ST. MARY (SNR) – The parish of St. Mary in St. Mary will hold an open house Oct. 10 to welcome Brother Max and Brother Anthony of the Knights of the Holy Eucharist to the new St. Mary Friary.
Parishioners will have breakfast in the church basement after the 8 a.m. Mass, and walk-through tours of the friary recently remodeled for the Knights.
“Many parishioners worked hard and long hours on our recent interior church renovation (in 2018),” said pastor Father Craig Clinch, “and it is wonderful to be able to share the fruit of that labor with our new Franciscan Community – the Knights of the Holy Eucharist, and to all visitors who come to pray and lift up their hearts to the Lord at St. Mary Church.”
The Knights of the Holy Eucharist came to the Diocese of Lincoln in 2016. Their order was established in 1998 by Mother Angelica of the Annunciation, P.C.P.A., foundress of EWTN Global Network. At that time, she needed a community of consecrated Franciscan brothers to help her care for 400 acres of land and the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, then still under construction in Hanceville, Ala.
The brothers’ main apostolate is fostering reverent devotion to the Eucharistic King. They offer talks, server training and other charitable works in the diocese. Most of the Knights currently live in a friary at Sacred Heart Parish in Lincoln and at Our Lady of Good Counsel Retreat House in Waverly.
In 2016, Father Clinch said, the parishes of St. Mary in St. Mary and St. Andrew Parish in Tecumseh invited the Knights of the Holy Eucharist to join the parishes in a pilgrimage walk from St. Andrew Church to St. Mary Church, a distance of about 9 miles.
“I met several of the brothers on that occasion,” he said. “I specifically remember one of the brothers asking to place a Rosary in the hands of the Blessed Mother Mary Statue at St. Mary’s. I thought that was fitting as our patroness is Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, and the statue’s gesture is the Blessed Mother holding the Christ Child and giving her children the Rosary to pray. And what did our Blessed Mother tell us at Fatima? ‘Pray the Rosary every day, in order to obtain peace for the world’ and ‘I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue always to pray the Rosary every day…’”
Soon after, he said, Brother David asked about the convent at St. Andrew, if that could be a potential friary one day. While that building was not available, more discussions led to the possibility of using the rectory at St. Mary, which had been used as a CCD center since the 1980s. They consulted Bishop James Conley and Clinch presented the idea to the trustees and parish council, who were in favor of the idea.
Building assessments led to digging a new well for the church and rectory/friary.
“We now have better quality water at both locations,” Father Clinch said.
Parishioners assisted with the digging, and with much more: cleaning, removing old carpet, moving furniture, moving catechetical supplies and books to the church basement, which they prepared as the new location of CCD classes. As the open house date neared, Father Clinch said most of the work was complete on the house, except for putting more insulation in the attic to help with heating and cooling efficiency.
Brother Max and Brother Anthony moved into the newly renovated “St. Mary Friary” Sept. 23, the feast of St. Padre Pio, a great Franciscan Friar, Father Clinch pointed out. A third brother will be coming in the near future.
Reflecting on the project, Clinch said there were several reasons how and why the Knights of the Holy Eucharist came to St. Mary’s: “God’s providence, the intercession of our Blessed Mother, the persistence of the Knights of the Holy Eucharist, the hospitality of the parishioners of St. Mary, the generosity of the Knights’ benefactors, and the work of carpenters, plumbers, electricians, and other workers and parishioners” who helped turn the old rectory/CCD center into a friary.
He looks forward to having the brothers praying the Divine Office in St. Mary Church and offering hours of Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament, “a great blessing for our parish and the community.” “Having them serve holy Mass at St. Mary and St. Andrew is a great help as well,” he said. “The vocation to consecrated life that these brothers are living is a powerful reminder to us that we are pilgrims on this earth, that we are all called to be holy, that we must set our hearts on the things above, and that our citizenship is in Heaven.”
He said when people attend the open house, they will see “a beautiful and simple house where these brothers now live in community, study, and pray.”
