"Making All Things New" February 2016
In This Issue
E-newsletter Survey
Fr. Dan's Column
Upcoming Events
Holy Week Schedule
Mountain on Instagram
Nature's Corner

What can nature teach us about Lent? 

When you look at these photos you see frozen ponds, right? There is ice, which is water in a
different form, and under the ice is water in another form. If you go deeper, there is mud. In the mud are life forms waiting for longer warm days and then rebirth.

Lent is a time for us to go deeper in our lives and hope to experience new life in Christ Jesus.
 
Peace, Br. Joe Kotula, ofm

Be Still

As you journey through Lent, consider taking time out of your day to slow down, listen and meditate.

Visit our "Be Still" webpage, which features prayer resources and audio meditations for you to engage in this practice.

Fr. Dan's Podcasts
 



Find Lenten Focus with the FRIAR App
 
Prayer, fasting, alms-giving: these are the pillars of Lent. This Lenten season, join the U.S. Franciscans every day on the FRIAR app. 

Each day, they will post a special Lenten Good Deed to help you make your 40 days more focused, more prayerful and more Franciscan as we make our way to Easter on March 27.

Download the free app today! (Just search "friars" in your device's app store).

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Each time you purchase from Amazon, we encourage you to shop at smile.amazon.com
where you can select Mt. Irenaeus to receive 0.5 percent of your total purchase price.

Many small donations can make a big difference! 


We would greatly appreciate your participation!

Connect with us!
Annual E-newsletter Survey 

We're asking our e-newsletter subscribers to take a brief, seven-question survey to gauge your thoughts and preferences on the content of our monthly e-newsletter. Each year we try to implement your suggestions and improve our content based on your responses. 


Answers are anonymous. Thank you in advance for helping us learn how to improve the Mountain's e-communications.
Sharing Meals and Scripture this Lent 
Fr. Dan Riley, ofm, suggests a Lenten practice based on the Franciscan tradition of breaking bread together and sharing conversation on the Word of God. 

"One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God." Matthew 4:4

Family meals, for many of us
The St. Bonaventure men's swim team enjoys a meal and conversation at the Mountain last December.
these days, are a challenge. Extended workdays, after-school activities and various other things compete for an evening meal together that we would otherwise hold dear.

During Lent we often think, in looking for a practice of prayer or fasting, "What it is that I might give up this Lent?" I wonder with you now if we might rather consider what we might take on, or do, this Lent, rather than what we might give up or set aside?

God's Word was a basic diet for early Christians and early Franciscans. In fact, Holy Scriptures are the food for many people for their daily life. Men and women who went before us shared meals and some shared the Word of God as part of their daily sustenance as well ... Read more.
Mountain on the Road and in the Home
A small group gathers for conversation during an October 2015 retreat in Raleigh, N.C.
Rochester Institute of Technology
Thursday, Feb. 25
Mountain in the Home 
Call the Mountain office for details (716-375-2096)

Cleveland, Ohio
Friday, Feb. 26
Mountain on the Road
7 p.m. at St. Edward's High School
13500 Detroit Ave., Lakewood, OH
Contact Joe Flanagan, director of alumni services at SBU, for details at jflan@sbu.edu or 716-375-2375

Detroit, Michigan 
Saturday, Feb. 27
Mountain on the Road
1 p.m. at St. Paul Conference Center
23333 Schoolcraft Ave., Detroit, MI
Contact Joe Flanagan for details at jflan@sbu.edu or 716-375-2375
 
Chicago, Illinois
Sunday, Feb. 28
Mountain on the Road - Mass & Reception
10:30 a.m. at St. Peter's in the Loop
110 W. Madison, Chicago, IL
Contact Joe Flanagan for details at jflan@sbu.edu or 716-375-2375

Rochester, New York
Monday, Feb. 29
Mountain in the Home
Call the Mountain office for details (716-375-2096)

San Ramon, California
Friday, March 4
Mountain in the Home
6 p.m. at the home of Erin & Greg Cicatelli
Please RSVP to mmarc@sbu.edu by Friday, Feb. 19. We may need to reschedule if we do not hear from enough people.

Denver, Colorado 
Tuesday, March 22
Mountain on the Road 
6 to 8 p.m. at the Rhein Haus
1415 Market St., Denver, CO
Join Fr. Dan Riley and Joe Flanagan for conversation while enjoying authentic German appetizers. $20 per person with cash bar. 
Contact Joe Flanagan for details at jflan@sbu.edu or 716-375-2375

*** If you're not able to join us on the road, then we've re-created a
Holy Week Mass Schedule
 
March 24 at 6:30 p.m.
Liturgy of the Lord's Supper & dish-to-pass supper
 
March 25 at noon
Simple soup and salad lunch & meditative walk in the woods
Liturgy of the Passion, followed by silence on the land and in the Chapel


March 26
11 a.m. - Morning Prayer by the pond
9 p.m. - Easter Vigil


March 27 at 11 a.m.
Easter Mass, followed by dish-to-pass brunch
The Mountain on Instagram 
Enjoy this recent post from Fr. Dan. For more, follow @mtirenaeus.

So much before us seems familiar - so familiar that we barely look upon it, consider it, truly see it. The Lenten season is a time to open our senses, to wake up to the One who is here for us, calling us further into His life.
 
Behold now the kingdom, see with new eyes! The temptation is to not look at, not pay attention to what is truly here - but all of God's mercy and salvation is at hand for us now.

His cross is our way, and is a passageway. It is entered through Christ's tender, daily loving, dying and rising. He is the one who threw his entrance open for all of us. Whether it's our suffering or confusion or endurance of others' suffering or confusion, the cross is the place of conversion, a true and deep change of heart.
 
This is the time in our own lives and in the world when, with openness to Christ's teaching through prayer and fasting and our daily journey, we can truly be transformed and transform others in the world together. This is "the way of the cross" today. It is not only bearing our cross, it is allowing our cross to bear us, to enter the passage of death to new life, to be lifted up in Christ and His Father through the spirit of transformation and the newness of life!

Contact Us

 

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