Category Archives: Keep the Faith in Frankford

O Lord, St. Joachim People Are Grateful and Blessed!

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Over the weekend, we learned the process will begin this month to relegate St. Joachim Church and rectory in Frankford to profane use and that will enable it to be put up for sale.

Here we are in July 2020 and if this were a regular year, we would be getting ready  for our St. Joachim & St. Ann(e) Annual Feast Day Mass! But we know this is not a regular year!

St. Joachim closed and merged with Holy Innocents in July 2013. We know that Mater Dolorosa closed and merged, too, as did St. Joan of Arc, which has remained as an active Worship Site. Ascension was already a part of Holy Innocents Parish.

My intent is not to bring up the pros and cons of the PPA or to rehash what was an injustice and a wrong for us and for so many of the faithful throughout the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

I want to talk about what was right. St. Joachim is us; we are St. Joachim! We are the Catholic Church of Frankford. We are the Catholic community that stayed together – then and now. Keep the Faith in Frankford led the appeal effort to give us time – to do good in the community, to pray to Our Lady of the Locked Gates and to Padre Pio! Our prayers and so many others were heard.

It is unthinkable that a Church, especially in an urban diocese gets a new lease on life. But, thanks to the Capuchin Franciscans of the St. Augustine Province, we did. In 2016, they bought the former IHM convent for their, yes, Padre Pio Friary and have used the Church as the Padre Pio Prayer Center. What I am thinking is that Padre Pio may want them to annex the Church as well. St. Padre Pio, what do you think?

We are grateful to the Lord for these extra years of being able to celebrate Him within the walls of St. Joachim! He has blessed us, just like Lazarus, bringing us back from shuttered doors.

We’re grateful to former Archbishop Chaput! In the end, the Archbishop has to give the okay for whatever happens in the Archdiocese. Without his approval, the sale of the convent and arrival of the Capuchins would never have been. The Archbishop, too, had a daunting task when he arrived in Philadelphia. Thank you, Archbishop Chaput!

Father Tom (Higgins), Pastor, Holy Innocents Parish, from the beginning, was willing to meet with us and talk with us. We didn’t always get what we wanted but he never totally shut the door to us! Father was honest with us and very much in a very difficult position. I know Father worked very hard trying to find a way to re-open St. Joachim. We have got to balance our budgets; Father has his. As the years have passed, Father Tom has been more of a friend to us rather than as an adversary. We never saw him in that light but I’m sure he must have felt that way. Father was very receptive to new ideas and efforts to honor those buried in our cemetery and those still above. Thank you, Father Tom!

You may wonder why I can say we are grateful and blessed! But it’s because we are! It’s because of what we mean to each other! We have a special bond that nothing on earth can break. That will never change! The news of the possible relegation to profane use and sale hits the heart like a heat-seeking missile. But I also know that it’s not over yet! It will take time!

We had our one miracle; I don’t doubt the possibility of another. Going forward let us be the people of hope, diversity and faith! Whatever God’s plan is for St. Joachim and for us, it will be special! Because you and Frankford are special!

Faith Can Grow Even In A Pandemic

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For many of us, this isn’t the first time that our Churches have been closed to us. Many of us remember and will never forget when our Churches closed or merged a few years ago. This time, we are able to see live streamings of Masses and devotions! My sister-in-law wakes up at 5 AM so she can watch a Mass in Ireland! Like before, “Roaming Catholics” resulted; today, we have “Streaming Catholics”!

Yet, that closing also brought us an opportunity to learn how much our faith meant to us and the lengths that we would go to keep it alive! This was a real opportunity for grace and a time to see if our faith could withstand the test of our Church gates being locked and our faith community scattered. For some, it was just too much and the hierarchy could never be forgiven for what seemed like the ultimate betrayal. Some became bitter.

For others, they accepted the change and just moved on and visited other nearby Churches to find one that would be suitable and might feel like buy trenbolone online “home” someday.

