies of Bloomington ( 01min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

At our Bloomington, Indiana friary the butterflies discovered our blooming flowers in front of the statue of Mary at the foot of the cross making an impromptu and very apropos display of the beauty of God’s creatures. Enjoy!

Ave Maria!

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Ave Maria! Linda Andrade Rodrigues of South Coast Today (online version of New Bedford’s Standard Times) published an article about us today, St. Maximilian Kolbe’s Feast Day. She had many kind words about us and Mother Teresa’s Order in New Bedford. We will have to explain to her,  though, that we are not quite ready for canonization. Thanks, Linda!

The saints who live among us | SouthCoastToday.com.

August 14, 2010 12:00 AM

NEW BEDFORD — Trappist monk and author Thomas Merton wrote, “Oh my God! You see what a barren and desolate place this world is —- send us saints!”

The answer to his prayers, our city is blessed by the good works of saints.

Walk along our streets, and you’ll see Mother Teresa’s nuns in their white and striped-blue habits, ministering in our neighborhoods.

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta sent her order, the Missionaries of Charity, to New Bedford, and on June 14, 1995, she visited the city, worshipped at the Church of St. Lawrence Martyr and touched the lives of countless SouthCoast residents.

Dressed in simple gray robes with sandaled feet, the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate reach out to this city’s homeless and forgotten, and offer spiritual guidance to a constant stream of strangers who wander through the doors of Our Lady’s Chapel in downtown New Bedford. More …

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Anna Arco visits the thriving Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate in Cornwall who follow an arduous daily routine of work and prayer

“THEY HOPE TO DRAW OTHERS CLOSER TO HIM.”

A Sister is called to her duties (Photo: Wayne Perry)

Lanherne monastery has always reflected the movements of the wider Church. Celtic monks first established the monastery near Newquay, Cornwall, in the sixth century. Later, the house became the property of the recusant Arundells of Wardour. They continued to have Mass celebrated there during and after the Reformation. In 1794, a group of Carmelite nuns from Antwerp escaping the French Revolution established a Carmel. Today, the brown habits of the Carmel have given way to the distinctive blue and grey habits of the contemplative Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate.

In 2001 the Carmelites found that their community had become too elderly and small to carry on keeping the building and its extensive gardens. But they were reluctant to leave a place so redolent with the prayers of the ages empty. So they approached the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate about taking up where they were leaving off. Several months after the meeting the new community was established.

Members of a new institute founded after the Second Vatican Council in Italy, the Franciscans of the Immaculate have a fourth vow alongside poverty, chastity and obedience. This is the Marian vow of total consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The Sisters see themselves as the Virgin Mary’s property. The Marian devotion of both St Francis and St Maximilian Kolbe shaped the vision of the founders of the institute. Unusually for Franciscan Sisters, they follow the Rule of the First Order rather than the customary rule of the Third Order Regulars.

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Fi News #74 – Corpus Christi ( 05min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

The friars at Bloomington, IN conduct a Eucharistic Procession on Corpus Christi with full solemnity at the Mother of Redeemer Retreat Center along with a throng of faithful. To the greater glory of God.

Ave Maria!

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Ave Maria!

The Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate in India have launched their official web site IndiaMariae.com and, as usual, Fr. Martin Mary, FI did a beautiful job with the graphics and content in very adverse conditions. Of note is an interesting article on the friars mission there: Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate in India.  It looks like the beginnings of a great chapter in the saga of the FI.  Deo Gratias!

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Ave Maria! This Sunday at 2:00 PM

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Roving Reporter #107 – Renaissance Art at its best at Bosco ai Frati ( 05 min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

Recently, Friar Terrance had the privilege of visiting the ancient Franciscan convent of Bosco ai Frati (which literally translates as “the wood(s) of the friars”), located in the central part of Italy. The history of the convent is fascinating and very rich, as are the treasures contained within its walls, and we hope you’ll enjoy this brief but interesting video of a famous convent which the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate currently occupy.

Ave Maria!

Audio (MP3)

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Paix Liturgique, in its newest Italian newsletter, has an interview with Fr Alessandro M. Apollonio, rector of the theological seminary of the Franciscans of the Immaculate (FFI), which brings splendid news from this young order which now has more than 700 members. Here is a translation of the part concerning the liturgy:

The vocation of a seminary is to give priests to Holy Church. This year eight of your friars will be ordained in Florence, on the Feast of the Annunciation, 25 March. Last year, the ceremony took place at Tarquinia and, for the first time in the history of your institute, the sacrament of orders had been conferred on five of your friars according to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. Monsignor Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, officiated. This year Cardinal Rodé, another prelate of the Curia, Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, will be the celebrant. Again, the Pontifical Mass will be accordiing to the older form: can we conclude that the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite now becomes the ordinary manner of your ordinations to the priesthood?

Yes, as long as the Pope allows it, in the sense of being the preferred form, not the exclusive.

for the rest of the story please see: http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2010/03/extraordinary-form-conquers-more-and.html

Also see http://orbiscatholicus.blogspot.com/search?q=franciscans+of+the+immaculate

for more photos on the ordinations.

And for a very short video see http://romancatholicvocations.blogspot.com/2009/03/franciscans-of-immaculate-ordinations.html

(some of the pictures and video are from last year)

Ave Maria!

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Fi News #67 – Fr. Gabriel Pellettieri visits Perth ( 08min) >>> Play

For the Franciscans of the Immaculate in Perth, Western Australia, the beginning of Lent was not so penitential this year, as they were blessed to have the visit of Fr. Gabriel M. Pellettieri, our Cofounder. He arrived in Perth after a visit to the Philippines and, after staying a week in Perth visiting the friars and sisters, he returned to Italy.

Ave Maria!

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Fi News #65 – Construction begins on a new Friary for Our Lady in Bloomington, IN ( 04min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

Just when you thought no more exciting news could come from Bloomington we have here the video of the Ground Breaking Ceremony for our new friary which is to hold 35 friars. Thank you to all our benefactors and please keep this project in your prayers.

Ave Maria!

Audio (MP3)

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Fi News #66 – Rare Abominable Snow Friar spotted and video taped at Bloomington, IN ( 03min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

Yes, I know another video of sledding friars. Apparently, I was supposed to post this one first and the one I posted first was simply to give the “friar-cam” views that weren’t included in this one. Well, I guess I lost track. Its hard to keep up with these sledding friars from Bloomington, IN! Anyways, this one is done to some rather humerus music and features some classic friar wipe outs and beards full of snow. Enjoy!

Ave Maria!

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