The Portiuncula Hermitage and Retreat Center "Come to the Quiet"

 

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Woe To Those Who Insult You And Refuse You Alms

 

If people insult you and refuse to give you alms, you should thank God for it, because you will be honored before the judgment-seat of our Lord Jesus Christ for these insults. The shame will be imputed to those who cause it, not to those who suffer it.

Saint Francis of Assisi
THE RULE OF 1221
Chapter 9

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Saint Mary of the Portiuncula Chapel (Adjacent to the Immaculate Conception Catholic Cemetery in Ozark, Ohio)

 

As a sign of holy poverty and humility, blessed Francis decreed that the churches of the friars were to be small and their houses to be built with only wood and clay. For he wanted the friary of St. Mary of the Portiuncula to be a pattern especially for buildings constructed of wood and clay, so that it might be a permanent memorial for all friars, present and to come, since it was the first and chief house of the whole Order. 

Saint Francis of Assisi
Mirror of Perfection - 11

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Shelter Under A Rock Of The Mountain

(Photo taken at the Portiuncula Franciscan Hermitage and Retreat Center in Ozark, Ohio)

Francis said: "When the Lord withdrew into solitude to pray and fast for forty days and nights, he did not have a cell or a house built for himself but he took shelter under a rock of the mountain." That is why, following his example, he refused to have either a house or a cell on this earth and forbade that one be built for him.

Saint Francis of Assisi
Legend of Perugia - 13

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Rise Immediately To Pray

 

"If the servant of God, as may happen, is disturbed in any way, he should rise immediately to pray and he should remain in the presence of the heavenly Father until he restores unto him the joy of salvation."

Saint Francis of Assisi
Celano, Second Life
Chapter LXXXIX

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"Son" Bathing

 

Exposition of the Holy Eucharist: 

“It is like sitting out in the sun. You may not feel the effect at
the moment, but a little while later, you know you were singed.”
  
Sr. Briege McKenna, OSC

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My God And My All!

 

"Looking up to heaven and raising his hands, he prayed with intense fervor and devotion, saying: 'My God and my all!' And he sobbed out those words with so many tears and kept repeating them with such devout persistence that until matins he said nothing but 'My God and my all!' " ~ Little Flowers of St. Francis - 2

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Virtue And Vice

 

Where there is Love and Wisdom,
there is neither Fear not Ignorance.
Where there is Patience and Humility,
there is neither Anger nor Annoyance.
Where there is Poverty and Joy,
there is neither Cupidity or Avarice.
Where there is Peace and Contemplation,
there is neither Care nor Restlessness.
Where there is Fear of God to guard the dwelling,
there no enemy can enter.
Where there is Mercy and Prudence,
there is neither Excess nor Harshness.

Saint Francis of Assisi
The Admonitions
Admonition XXVII




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Prone To Evil

 

Tomb of the Unborn Child
Franciscan University of Steubenville

Take care lest, when the dung of worthlessness has been placed at your roots, you be found sterile, for then there will remain nothing but that the axe be put to you. Do not trust entirely the spirit that is in now in you, for man's senses are more prone to evil than to good, even though it may have been considerably separated from it.

Saint Francis of Assisi
Sacrum Commercium - 54

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The Seraphic Order

 

"The prophecies say that the day will come when the religious will throw off their habits and move from their poor hermitages in the woods into large houses in the cities, and that seculars will pick up their habits and move away from the materialism of the city back into the gospel poverty of the hermitages in the country. There is no doubt that this is again happening today. Let us be open to the Spirit's calling of all people into the Seraphic Order of a monasticism of the future!"

John Michael Talbot

HERMITAGE

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Penetrating The Dwelling Places Of Heaven

Francis tried to keep his spirit always in the presence of God, by praying to him without intermission, so that he might not be without some comfort from his Beloved. Prayer was his chief comfort in this life of contemplation in which he became a fellow-citizen of the angels, as he penetrated the dwelling places of heaven in his eager search for his Beloved, from whom he was separated only by a partition of flesh.

Saint Francis of Assisi

Bonaventure, Major Life

CHAPTER X

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Everyone Should Have A Prayer Room Inside Their Home!

