Going to Philadelphia

Tonight and tomorrow I will be staying in the City of Brotherly Love with my Capuchin brothers.

We are meeting, for the first time, the postulants from the Province of St. Augustine at their house of formation. We will be joined by the postulants from the Province of the Stigmata of St. Francis. Together we will spend Saturday in a day of recollection for Advent. What is a day of recollection? Well, for me it is like a miniature retreat experience. We will meditate on the joyful mysteries of Christ, God-with-us, in worship and guided reflection.

With this journey, we will have made the acquaintance of nearly all the North American Capuchin postulants, having met the postulants from the Midwest and central Canada last month. We will not meet the brothers from the California and Colorado provinces until the pre-novitiate program in Victoria, Kan., late next May.

We may or may not be one brother short on this trip to Philadelphia. One of the postulants has come down with what sounds like laryngitis. Prayers, please, for the good health of the brothers in all our fraternities.

Please remember, too, one Matthew O'Hearn in your prayers. I never met Matthew, but he was a former novice with our province of the Capuchins. He died on Monday the 28th of cancer. He was only 37.

Here is a part of his death notice, provided by the Capuchins:

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We offer our prayers for the repose of the soul of former novice Matthew O’Hearn, who died at home in Cambridge, N.Y., after a long battle with cancer on Monday, Nov. 28, 2011, at the age of 37. 

Matthew was born on April 30, 1974 in Cambridge, N.Y. He began his postulancy at St. Michael Friary in Brooklyn, N.Y., in September, 2007; participated in the Interprovincial Postulancy Program in Victoria, Kan., in May, 2008, and invested as a novice on July 27, 2008.

Matthew Jonathan O’Hearn was the youngest child of Francis and Barbara Murray O’Hearn. He graduated from Cambridge Central School and received his Bachelor’s Degree from Wadhams Hall Seminary. He spent his life at different missions pursuing his dream to be in the religious life. He enjoyed walking and spending time at the beach in Maine. Matt was a parishioner of St. Joseph Church in Greenwich and a member of the Knights of Columbus Council of St. Patrick Church in Cambridge.