Religious Vocations Supplement

Total consecration: Franciscans of the Immaculate serve Jesus and Mary

Franciscans of the Immaculate Father Jacinto Mary Chapin, left, vocation director, and Father Elias Mary Mills, father guardian of the Marian Friary of Our Lady Coredemptrix, stand beside a statue of Mary on Nov. 6 at Mother of the Redeemer Retreat Center near Bloomington. Franciscan Father Joachim Mary Mudd and five Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate also minister at the retreat center. The friar’s order was founded in Italy in 1970 and granted pontifical status in 1998. The sisters’ order was founded in 1985. (Photo by Mary Ann Wyand)

By Mary Ann Wyand

MONROE COUNTY—“Ave Maria.”

From throughout the United States and many countries around the world, men and women have answered God’s call by joining the Franciscans of the Immaculate missionary order, whose members greet people by praising the Blessed Mother.

Several Franciscans of the Immaculate priests and sisters serve Jesus, Mary and God’s people in central and southern Indiana through their retreat ministry at Mother of the Redeemer Retreat Center on State Road 48 west of Bloomington.

They begin each day at 6:30 a.m. by praising God at Mass, which is open to the public, and honoring Mary with the rosary at the scenic retreat center built around a large hill in rural Monroe County. Every Thursday, the public may participate in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament from 9 a.m. until the holy hour at 6 p.m.

As the Franciscan friars and sisters climb the steep and winding path every morning, they pray the mysteries of the rosary on their way to the chapel built in the woods on the summit.

It is a holy place, a sacred space, a peaceful respite in the country for people to spend time in prayer and reflection as they offer thanks and petitions to God, grow closer to Jesus and Mary, and find healing in their lives.

Franciscan Father Elias Mary Mills, father guardian of the Marian Friary of Our Lady Coredemptrix at Mother of the Redeemer Retreat Center, said the order’s “charism is based on the spiritual ideal that St. Maximilian Kolbe had, which is living the Franciscan vocation in light of the total consecration to the Immaculate.

“St. Maximilian was inspired by the Marian charism that he saw implicitly in the life of St. Francis of Assisi and by Blessed John Duns Scotus, a Franciscan theologian who was able to explain Our Lady’s Immaculate Conception,” Father Elias Mary said. “He saw the golden thread, you might say, running throughout the Franciscan charism was this devotion to Our Lady and her Immaculate Conception.”

Father Elias Mary said Pope John Paul II reminded people that, “Our Lady is the star of the new evangelization. Just as the star led the wise men to the manger in Bethlehem, we have a new star. We don’t have to look for a star in the sky. We have Our Lady, who guides us to Christ.”

St. Maximilian Kolbe was a Conventual Franciscan priest in Poland who was martyred by the Nazis at the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1941.

“He dedicated his life to evangelizing people to bring about the reign of the Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary,” Father Elias Mary said, “so our mission is to follow that same ideal of St. Maximilian to spread total consecration to Our Lady and, first and foremost, to live it out in our own lives, to be her instruments, her missionaries, and to do it in a Marian way, and to use all means possible to evangelize, meaning the mass media.”

The Franciscans of the Immaculate operate Catholic radio and television stations in Italy as well as a Web site and blog at www.AirMaria.com as evangelization tools, he said, and the Marian order will begin a new radio ministry in Bloomington during 2009.

“We’ve already gotten permission—we have the license—from the Federal Communications Commission,” Father Elias Mary said. “We hope to begin [broadcasting in the Bloomington area] sometime next year if everything goes well. We hope to use programming to reach out to the [Indiana University] students and [residents of] the area. It’s important to get the Catholic truth out. We’ll be using part of the Eternal Word Television Network programming, and hope to have local programming for four hours every day.”

Franciscans of the Immaculate friars and sisters came to the archdiocese to staff the Mother of the Redeemer Retreat Center in February of 2005 at the invitation of Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein.

Since then, the friars and sisters have expanded retreat programming, and opened a Catholic bookstore and gift shop as another tool of evangelization.

Father Elias Mary said he started thinking about a religious vocation during his college years.

“I earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and computer science at the University of Nebraska at Kearney in 1985,” he said. “After college, I helped a priest at a parish in Wyoming as a volunteer. … I was looking for a religious community. … He helped me get started at Holy Apostles Seminary in Cromwell, Conn., and that’s where I met the friars.”

He finished his priestly formation with the friars at their seminary in New Bedford, Mass., and was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz on May 27, 2000, in Lincoln, Neb.

“At that time, the friars were taking care of the sacristy at the Basilica of St. Mary Majors in Rome,” Father Elias Mary said. “As a deacon and up until my ordination to the priesthood, I was serving at the sacristy. Then I went from there in July of 2000 to Perth and Toodyay in Australia, where I served for three years.”

In November of 2003, he was assigned to minister in Connecticut followed by brief assignments in Italy and again in Connecticut. He arrived in Indiana in June of 2007.

“When our Lord says, ‘He who gives up everything to serve him will be rewarded in this life and the next,’ it’s true,” Father Elias Mary said. “I would say to whoever is thinking about a [religious] vocation that they should pursue it because it is really a great gift that God gives us to serve him as a consecrated religious, and as a priest even more so, and to do it in a way that is promoting Our Lady is a very great gift, a blessing, an honor and a privilege.

“… God works through you, and it’s obvious that he can take men who are fragile vessels and use them to do wonderful things. It’s very humbling to serve God.” †