Still others believed that we should make a stand, and had to in order to “save” our long and deep St. Joachim history for others who would come after us and for those who had gone before us as they kept the faith alive for us. It seemed impossible yet three years later, the Capuchin Franciscans of the Province of St. Augustine would need a place to move their Friary and to open a Prayer Center for the community of Frankford.  St. Joachim Church in Frankford was available and fit the bill for their needs.

Services would begin again (although a Mass is not yet being said for our weekly obligation) and the Friary and Prayer Center, named for St. Padre Pio, to whom we prayed as the Area Parish Pastoral Planning Process was taking place and in the years since, would become an integral part of Frankford.

As hard as it is now, especially with the celebration of Easter, our holiest of holy days, there are silver linings behind every cloud. If you’re really blessed, you get a rainbow.

That rainbow is extended to us to take our faith and what we believe and seriously live it out as witnesses each and every day. We don’t need buildings for that; we are Church! We have each other. And we have a God who is most willing, ready and able to abundantly bless us for all that we do in His name. He loves us, and, while we may not be able to visit Him at His house, we can invite him into each of ours. He can give us the courage to accept the challenges of this coronavirus, to take care of ourselves and our families, and, to be more creative in caring for the needs of others.

We have an opportunity, once again, to see just how much our faith matters in our daily lives and how real God is to us! When Mary Magdalen finds the tomb empty and runs to tell the disciples, let us, too, run to find the Lord! It won’t be hard to find Him! He is in our hearts, the hearts of our family and friends, in our neighbors across the street and across the country. If He is not there, it is because they do not fully know the “Good News”! We are tasked with this mission. That’s a post for another time!

God bless!! Happy Easter! Amen, Alleluia!

 

 

Upcoming Presentation at The Historical Society of Frankford

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Save the Date! You are cordially invited and most welcome to the first event at The Historical Society of Frankford. Join us on Tuesday, September 10, 7:30 PM at 1507 Orthodox St., parking on street and usually in the lot of Frankford Friends School! Light refreshments follow!
 
The first topic of the new year sheds light on “The Church Street Quarries (Deni Playground)” presented by John Hewitt and Bob Smiley! John Hewitt is a graduate of St. Joachim Catholic School and local historian and Bob Smiley is a prominent member of Keep the Faith in Frankford and the editor of “The Frankford Gazette”. 
 
Also, meet and greet the members of “The Friends of St. Joachim Cemetery”! Pat Smiley, President and Executive Director of Keep the Faith in Frankford and Holy Innocents Parish will introduce their new effort to clean up, restore and maintain the St. Joachim Cemetery located behind the Church at Griscom and Church Streets. Joseph Taylor, Co-ordinator of “The Friends of St. Joachim Cemetery” will detail our project and upcoming events! 
This is sure to be an exciting evening! Hope to see you there!!

Friends Bring New Life to St. Joachim Cemetery!

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A very special day! Keep the Faith in Frankford launched the first project of more to come for The Friends of St. Joachim Cemetery. Joe Taylor co-ordinates this effort and he approaches it like many things he’s done before – with a list of tasks. A holdover from his Navy days perhaps but Joe has been invaluable with his lists of to-do’s and sets of plans for any project we’ve done!

Joe, your skill helped you and the Friends to be so successful today! Well done and we owe you, Maureen Taylor, and all who helped today our thanks!

Joe and Maureen Taylor are the “perfect people” to head this effort. Before the Capuchin Franciscans arrived, Keep the Faith in Frankford had a committee we called, “St. Joachim Sanitation Saints”. We would periodically clean Griscom St. along the rectory and cemetery and Church St. in front of the Church. Before this year’s Annual Feast Day Mass, Bob Smiley and I saw Joe and Maureen at their house and they mentioned being down around Church earlier that day. I asked, “What were you doing there?” and was told, they were cleaning up in preparation for Mass. Good people!

It was a hot Saturday morning in Philly yesterday – a heat alert was in effect by mid-afternoon, yet all who came out in the morning could have stayed home, done other things or nothing at all, but they wanted to help clean up the final resting place for people they might have known or for people that they didn’t know at all. As we continue this effort, we do want you to get to know the stories of the people who are buried here. These are the people who “kept the faith” for us for over 175 years.