 

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You Are Invited To Pray The Rosary On November 5th At The Portiuncula Chapel Adjacent To The Immaculate Conception Cemetery In Ozark, Ohio At Noon

Photo or the Portiuncula Chapel adjacent to the Immaculate Conception Cemetery in Ozark, Ohio

I look forward to praying the rosary with you at noon on November 5th, at the Immaculate Conception Cemetery in Ozark, Ohio for the repose of those who have gone before us. May God, the just judge of the living and the dead, look with mercy upon them, and upon us. God bless you all, 

In Christ, Fr. Nick Ward

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Refer All Good To God

 

Blessed those who refer all good they have to their Lord and God. Those who attribute anything to themselves hides the master's money (Matthew 25:18) in themselves, and even what they think they have shall be taken away (Luke 8:18).

Saint Francis of Assisi

The Admonitions

Admonition XIX

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The Talkative Religious

 

Woe to the religious who does not keep the favors God has given him to himself; people should see them only through his good works, but he wants to tell everybody about them, hoping he will get something out of it.

Saint Francis of Assisi

The Admonitions

Admonition XXII

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True Correction

 

Blessed the religious who is in no hurry to make excuses, but accepts embarrassment and blame for some fault they did not commit.

Saint Francis of Assisi

The Admonition

Admonition XXIII

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True Humility

 

Blessed the religious who is always willing to be corrected. A man is a faithful and prudent servant (Matthew 24:25) when he is quick to atone for all his offenses, interiorly by contrition, exteriorly by confessing them and making reparation.

Saint Francis of Assisi

The Admonitions

Admonition XXIV

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Portiuncula Chapel Video

 

Portiuncula Chapel

Pray the Rosary in Latin with Cardinal Burke (Joyful Mysteries)

 

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The Orans Position Is Reserved For The Priest

 

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Pride

 

A man eats of the tree that brings knowledge of good (Genesis 2:16-17) when he claims that his good will comes from himself alone and prides himself on the good that God says and does in him.

Saint Francis of Assisi

The Admonitions

Admonition II

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Obedience To Our Superiors

There are many religious who under the pretext of doing something more perfect than what their superior commands look behind and go back to their own will that they have given up (cf. Proverbs 26:11). People like that are murderers.

Saint Francis of Assisi

The Admonitions

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We Can Boast Of Our Humiliations

 

There is one thing of which we can all boast; we can boast of our humiliations (cf. 2 Cor. 12:15) and in taking up daily the holy cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Saint Francis of Assisi

The Admonitions

Admonition V

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Killed By The Letter

 

A man has been killed by the letter when he wants to know quotations only so that people will think he is very learned and he can make money to give to his relatives and friends.

Saint Francis of Assisi

The Admonitions

Admonition VII

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Our Lower Nature Leads Us To Sin

 

Everyone has his own enemy in his power and this enemy is his lower nature which leads him to sin. Blessed the religious who keeps this enemy a prisoner under his control and protects himself against it. Saint Francis of Assisi The Admonitions Admonition X

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Pace e' Bene, my Brothers and Sisters!

 

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Catholic Nun Commercial (Intended For "REAL" Nuns, not Pant Suit Nuns)

 

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Removing Temptation

 

When Francis had been troubled by a very grave temptation for more than two years, he happened to be praying in the church of St. Mary one day, when he heard in spirit the words of the Gospel: If you have faith, though it be like a grain of mustard seed, you have only to say to this mountain, Remove from this place to that, and it will remove. At once blessed Francis asked, 'Lord, what is this mountain?' And the reply came, 'This mountain is your temptation.' 'In this case, Lord,' said blessed Francis, 'let it happen to me as You have said.' And from that moment he was so completely freed that it seemed to him as though he had never had any temptation.

Saint Francis of Assisi

Mirror of Perfection - 99

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Prophesy Regarding Future Poverelli (Sounds All Too Familiar)

 

The brothers began at last to fawn upon men of the world; and they began to be wedded to them, as it were, that they might empty their purses, extend their own buildings, and multiply the very things they had completely renounced. They sold their words of advice to the rich and their visits to noble ladies; and they frequented the courts of kings and princes with great eagerness, so that they might join house to house and field to field. And they are grown great and rich and strong upon the earth, because they have proceeded from evil to evil and they have not known the Lord. They fell when they were lifted up, and they sprawled upon the ground before their birth; and still they say to me, 'We are your friends.'

Saint Francis of Assisi

Sacrum Commercium - 49

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To Those Who Have Chosen Poverty

                                                                                                St. Clare's Original Habit and Mantle

Since the great and good Lord, on entering the Virgin's womb, chose to look despised, needy, and poor in this world, so that people in dire poverty and deprivation and in absolute need of heavenly nourishment might become rich in him by possessing the kingdom of heaven, then you who have chosen poverty should rejoice and be glad!

First Letter of St. Clare to Blessed Agnes of Prague - 19

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