All Highest, glorious God, cast your loght into the darkness of my heart. Give me right faith, firm hope, perfect charity, and profound humility, O Lord; that I may do your holy and true will.
(Saint Francis of Assisi)

Postulancy is a time of continued discernment and growth. The word to "postulate" means "to ask." Postulants, those men who have been accepted to the postulancy program are asking whether this life is right for them. Our Franciscan brotherhood is also doing the same asking of God, whether each particular man is called to our brotherhood. The program for each man looking to enter our brotherhood can vary in length from a few months to a year (typically) or sometimes two years, depending on the individual joining.

We have several postulancy sites depending upon the individual's needs.

St. Francis Centre, Caledon, Ontario, Canada
At the friary in Caledon, we have two different daily schedules: one when we have groups we receive at the Centre, and one when we do not. We have a Saturday and Sunday schedule as well with Sunday being their free day. We begin every day with 7:45 morning prayer followed by Holy Mass. Then, if a group is at the centre, we head over to be there to lend a hand of hospitality and aid the staff in their work load for that meal by cleaning up afterwards and setting up for the next meal. The postulants are able to engage the many different types of groups which visit us and also enjoy helping serve the meals.
 
Each day, whether at the friary or at the centre, the postulants receive Italian lessons. This is to help them ease into their novitiate year in Italy, and also God-willing as an asset for their future pastoral ministries. Aside from English, as you know, Italian or Spanish are two languages the Order prescribes knowing (either one or the other) for pastoral work in multi-ethnic communities or to cultures predominantly speaking those languages.  

We also have lessons of various sorts which cover what’s prescribed by the "Ratio," our Franciscan plan of formation. We’ve started with the Liturgy of the Hours and Francis’ Style of Prayer as distinguished from other forms of prayer within consecrated life. Soon we will begin going through the Catechism together, and then closer to the end of postulancy, Franciscan Spirituality – just the basics. Aside from what we are doing with them at the friary regarding these lessons, we also will be taking them to various friars on a monthly basis for everything else the Ratio is asking for. We thank all these friars for their generous commitment to help in this regard as I mentioned above.

Aside from the work at the Centre, the other apostolate postulants are sometimes engaged in together is a soup kitchen in Brampton (45mins South of us) called Knight’s Table, originally begun by the Knights of Columbus. There the postulants will have a better idea of the realities of the less fortunate to whom we minister with special devotion and attention as part of our charism. 
 
Our main meal each day is lunch, and at breakfast and dinner everyone helps themselves with what they want and if there is a group at the centre, we eat with the staff who very warmly received our Postulants.
 
We pray vespers everyday at 5pm, and on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays we pray the Rosary together as a fraternity. If we have no groups at the centre, Saturday is a clean up day at the friary. All of us are assigned our particular tasks and it gets done. Sunday is a free day for them where they are encouraged to unwind in a healthy manner by visiting friends or family or by merely spending a day out in Toronto for example.
 
The guys are get used to the Divine Office and everything else for that matter slowly but surely, and as you know, the first year is always a delicate year. 

Our Lady of Peace Friary, Brooklyn NY Postulancy Program
Our Lady of Peace Friary in Brooklyn will be the location of a second postulancy program.  The postulant director is Friar Orlando Ruiz, OFM, Provincial Definitor and Pastor of Our Lady of Peace, who is also Vocation Director for the US.  The new postulants are formally received into the formation program on October 3, during the Transitus at Our Lady of Peace Church. Besides their Franciscan formation and some basic Italian studies, some postulants will also be attending a school to study English. Friar Octavio Salinas, OFM is also a member of the Formation staff.
 

San Damiano, Assisi, Umbria, Italy
During Postulancy, a man who feels he is called to join the brotherhood, asks to be received as a novice. He then spends a year with other novices in a more retreat-like setting where he deepens his Franciscan formation of prayer and fraternity combined with some work.

Currently Novitiate for the Immaculate Conception Province is at San Damiano, in Assisi, Italy. San Damiano is where St. Francis first heard the call to go and rebuild Christ's church. The friary there is part of the Seraphic Province of St. Francis of Assisi of Umbria, and our novices get to know many of the friars from the Seraphic Province, as well as other Provinces in Italy who choose to send their novices to San Damiano.

Pictured below are new novices Friar Kevin Ottoniel Hernandez, Friar Gabriel Rojas Mendieta, Friar Yony Alberto Molina Diaz, and Friar Jimmy Alexis Marchante with Friar Antonio Riccio, OFM and Friar Orlando Ruiz, OFM.

 

Convento San Francesco
Rome, Italy

After Novitiate, our newly professed friars join our Post Novitiate fraternity at Convento San Francesco in Rome, Italy. There they attend the Pontifical University Antonianum for Philosophy and Theology studies. These studies last about five years, during which our student friars in temporary vow continue to discern their Franciscan vocation and renew their vows each year until they are certain that they wish to make their commitment to the Franciscan life and to the Province of the Immaculate Conception permament by professing solemn vows for life.

Greetings brothers and peace!  By now we are all settled into our daily routine of prayer and study at the Antonianum and this last month has really been a special time of grace for the guys here in Rome. We had the opportunity to help the Sisters (Ancelle di Cristo Re- Handmaids of Christ the King) with the olive harvest on the last Saturday of October. It was so good to work outside with our hands and we were fortunate to have great weather on our side. We worked so well together that we were able to finish all of the trees in one day! Afterward we enjoyed a meal with the sisters filled with laughter and of course food prepared with love. We are very thankful to the sisters for all the support they give us.
On the following Monday we went to San Giovanni Rotondo to visit the Sanctuary of St. Pio of Pietrelcina. St. Pio is very important to so many of us. His devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to the Passion of Christ remains an inspiration for all. We visited the very places where he lived and prayed. The bedroom where he slept is even on display just as it was when he lived there. It wasn’t the most neatly organized room I might add, which gives me hope! Beside praying before his tomb,  one of the most striking things was a room with glass cases, filled with letters from all over the world, which he had received in one year alone. The highlight of the visit to the shrine was the Mass in the large church. Fr. Antonio was the main celebrant, some of us served and read, and we all sat in the sanctuary together. It was so edifying to worship there, together with the many pilgrims who were present. 
    After our visit we headed to Monte Sant’Angelo which houses the oldest shrine to St Michael in Europe. To enter the shrine, which is at the top of the mountain, a deep cavern is entered by descending the stairs, worn by the steps of countless pilgrims. Not only does one sense the holiness of this place but also the history involved. Many kings, queens, popes, saints and people from all over medieval Europe have come to the shrine. Our own holy father Francis himself came here. Yet since he did not feel himself worthy to enter, he paused at the entrance and carved a Tau cross in the stone, which is still visible. 
     This month we also celebrated the birthday of our brother Oscar. It was an even more special celebration since he had come back to Rome just a few days before and we had been awaiting his arrival. Now we are all complete. The ten of us plus Fr. Antonio and Fr. Pierre, make twelve. 
     Thank you all very much for all your prayers for us. Please be assured of ours for you all as well. May the Lord bless and keep you all and give you his peace. 
Yours in Christ
Bro. Matthew Mancino

Friar Joshua Critchley, OFM

Friar Victor Treminio Trujillo, OFM, Rome