"Making All Things New"October 2014
In This Issue
Fr. Dan's Column
Mountain Auction
Online Auction
Reflection on St. Francis
Pictures from Our Past
Closing Prayer
Mountain Companion Ministry

Non-friars, men and women, young and old have always been an integral part of the life and ministry of Mt. Irenaeus. Some have stayed for a month and some have stayed for years. 

As the Mountain moves into a new generation with a further reach, we have formed our Mountain Companions Ministry to make this a more regular, conscious and ongoing practice.  

Companions will live the life of the Mountain and be servant leaders in a variety of capacities including leaders in prayer, hospitality, housekeeping, maintenance and ministerial outreach to St. Bonaventure University students and a wide spectrum of others. 

We are on a continuing search for men and women who may be at the right point in their lives to join us. 



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*Discovering Our Unity

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Mass Schedule

Mass at the Mountain is regularly celebrated Sundays at 11 a.m. with brunch to follow. 


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St. Francis' Call
As we celebrate St. Francis' feast day Oct. 4, Fr. Dan Riley, ofm, asks us to consider how we might choose to live out the message of St. Francis of Assisi.

Assisi, Italy
My brothers and sisters, happy feast of St. Francis!

"Come try our way of life!" St. Francis said more than 800 years ago. As a youth of his time and a "mendicant of meaning" who also enjoyed solitude, he entered very busy villages and marketplaces. While there he would gather others and they would trail off to a mountain place, to "the road," welcoming others to join them and "try the Gospel way of life."

Francis might have said this today - or last evening - as he left a bar, a party, a residence hall on campus or work place. He was inclined to wonder with people about what was important and how they saw their future, inviting them to "seek first the reign of God and God's justice and all other things will be given to you besides." He might help us sort through our own wondering, whether we are at the start of, or in mid-life regarding the direction of our careers and how life might take us, how we might take our lives ... Read more.
Reserve Your Seat at 14th Annual Mountain Auction 

The Mountain's largest fundraising event features silent and live auctions at a new venue.


Where can you pick up a new trail cam, spa treatment, St. Bonaventure basketball tickets and a case of home-brewed beer made from Mountain spring water? The upcoming Mountain Auction to benefit Mt. Irenaeus!

This year's evening of food, fellowship and fun is planned for Nov. 1 at a new location - Premier Banquet Center on Constitution Avenue in Olean.
 

As in years past, the auction will feature a great selection of silent and verbal auction items - from wine baskets and vacation getaways, to jewelry, symphony tickets and appliances. Other highlights include a week's stay at a Cuba Lake cottage, a Finger Lakes getaway, a dessert party for 16 and four one-day Hopper Passes to Disney World.

 

Mass will begin at 5 p.m. followed by the auction at 6 p.m. Tickets are $50 per person and include cocktails, food stations and desserts. Call 716-375-2096 for reservations.

Online Auction to Feature Unique Items Nov. 14 - Nov. 23  
This year's online auction features a leather-bound Bible, inscribed and blessed by Fr. Dan Riley, ofm.

Want to continue the auction fun?

Looking for ways to involve Mountain supporters from around the country? Unable to attend the Mountain Auction? 

 

You and your friends can still get in on the action and support the Mountain by participating in the Mountain Online Auction. Many items with Franciscan and Mountain themes will be featured.

 

The Mountain Online Auction begins Nov. 14 and runs through Nov. 23. Stay tuned to the Mountain's Facebook page, website and e-newsletters for more exciting details.

 

Items up for bid include a leather-bound Bible, inscribed and blessed by Fr. Dan Riley, ofm, sports memorabilia, vacation packages, Bona sports items and special gifts that will bring the peace of the Mountain into your home.

Life in the Way of St. Francis: Seeing the God of Love Everywhere
Suzanne English, a secular Franciscan, shares her thoughts on the example of St. Francis of Assisi.

As the Feast of St. Francis approaches, I find myself reflecting on the meaning and expression of Franciscan life. What does it mean to live a life in the way of Francis, whose entire life after his conversion was dedicated to imitating Christ - and am I?

A core belief of the Franciscan way of life is that it is a life of love, one of the heart more than the mind. We know the source of that love. During a St. Bonaventure summer conference kicking off the celebration of the centenary of Thomas Merton's birth, fellow Bonaventure graduate Fr. Dan Horan, ofm, noted that Merton himself was a proponent of supralapsarian belief - that God did not send Jesus simply to repair the damage done by man's fall from grace, but would have sent Jesus even had the fall not occurred, out of his surpassing love.

That sense of God's overflowing, undeserved love and grace, too powerful to contain, washing away all my sins and holding me in his loving gaze, is what sustains me every day and is at the heart of our faith ... Read more.
Pictures from Our Past 
As the Mountain celebrates 30 years, we look back on its rich history. If you have old photos from the Mountain or a Mountain event you would like to share, please e-mail them to sholfoth@gmail.com.


Fr. Dan celebrates Mass on a pilgrimage to Assisi in 1997 with
students and the larger Mt. Irenaeus community. This photo was taken
at Greccio, where, according to tradition, St. Francis created the
first Nativity scene on Christmas night in 1223 in memory of the birth
of Jesus; Francis then celebrated Mass in front of the Nativity. 

A Closing Prayer
In honor of the feast of St. Francis Oct. 4, you may wish to reflect on the piece below - "Remembrance of the Desire of the Soul" by Thomas of Celano.

The statue of St. Francis at Mt. Ireneaus.
From the time in which Francis gave up transitory things and began to cling to the Lord, he allowed hardly a second of time to be wasted. Although he had brought into the treasury of the Lord a great abundance of merits, he remained always new, always ready for spiritual exercise.

He thought it a great offense not to be doing something good, and he considered not going forward as going backward.

Once, when he was staying in a cell near Siena, he called his
companions one night while they were sleeping and said to them,
"Brothers, I prayed to the Lord that he might show me when I am his servant and when I am not, for I want to be nothing except his servant. And now the gracious Lord himself in his mercy is giving this answer:

"Know that you are in truth my servant when you think, speak or do
things that are holy." 

Contact Us

 

Mt. Irenaeus
P.O. Box 100
West Clarksville, NY 14786
585-973-2470