By David Cruze-Uribe, OFS

The time has come to gather together all the Secular Franciscans of the Brothers and Sisters of St. Francis Region for our Annual Regional Gathering (ARG) on Aug. 9-11 at the Ridgecrest Conference Center in Black Mountain, NC.  It is a time for prayer, a time for fellowship, a time to learn, a time to share, and a time for joy. 

This year we are marking two important anniversaries.  First, with all Franciscans throughout the world we are celebrating the 800th anniversary of St. Francis receiving the stigmata.  Locally we will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of the founding of our BSSF region.

This year we will also have our triennial visitation from the national fraternity.  Our fraternal visitor is Josh Molidor, OFS, and our pastoral visitor is Fr. Jerome Wolbert, OFM.  

This is not just a business meeting.  We will be having a lot of fun and insightful activities. 

There will be an audiovisual presentation on the history of our region, followed by a panel discussion with some of our old-timers who are all still young at heart.   Fr. Bob Menard, OFM, our new regional spiritual assistant, will give a talk on the stigmata. 

Becky Bresnahan, OFS, and Area 1 Councilor, will speak on “How do we ‘do’ social justice in today’s politically-charged world?”  Both talks will be followed by break-out sessions.

There will be an open Q&A with the members of the regional executive council, plus special sessions with the JPIC and Multicultural Commission animators, the YouFra animator, and the regional formation director.

We will pray the liturgy of the hours daily in a variety of forms; we will have Mass and Eucharistic adoration, and on Saturday night we will celebrate the Transitus of St. Clare, whose feast day is Sunday, Aug. 11.  

As an act of service, we will be tying mesh gleaning bags for the Society of St. Andrew, an organization that gathers food donations from farms and distributes it to soup kitchens and food pantries.

We will have the golf cart again this year to continue making our event more accessible to everyone.

Costs for the weekend depend on how many attendees are sharing a room: Single, $347; Double, $208; Triple, $168.33; and Quad, $148.50. All prices include meals. Payment will be due at check-in which begins at 4 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 9.

Ministers will coordinate registration for local fraternities.  Contact your local fraternity to register. Ministers should forward registrations to the BSSF Region by July 12.

Rooms are limited this year, so fraternities should turn in their registration form to their area councilors as soon as possible.