{"id":1915,"date":"2007-04-26T14:11:19","date_gmt":"2007-04-26T14:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2007\/04\/renewal.html"},"modified":"2007-04-26T14:11:19","modified_gmt":"2007-04-26T14:11:19","slug":"renewal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/04\/renewal.html","title":{"rendered":"Renewal"},"content":{"rendered":"

I missed this a few days ago – in the NYTimes, an article about the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal:<\/a><\/p>\n

(which oddly, doesn’t mention Fr. Groeschel, profiled in the Times <\/em>a couple of months ago)<\/p>\n

\n
\n

IT was 9 o\u2019clock on a wintry Saturday night, and in the dimly lighted basement of Our Lady of Good Counsel, a Roman Catholic church on 90th Street and Second Avenue, the chatter of more than 400 young people competed with the din of a rock band. Those not shouting in one another\u2019s ears were dancing, singing, laughing and jumping up and down while trying not to spill their cups of coffee.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho has ever heard of a monk playing funk music?\u201d shouted Brother Agostino Torres, a 30-year-old friar wearing sandals and a hooded gray robe. Hands shot into the air.<\/p>\n

\u201cO.K., all right, but I\u2019ll bet you never heard of this one,\u201d Brother Agostino went on. \u201cBecause tonight, we\u2019re going to have some monks play some punk!\u201d Half a dozen other bushy-bearded, gray-frocked friars broke into a cacophony of drums, bass, saxophone and electric guitar. <\/p>\n

Upstairs, 100 more young people lingered in the quiet, candle-lighted sanctuary after an hour of prayer and song in front of the Eucharist. Brother Columba Jordan strummed his guitar and sang in a soft voice: \u201cAt the cross you beckon me, draw me gently to my knees, and I am lost for words, so lost in love.\u201d Two friars with heads bowed sat on either side of the altar, listening to the confessions of the men and women waiting patiently in line.<\/p>\n

The monthly holy hour of prayer and song and ensuing music festival are part of an event called Catholic Underground, the creation of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, a religious order founded two decades ago this year in the Melrose section of the Bronx. Members own no personal possessions and beg even for their food. Nonetheless, the order\u2019s 10 friaries are bursting with recruits at a moment when many Roman Catholic religious orders are struggling simply to maintain their current numbers.<\/p>\n

Their audience this night was primarily students and young professionals. Among the group was a 31-year-old mechanical engineer named Dennis Iglesias, who had driven from Boston after hearing about the event from a friend and then checking it out on YouTube. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing when you get a crowd of a lot of young adults together,\u201d Mr. Iglesias shouted over the crowd. \u201cThat just amazes me, the fact that there are so many young people who believe.\u201d<\/p>\n

After more than two hours of song, laughter and fellowship, Brother Agostino quieted the crowd. \u201cWe\u2019re going to finish the night the way we began it \u2014 with prayer,\u201d he said. The audience settled down as Brother Columba led them in a collection of psalms and Latin chants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you, God bless you, safe home,\u201d Brother Agostino said after a final hymn. \u201cRemember, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your minds. Peace. God bless you.\u201d<\/p>\n

snip<\/em><\/p>\n

On a frigid January afternoon, the postulants and brothers crowded into the warm kitchen at St. Joseph\u2019s to watch a master chef. Gino Barbaro, a friend of the friars, had traveled from his restaurant near Peekskill to help them cook a special meal for the weekly luncheon they serve to the needy in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Mr. Barbaro showed them how to make pizza with zucchini, spaghetti with meatballs, sausages, lentil soup and saut\u00e9ed potatoes. The smell of garlic perfumed the air.<\/p>\n

Each of the 40-odd guests who showed up had an individual struggle. <\/p>\n

Audrey Murdock, who lived down the block, said that she used to illegally sell steroids to bodybuilders, but that after spending time in jail, she was studying nursing. She said she appreciated the friars\u2019 warm food and spiritual guidance. \u201cWhen you\u2019re running on an empty tank,\u201d she added, \u201cthey\u2019re pretty much there to fill up that tank.\u201d <\/p>\n

Rochelle Cummings, who lost her left leg when she was hit by a fire truck seven years ago, maneuvered her wheelchair up to one of the tables. \u201cDid I miss the prayer already?\u201d she asked. With her hands outstretched in front of her, she prayed her own blessing, then dug into her soup.<\/p>\n

\u201cEver since I started coming here, I feel better about myself,\u201d Ms. Cummings said as she ate. \u201cI want to live again. Everything I eat here is spiritual.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I missed this a few days ago – in the NYTimes, an article about the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal: (which oddly, doesn’t mention Fr. Groeschel, profiled in the Times a couple of months ago) IT was 9 o\u2019clock on a wintry Saturday night, and in the dimly lighted basement of Our Lady of Good…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nRenewal - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/04\/renewal.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Renewal - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I missed this a few days ago – in the NYTimes, an article about the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal: (which oddly, doesn’t mention Fr. Groeschel, profiled in the Times a couple of months ago) IT was 9 o\u2019clock on a wintry Saturday night, and in the dimly lighted basement of Our Lady of Good…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/04\/renewal.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-04-26T14:11:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"awelborn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Renewal - Via Media","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/04\/renewal.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Renewal - Via Media","og_description":"I missed this a few days ago – in the NYTimes, an article about the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal: (which oddly, doesn’t mention Fr. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1915\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}