Just a quick update on the chaplet
project. So far we have had requests from 5 regions for chaplets. That covers 133 fraternities who have now received their
chaplets! Or at least I can say the regional ministers of all those
fraternities have received them for distribution. At the bottom of the email
you can see the record of where chaplets have gone so far.

And during my pilgrimage trip to
Assisi, I shared the chaplet prayer with Secular Franciscans from all over.
Although I did not have a chaplet to give to each, I did give them one of the
beautiful Franciscan Family Prayer cards and explain the project. Here are the
people/places the prayer went through contacts on the trip:

• Joseph, a minister of a fraternity in Japan. He is Japanese, is married to a
  Phillipina woman and the fraternity is predominately Phillipina – they
  will be praying the prayer.
• One of their members is now living and working in Italy
  and she promises to share this with her new
  Italian fraternity.
• Estelle – a woman from
  England who has now committed to enter a Poor Clare monastery in
  Wales. She will take the prayer to the Abbess and seek permission for them
  to use it in the monastery
• Kathy from Canada
  will share the prayer with her fraternity there and encourage them to pray
  it
• Bret, the tour leader, is a secular from Atlanta and
  will share with his fraternity (however I think his region is one that
  already received the chaplets)
• Other American states represented in the tour and
  receiving prayer cards included: Oregon, California, Georgia, Pennsylvania

I prayed the prayer – and many others – for all of us Franciscans and for you my fellow fraternity members in
many places in Assisi and Rome during the pilgrimage. What a blessing!! See you
next Sunday at 2 pm. Your servant leader – Lore (Minister of St. Thomas More fraternity-Houston, TX)

PEARLAND, TEXAS  

Court St. Helen #2330 makes 660+ Chaplets

pearland, tx, april 20, 2011:
Court St. Helen #2330 in Pearland,
Texas, made over 660 Chaplets for the St. Thomas More Fraternity of the Secular
Franciscan Order and presented them to Lorene Payne, the SFO Minister of the Fraternity,
at the Court’s February 2011 meeting.

The Rosary committee of Court St. Helen is diligent about
making Rosaries for distribution to the youth and others of the Parish.  However, when Lorene Payne contacted the
Court with the idea of making over 600 Chaplets for the St. Thomas More
Fraternity, it seemed like a daunting task.
With the coordination of obtaining supplies and organizing the rosary/chaplet
makers, the task was accomplished with more than 660 chaplets made to be
distributed to the Secular Franciscan Order Fraternities across the United
States.

Franciscan Brother Nick, well-known to Court St. Helen
#2330, was inspired to write the Franciscan Family Prayer
(three-decade)chaplet. Each decade of the chaplet represents a branch of the
Franciscans (religious brothers & priests, religious women, and
layity).

Lorene stated “Nick introduced the prayer to us, and we were
moved by the idea of spreading this blessed prayer across the nation!  Is disseminating it to all Franciscans
impossible? We began making chaplets with more enthusiasm and prayer than
talent for rosary making. The plan was to send the prayer and a chaplet to each
of over 700 fraternities in the United States.

It began to seem impossible: if we continued at our slow pace it would
take years.

Then the Spirit intervened through the Catholic Daughters of
America.  The local Pearland, Texas court
offered to make all of the chaplets needed for the project!  God bless the Catholic Daughters! San Damiano
crosses were obtained and the chaplets were finished.

We were so indebted to the ministry of the Catholic
Daughters that so generously gave of their time, talent and treasure to help
make this project a success by completing almost 700 chaplets! We couldnot have
made them ourselves.

The next step of this spirit-driven project has begun: the
Franciscan Family Prayer has been submitted to Cardinal
DiNardo in hopes of obtaining the nihil obstat and Imprimatur before we can
send the chaplets and prayer across the country.  When the chaplets go out, there will be
included a small paper indicating the important part the Catholic Daughters
played in the spreading of this prayer and chaplet.  May its impact be felt across the country.
Pax et Bonum.”

-End-