Franciscan Friars of the Renewal

Hi, I'm Fr.

Mark Mary with Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, and this is the Rosary in a Year podcast, where through prayer and meditation, the rosary brings us deeper into relationship with Jesus and Mary and becomes a source of grace for the whole world.

The Rosary in a Year is brought to you by Ascension.

This is day 274.

Well, of course, as I have stressed in this series, I was blessed very much in my life to be taught and cared for by religious sisters who were consecrated virgins.

And I'm delighted at the present time that our community of Franciscans of the Renewal has about thirty sisters.

And I am so delighted because the sisters I know in our community, and the Sisters of Life, and the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Church, and the Carmelites of Alhambra, and the Dominicans of Nashville, and so many others, are precisely what you talk about.

They are sisters for others.

Joining me now to talk about the early years of the Sheen cause and the role of our beloved Father Andrew Apostoli, uh, as many of, of you familiar with EWTN will remember Father Andrew.

Uh, and I'm joined by the advisory board member of the Sheen Foundation, Jerry Kearns, and a member of Father Andrew's order, the Friars, Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, Father John Anthony Boughton.

Thank you both for being here.

Thank you.

And then I became a Franciscan friar.

So I joined the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal after I graduated.

And the Renewal Friars in New York were founded by a Catholic psychologist, priest, friar named Father Benedict Rochelle.

So Father Benedict Rochelle, he's a big kind of – he was a celebrity, Catholic celebrity on EWTN, kind of Catholic world celebrity.

I transferred to Steubenville Franciscan University, and, uh, and then I was discerning religious life.

And so, um, after I graduated college, I actually joined the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.

Uh, I was a Franciscan for three and a half years in temporary vows.

And, and then through that work with a great mentor, Father Benedict Groeschel, I did a lot of my-

And I had a conversion experience in Medjugorje in 1988.

And this is what brought me to the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and Father Benedict Rochelle.

And this is how I wound up becoming the director of the St. Francis House.

Wonderful.

people don't know that.

OK.

And for maybe some of our listeners, some may have heard of Father Benedict Groeschel and the Greyfriars and the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.

They are well known here in Ireland.

Months after I went to Ireland with him on a pilgrimage.

He was one of the founders of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal with Benedict Rochel.

In an interview back in 2011 [lips smack] that airs on EWTN this month, he said Bishop Sheen admired Mother Teresa of Calcutta and the way that she did her work.

And I've heard Bishop Sheen on cassette tapes of ours talk about that.