“I am so grateful to the parishioners at St. Mary who are very devoted to their parish following the example of their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents, many of whom brought the Catholic Faith with them from their beloved country of Poland,” he added.
“Many parishioners worked hard and long hours on our recent interior church renovation and it is wonderful to be able to share the fruit of that labor with our new Franciscan Community–the Knights of the Holy Eucharist and to all visitors who come to pray and lift up their hearts to the Lord at St. Mary Church.”
Time to Be Saints: Knights of the Holy Eucharist call young men to be bold
By David Kilby
“It’s times like these when God is going to call great saints to come forth, and beyond any doubt, you were called to be one,” says Brother Angelo in the new vocations video for the Knights of the Holy Eucharist.
The Franciscan Brothers of the Knights of the Holy Eucharist were founded by Mother Angelica in 1998. They have built their order on four pillars: absolute love for our Lord Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, complete and devotional love for Mother Mary, undying fidelity to the Chair of St. Peter, and commitment to living in constant pursuit of the spirituality of St. Francis of Assisi.
The Eucharistic-centered community helps establish Eucharistic adoration in parishes, gives talks to schools and churches, trains altar servers, manages eucharistic and Marian processions, and assists with youth retreats and summer camps, helping to provide a solid foundation for young people to strive for purity and holiness.
The title “knights” corresponds to their code of chivalry that lays out their duties to countrymen, fellow Christians, women and God. In living out that modern-day chivalry, the order is forming its own culture that includes customs connected to the spirituality of St. Joseph, St. Francis of Assisi, Eucharistic evangelization, and the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience. The friary they call home also fosters a sense of orderliness, personal responsibility, asceticism, hospitality, spiritual zeal, and wholesome fun.
During a time when the world looks to discourage holiness by any means, the lifestyle of the Brother Knights is countercultural. It is a robust commitment to sanctify the world by sanctifying themselves, as they constantly explore how they can grow in holiness. The Brothers must take one day for a personal retreat each month, and they are only allowed two weeks vacation each year, when they can visit relatives or make pilgrimages to holy sites. In all of his commitments and wherever he goes, a Knight of the Holy Eucharist is expected to live the apostolic life of a knight, keeping all the vows and customs of the community.
The Brothers form each other in virtue by living in community, enduring each other’s words and deeds even when they don’t want to. By encouraging each other to grow in holiness, they grow in holiness themselves. Their rigorous daily schedule helps provide the framework for a holy life.
The Brother Knights rise at 5:15 a.m. to prepare for Morning Prayer and Exposition at 6 a.m. They then have Mass at 8:15 a.m. followed by the Rosary. Afterwards they break for breakfast and prepare for their workday, which runs from 9:45 in the morning to 4 p.m. After work they have adoration, Evening Prayer with the community, and then dinner. Once they finish the dishes, they enjoy recreation time together until Night Prayer at 9:15 p.m. followed by lights out at 10 p.m.
The Brothers follow the rule of the Third Order Regular of Franciscans (TOR). The form of life of the Brothers and Sisters of the Third Order Regular of Saint Francis is “to observe the Holy Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ by living in obedience, in poverty and in chastity,” the rule reads.
The 10-20 Knights of the Holy Eucharist are a part of a wider community of 34 Franciscan Houses for men in the United States, including both provinces and independent communities.
The Brother Knights invite you to visit their fraternal family in Christ at their Fransiscan friary in Lincoln, Nebraska. Their lives are a journey with Christ that’s all about growing in their relationship with God, and they would love to share that journey with you more.
They ask that you simply pray for your vocation if you don’t know it already, to be open to what the Holy Spirit has in store for your life, and if you can’t make it to Lincoln, take a much shorter visit to their website, knights.org.
Most importantly, pray for the brothers and all vocations, whether current or not yet discerned.
As Brother Angelo shares in the vocations video, “We are all called to be great saints. Don’t miss the opportunity.”