Gina Christian, Senior Content Producer and Host of InsideCatholicPhilly.com podcast, came by, today, too! Thank you, Gina, for getting the word out there for us on Catholic Philly! Continued blessings and much success in your efforts!

Many thanks, Fr. Tom Higgins, Pastor, Holy Innocents Parish, for approving this project and for supporting it with your hard work, today, too. Father has always been supportive of our programs to honor those Veterans who are buried in our cemetery. To you, Father, Joe and Maureen Taylor, Brian McCloskey, Tom McAvoy, Julia, Lorenzo and Sal Roldan and Sean Brassil, a hearty and grateful “Thank You” for your efforts. May God continue to bless you for your generosity of time and talent!

To those who were not able to come today, we thank you for your donations of money and wanting to help, and to keep informed, you can find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/thefriendsofstjoachimcemetery/ and on the web at https://keepthefaithinfrankford.org/the-friends-of-st-joachim-cemetery/

Here’s some of what The Friends of St. Joachim Cemetery were able to accomplish today! See you next time!

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXiwfTSunrE[/embedyt]

 

 

Our Annual Feast Day Mass to Honor Sts. Joachim and Ann, July 27, 2019, St. Joachim Church, Frankford

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We are so happy that our Annual Feast Day Mass was such a special one! Over 80 people attended our 6th Annual Feast Day Mass on Saturday, July 27, 2019, 4 PM at St. Joachim Church in Frankford. We merged with Holy Innocents Parish on July 1, 2013. Keep the Faith in Frankford was established just for this purpose – to keep the faith in Frankford. Mater Dolorosa, St. Joachim and St. Joan of Arc all merged into Holy Innocents on that day. Earlier, Ascension parishioners had merged as well.

When we filed our appeal, little did we know that 3 1/2 years later, the Capuchin Franciscans would purchase our former Convent for the Padre Pio Friary and then reopen St. Joachim to house the Padre Pio Prayer Center. We started, because of Father Steve, praying to Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, at the end of every Mass during the Area Pastoral Planning Process. Once it was decided we would merge, within a year or two, Keep the Faith in Frankford was opening its weekly meetings with the same prayer! Someone heard our prayer!! 🙂

The Capuchin Franciscans of the St. Augustine Province arrived in July, 2016 and St. Joachim Church continues to serve Frankford and beyond today! God has been very good to us! This is most unusual for one of our Churches to be re-opened. Below is the schedule that was first posted!

Many people are sustanon 350 for sale owed thanks for their contributions and participation in our celebration this past Saturday. Keep the Faith in Frankford organizes, plans, provides the program and refreshment for these yearly Feast Day Masses. We would like to thank Father Thomas Higgins, Pastor, Holy Innocents Parish, for both his help, support and being our yearly celebrant! I just met Brother Alex Hostoffer, who, along with Brother Andrew McCarty, supervises and directs the efforts of the Padre Pio Prayer Center. PPPC is in very good hands. Thank you, both, for all of your help in preparing the Church for this Mass and our refreshments after. Brother Kip Ledger is the Guardian of the Friary and we thank you, Brother Kip and the Postulants for setting up and cleaning up for us. Every year, we are “wowed” with the caliber of the young men who are interested in following the way of St. Francis. There are already powerful women in the Church – we need only look at Sr. Kathleen Anderson, SSJ, Pastoral Minister, HI, Sr. Catherine Glackin, IHM, Pastoral Care, HI, and Sr. Linda Lukiewski, SSJ, for your presence and support! We are indeed very blessed! Please be assured of all of our prayers for each one of you in your ministries.

A Mass doesn’t really happen without the laity in the pews. To all of you who attended and were able to brave the heat, God bless you, we count on you! To our Lectors, Marco Osuna, Helen Greenberg and Maureen Taylor, thank you! To those who brought up our gifts – Jack Pfiel, Sabina Baker-Tegeder, Mary and Preston Moretz, and Joe Taylor, thank you! To our ushers, Bill McGeehan, Sr., Bob Smiley and Joe Taylor, thank you so much! We owe many, many thanks to our superb and St. Joachim favorite Cantor, John McCabe. John selected our beautiful and inspiring music! Well done, John! And to my very good friend, Sr. Rita Keller, IHM,who stepped in to help us as organist when we really needed her, many thanks! Your musical talent is a gift – some of the music Sister hadn’t seen until she arrived from Virginia!!

