October 2011 CFR Vocations eLetter

Making Room

Do you have any room for us?

I am still considered to be somewhat of a new friar. I remember just a few years ago having a cell phone, a Facebook account, a laptop, and being consumed by news and information. There was something attractive about being “plugged in” and “in the know,” which all the technology allowed me to do. But things started to change when I started discerning. Like Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem, I noticed there wasn’t much room in my life or my heart for the Lord to speak. I had to make room, and it wasn’t easy.

I can't hear you O Lord!

Whether we know it or not things such as our cell phone use, Facebook time, or time watching movies or listening to our Ipods can often hurt more then help our discernment. One of the goals of discernment, especially at the beginning, is to form a discerning heart, one that is capable of hearing the Lord’s voice and responding to His movements in our lives. When our time and energy are spent worrying about texting, updating our Facebook status, while having our Ipod in our ears wherever we go, it is difficult to hear the Lord. I am of course not talking about a complete fast. The Friars even sometime use the internet and enjoy watching movies. But for all of us a good balance is to be desired and sought.

There's just something wrong about this picture

The end goal is to hear the Lord, to make a place for him in our lives, to speak and to move. A good reality check for all of us and a good question to consider is whether there is room for the Lord to do just that. In the end, we all can make more room. We all can spend less time on the phone, the computer, or engulfing ourselves in noise to make more room for silence, which is where we know the Lord speaks.

What are you plugged into?

Take a moment. Examine how “plugged in” you are. And today make a little more room for Him who in the end is much more exciting and fulfilling then the new updated Facebook Status or the breaking news online. With more room to work in our lives, the Lord will guide us and lead us to what are hearts desire and our ultimate vocation and call.

Br. Angelus Immaculata Montgomery, CFR

Saint Joseph Friary

523 W. 142nd St. 

New York, NY 10031

Interested in learning more? Give us a call!

(212)281-4355









Check it out ...
+ Pope warns of "virtuality" overtaking "reality" and says that monasteries clear contaminated air
    (October 11, 2011)


+ Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy: A priest must be simultaneously little and great, noble in spirit as a king, simple and natural as a peasant. A hero in overcoming himself, sovereign of his desires, a servant of the little ones and weak ones...
   (October 3, 2011)


+ Pope's address to seminarians in Germany (Sept. 26, 2011)


+ Pictures of our new Postulants (Sept. 8, 2011)