Peace… Renewal… Good…
Peace… Renewal… Good…
Franciscan Renewal Center
480-948-7460
Charlie Brown’s talk to the community of Our Lady of the Angels Conventual Church
October 17, 2010
We celebrate in our many mission moments. In other words, those thousands of interactions between people and organizations accomplished thru the good people of the Casa and the Holy Spirit. We are a welcoming oasis with open and sacred grounds. We hear this over and over from the many visitors to the Casa each year; 2010 has not been any different, please read the quotes in our Annual Report just released. You will be impressed how God has led people to the Casa to be well received by our community. God is expressed thru vibrant liturgy, spiritual growth and transformation in community and through the lens of Franciscan spirituality and theology. We surrender to God who is fullness of love and all goodness. All we possess is God’s gift to us to shepherd until we leave this life. All we do in this life is to celebrate God in our Lives.
In 1951, Fr. Owen Da Silva from the Franciscan Province of St. Barbara arrived in Scottsdale and founded the Franciscan Renewal Center. Over the years our mission has evolved and changed to address issues in a world much changed since 1951. This spiritual energy personifies our communal love in action.
The Franciscan Spirituality of a loving benevolent God is the heart of our charism here. With close to 80% of Americans identifying with a distant, judgmental and authoritative God, the Franciscan message, namely the humility of God, expressed in a human birth, suffering on the cross and presence in the bread and wine . In a sense, God, expressed by st. francis, clare and Franciscans… first meets us where we are on life’s journey and then constantly chases, reforms and re-energizes us…He merely desires our love, companionship and goodness. The Casa is that kind of peaceful place. Here, God is constantly chasing you, trying to engage with you, so you can help make the world a better place for all of God’s children. God loves us and seeks us out just as we are, freeing ourselves from the tyranny of self despair and endless striving to be good enough.
Thank you for supporting this belief system, with your contributions at Sunday liturgy and by attending and supporting our ministerial programs.
The Franciscan Renewal Center, originally called Casa de Paz y Bien served over 120,000 people this year in a rich variety of programs and events. Over the last four years, our church membership has grown from 1200 to 3145 and our nonprofit group attendees, who use our facility, have grown by 30% to 10,850, 275 individual groups (5 to 6 groups per week). We have become a collaborative hub in the non-profit arena for good organizations to do their good work through us and at our sacred place. The Casa is recognized internationally as a unique and first class campus of good hospitality. Thousands tell us that they love our Franciscan way. There are many points of passion for all of you here at the Casa. Each has their own experience of where their passion emerged. We live out our lives in relationship because God is relational.
Education, especially our signature Franciscan programs, continues to distinguish us. Our value driven mission to be a place of Franciscan teaching and renewal, committed to spiritual growth of others, is expressed in our catalog and website. Our programs, counseling and social action activities address the poverty of spirit, about which Jesus came to show the way. People want to come to this place to know the Lord in response to the action of the Spirit in their lives. We are reminded to Love the Poor.
Last year, the Casa had an operational deficit of $491,000 dollars. Through our planned fundraising and endowment distribution of 4% we achieved breakeven again. Without fundraising the Casa would not be able to serve and transform. In this year of serving others, out of use wood shops were converted to retreat space and conference rooms, other buildings were renovated, staff were added to social justice programs; in fact one staff member had to move into a closet for his office…that’s Franciscan poverty…..and a development team through the help of the Virginia Piper Trust was formed. Yet, the need is still there each and every year as buildings age and strategic planning challenges us to build upon our heritage. The grain of wheat, that is, what we are now, will just remain what it is, unless we choose to respond to the call of God in our future and then take bold steps to proclaim and become what we are called to be through the goodness of God. We don’t own these results, God does. We need to remember that all good thoughts and deeds belong to God, not to us. We are not the authors of goodness. Goodness is not our property to dispose of as we wish. We must not own or direct any good to ourselves by bending it to serve our selfish intentions. The dream of Father’s Owen, Conrad, Michael, Barry, Ray, Ben, Luis, Alex, Rusty, Larry, Sebastian, Gino, Alonso, Peter, Joe and brother Mario continues for our Casa community. Thank God for that dream and what it means for the future of the Casa.
In the last few years, planning has been on- going with the Casa staff, board of directors and various volunteer committees throughout our community. We have communicated that our strategic plan is to understand what it will take to insure our future, serving our growing Casa community and stabilizing our financial future. Our communal life and ministry is successful in attracting more people to come and be a part of our life together. People want to come to this place to know the Lord.
A conceptual master plan is developing as are studies to determine our requirements for capital resources to fund our future.
You will hear more about these initiatives in time and about steps we must take to understand our needs to serve the poor in our community. These poor are both the economic poor and the spiritually poor. With so many coming to the Casa planning is essential. Peace and spiritual renewal are very worthwhile; we strive for both in this community. This spiritual space is filled with people seeking a more personal relationship with God Sunday after Sunday. It really is amazing sometimes, when you comprehend the number of people seeking peace here at the Casa all week long. It is good. We are blessed. We are a catalyst for change in understanding how to fall in love with Christ again and again. The message of Francis and Clare was and is today, love the poor. We are all poor. We are all in need of relationship…We are all dependent on a Good, Loving and Relational God.
All are welcome; many are coming: but sometimes there is no room. Jesus told Francis…Rebuild my church; he began; for 800 years Franciscans and their communities continue to rebuild the church. The Casa is unique to the world. Nowhere else; nowhere; does the activity that is manifested here in such a variety of ways, happen like it does at the Casa. I am sure of it. Diversity is universally endorsed as a strong value of the community at our Franciscan renewal center. Diversity is the result of the openness and welcoming nature of our community; rather than an objective to be achieved. it just happens over and over again.
We all participate in the goodness at the Casa. Give to the Casa annual appeal this year and support the many needs, as we address the hunger people have for Peace…Renewal…and Good. We simply can’t do it …without you and your many gifts. We need you. Christ needs you. Our annual appeal kicks off today and will end in January. We are moved to help our neighbor and serve. This appeal supports the annual budget for our staff and friars to complete the good work of the Casa. This year, if you have not contributed to this once-a-year-ask for direct support of the Casa, I ask that join your fellow community members and do so. We have many needs and we work very hard to be good stewards of your gifts. We recognize that every individual is specifically gifted and called by God to grow, spiritually, intellectually, emotionally and physically. Let us celebrate this gift of the Casa by helping reach our annual appeal goal of $320,000.
Remembering that it is not what we have, rather, it is what we are attached to that indicates how poverty is a part of our spiritual life or not. Thank you for your prayers and generous hearts.
May God Continue to bless us, the friars and this sacred place we love~ The Casa.
Charles Brown
GM
Franciscan Renewal Center
Talk to the community 10/17/2010
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