For those of you unable to attend or to just experience the joy of this day, again, please take a look at the following video! Every one of these faces in this video is special to us! Each of you showed we could really be “One With the Lord”!!! Next year is 2020! 🙂

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WAH9PvqMwQ[/embedyt]

 

 

What Happens At A Frankford Forward Prayer Vigil and Witness?

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Frankford Forward Logo 1For those of you who think about joining us when we announce a Prayer Vigil and Standing Witness Against Violence in our community, might want to know exactly what’s involved.

Part of Frankford Forward’s mission, and one that many feel deeply about, is our efforts at responding to violence in our community. Two days after we learn that someone is a victim of violence, at 6:30 PM, we gather at the site where it occurred. These Vigils are 15 – 30 minutes long. We have signs that we hold or not and we gather together. Recent efforts had us meeting the family of the victim and praying with them and, another, we walked two blocks meeting our neighbors and inviting them to join with us. Several people expressed an interest in our next Frankford Forward meeting which is Monday, June 27, 6:00 PM at St. Mark’s Church. Yat kiralama

This past Saturday, we ended with a prayer. Sometimes, we begin with a prayer. We do what seems best at the time. This is an important activity that we hope you will want to join, too. It is rewarding, we are meeting people who mostly appreciate what we are trying to do. We want peace in our neighborhoods. We want people to feel safe. We can do this – with your help.

Sadly, another young man was shot and killed in the middle of the day at Bridge St. and Torresdale Avenue, Tuesday, June 21. Man Shot, Chased and Killed in Frankford Identified Frankford Forward will gather there on Thursday, June 23, 6:30 PM. Many of us are going to the PSA 1 Meeting at Aria Frankford at 7:00 PM where we can meet with the police and talk about this situation. There have been 4 shootings in this area resulting in 2 deaths and 2 injured within the last 2-3 weeks. Something is definitely going on here.

Please take the time to view this 1 minute movie to better understand what we do. We hope to see you Thursday evening!!

Keep the Faith in Frankford Steps Into History!

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Our Step Into History Tours #1 and #2 were a success. Those who attended agreed that it was informative, enlightening and a good way to spend some time on a Sunday afternoon.

Our next Step Into History Tour #3 takes place on Sunday, June 5. We will be touring the sites of former mills, mansions that the owners lived in and we hope to get inside some of these magnificient edifices for a peek.

As always, each tour begins at the Grand Army of the Republic Museum for a personalized tour given by Dr. Andy Waskie. Then we visit the sites in Frankford for that particular day. We finish at The Historical Society of Frankford for a wrap-up and light refreshments.

We hope you join us! Step Into History Tours Flyer

 

 

Prayer of Healing by “The Priest of the Holy Card”

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One of the most rewarding ministries I think we do as Keep the Faith in Frankford is pray for those in need. At every prayer service and every meeting, whenever we gathJesus healing Centurion's daughterer together, one of our intentions is that the Lord touch those in need of healing in mind, body and spirit and they feel the power of our prayers as well as God’s comfort. We will also mention by name those we know or those for whom we have been asked to prayer for. This is important to us as community means all of us – not just those who are physically present with us. My favorite story in the Bible is the Centurion who sends the Jewish elders to ask Jesus to heal his servant but has such faith that he tells rexobol 50 his servants to tell Jesus, as he’s approaching the Centurion’s home, “Lord, do not bother about it, for I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof. Therefore, I did not feel worthy to come to you, but say the word and let my servant be healed.”

I recently received an email from a dear cousin asking for prayers for a couple at her church. My cousin included The Prayer of Healing that was written by Father Larry Hess from the Lehigh Valley. Also, another good friend asked for prayers for one of her friend’s family members going through some recurring problems. Initially, I was  going to post right away on Facebook asking for those prayers but something intrigued me about Father Hess and I wanted to learn more about him and his Prayer of Healing.

