Welcome

Greetings and blessings. In two days I will begin formation into religious life with the Capuchin Franciscan friars. After prayerful consideration of my friends’ kind encouragement, I have created this public diary to chronicle the journey.

This blog is conceived primarily for my friends and colleagues in Christian ministry. It is especially for my Protestant friends who are personally unfamiliar with the traditions and institutions of consecrated life in the Roman Catholic Church. It is, of course, for my Catholic sisters and brothers, who first formed me into a life of faith and Christian community. It is for my friends in the Jewish and Muslim faiths, the eldest and youngest daughters of Abraham. It is for my many Unitarian Universalist friends and secular humanist brothers and sisters, who subscribe to no doctrine and whose only creed is compassion. It is for people from all faiths and all people of good will. It is for seekers and settled believers. It is for pilgrims who know the road they are walking, and for wanderers who have no direction home. Lastly and firstly, this blog is for me as I work out my salvation in fear and trembling, and my liberation in a girding faith and joyful hope.

This public diary is conceived with little forethought to its form or substance. Your curiosity and questions will drive its development. I trust that with time and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I will know what to record in this journal and how to do it. Your correspondence will stimulate activity on this blog, I am sure!

There are numerous religious institutes for men and women within the Roman Catholic Church, more than I can count. I am joining one of the older and larger institutes, the Capuchin Franciscans. The Capuchins are a 500-year-old branch in the family tree planted by St. Francis of Assisi eight centuries ago. I hope this public diary gives you a glimpse of what consecrated life is like, through my experience of it with the Capuchin Franciscans of New York and New England.

I would love dearly to receive a word from you, through your comments on this public diary and personal contact. You can write to me at St. Michael Friary, 225 Jerome Street, Brooklyn, NY 11207. My telephone number at the friary is (718) 827-6990. You can send e-mail to anthonyzuba@gmail.com.

With God’s love and mine, in the manner of all Franciscans, I wish you peace and all good things. Thank you, friends, for being companions on the way.