Fr. André Brombart, a Belgian Assumptionist, launched a blog in French in 2010 and has recently been placing it online in English at http://a-heedful-idiot.blogspot.com. The most recent entry follows. Fr. André gives the following biographical information about himself: "Born in 1942. Belgian mother (Catholic tradition); Jewish father (who lost all his family members in the Shoah). Studied law. Legal advisor of a company for 12 years. Baptised as a Catholic in 1980. Religious vows in 1983. Priestly ordination in 1987." From 2005-2011, he served in Rome as an assistant general for the Assumptionist Congregation. He is currently back in Brussels where he is member of the Maranatha Christian Community and helps out at the Church of the Madeleine in downtown Brussels.

“The Basics of Franciscan Spirituality: Prayer As Relationship”

The topic of our second ‘Conversations…’ Sunday in Brighton for this year, the basics of Franciscan spirituality with a focus on prayer as relationship, was addressed by Fr. Dan Horan, OFM, a resident at the Assumptionist Center and student in the PhD program in systematic theology at BC.

For many people, Thanksgiving is the most truly American of our national holidays, encompassing in its simple and beautiful traditions the highest ideals and greatest aspirations of our country. We believe that these ideals include the need to give thanks to our Creator and so we pray:

O gracious God, from You have come a flood of gifts to us. With grateful hearts we thank You this Thanksgiving Week for the many ways You sustain and nourish us, through the gift of life itself, our faith, family, friends and the fruits of the earth. We thank You for showing us how to return thanks by lives of service, by deeds of hospitality, by kindness to the stranger and by concern for each other. May we always be grateful for Your coming into our lives with surprises of joy, growth and unconditional love. We make this prayer through Jesus your Son and the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

By Fr. Bernard Musondoli

Dn 12:1-3 / Heb 10:11- 14, 18 / Mk 13:24-32

For the last two thousand years (and even before,) people have speculated about the end of time. It seems that human nature leads people to speculate, especially about when the world might come to an end. Writers have been making money by imaging how it might all end. Today there is a popular series of novels that has attracted a lot of readership that feeds the imagination of what it will be like and how people might be involved in those end times.