As a young priest, Father Hess was involved in hospital ministry and known for his healing prayers said at each patient’s bedside. He would pray with each of the patients individually and spontaneously. The more he prayed with them the more he formalized his prayer and he wrote it down. He wrote it down he said, “So I wouldn’t forget it”. Father would also serve for many years at Notre Dame High School, Muhlenberg College, Cedar Crest College and Kutztown University. Many came to feel as one of God’s unique children because of Father’s kindness and patience.

He would later be pastor of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Bangor, PA and served at St. Vincent de Paul Mission in Portland, PA. Father’s last assignment was as Pastor of St. Anthony of Padua, in his hometown of Reading, in the Millmont neighborhood. Father was the 8th Pastor of St. Anthony and he oversaw the renovations of the church and school in anticipation of their 100th Anniversary in April, 2014. Father Hess would not live to see it as he passed away in February, 2014 at the young age of 63. He had been a priest for 35 years. He had such a personality that others were drawn to him and, through him, to Jesus. Father Hess was also a dynamic preacher, too!

Writing down his prayer enabled Father to make prayers cards for those he ministered to and to others who heard about his healing prayer. At the time of his death over 10,000 of his prayer cards were being asked for here in the US as well as other countries. His legacy came to be that he was “The Priest of the Holy Card”. I tried to find out if the holy cards were still available. It took some real detective work. As we know, churches close and merge, and I thought I wouldn’t learn the answer to that question. But through comments on a web post, I learned that Our Lady of Good Counsel and St. Vincent de Paul Mission Church merged. I called the rectory and their automated response asked if you were looking for the holy cards to contact David Rugh.

I called David Rugh to learn that he is the nephew of Father Hess and the family has taken over the sale and distribution of these holy cards. Now called prayer-warrior“Heavenly Father Card” as those are the beginning words of Father’s prayer, you can order them through their website, www.heavenlyfathercard.org. They also have cd’s and dvd’s of Father’s talks and sermons. They ask for modest donations to cover shipping and handling. Heavenly Father Cards are available in Spanish, too. You can get prayer cards that are for you to say for yourself or prayer cards for someone you are praying for their healing. Well, we will be ordering cards as I know that those we serve would welcome them in a special way. We have much to pray for. We are prayer warriors, too!

Here is Father Hess’s Prayer of Healing. When praying this prayer, just replace the “I” words with the name or intention for whomever you are praying. God will know who you mean.

“Heavenly Father, I call on you right now in a special way. It is through your power that I was created. Every breath I take, every morning I wake and every moment of every hour, I live under your power.
For if you created me from nothing, you can certainly re-create me. Fill me with the healing power of your spirit. Cast out anything that should not be in me. Mend what is broken. Root out any unproductive cells. Open up any blocked arteries or veins and rebuild any damaged areas. Remove all inflammation and cleanse any infection.
Let the warmth of your healing love pass through my body to make new any unhealthy areas so that my body will function the way you created it to function.
And Father, restore me to full health in mind, body and spirit, so I may serve you the rest of my life.
I ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Please pray for my cousin’s friends and my friend’s family member. And, say a prayer for Father Hess, too!  Thank you and God bless you!

Some links you might be interested in:

Former Easton priest make mark in the world with healing prayer card

Reverend Larry J Hess Obituary

Parishioners say goodbye as Millmont Catholic Church closes

Reverend’s healing prayer provides comfort to many

Prayer of healing by Rev. Larry J. Hess of St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church

Ecumenical Lenten Prayer Services Offered

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All are invited and welcome to our Ecumenical Prayer Services on Wednesday evenings, February 17 – March 23, 2016. Sponsored by Keep the Faith in Frankford and held at St. Mark’s Church, 4442 Frankford Avenue, beginning at 6:30 PM! Join us for an opportunity to renew your soul with the Word and your body with cake and coffee!! Bring a friend or two!Got Faith Sessions