Summer ministry for temporary professed friars
Temporary professed friars Raphael Ozoude, Joshua Richter and Matt Ryan
This summer Raphael Ozoude, Joshua Richter and Matt Ryan, temporary professed friars with St. John the Baptist Province, will leave St. Joseph Interprovincial Friary in Chicago for their far-flung ministerial assignments:
Starting May 28, Br. Raphael Ozoude will spend six weeks in Jamaica with Frs. Jim Bok and Colin King. “I hope to learn more and participate in pastoral ministry,” Raphael says. “I hope to help with faith formation programs, the soup kitchen, leading prayer sessions. I’ll help out with whatever ministries they have now, and then focus on a few of them afterwards. I’m also looking forward to living friar life in a missionary context since it is very different from what we have in Chicago. I’m excited and I can’t wait to get to Negril.”
Br. Joshua Richter will take on a wide range of learning experiences when he spends two months at St. Mary of the Angels Parish in New Orleans. Among the possibilities: working at a community center; spending time with Secular Franciscans and the Poor Clares; assisting with parish events; and putting his guitar to good use at Mass. “I’m excited to get to see a new part of the province, meet some of my provincial brothers and help in the parish in a new culture,” he says.
June 12, Br. Matt Ryan heads to New York City for eight weeks on 31st Street, serving in ministries coordinated by the friars of Holy Name Province. Matt will assist neighbors in need, including those with mental health and immigration issues. Besides helping in the bread line and offices of St. Francis of Assisi Parish, “I may be working in the legal clinic,” he says. “I’m looking forward to being in New York when this pandemic comes to an end and serving people on the margins, just getting a taste of friar life in the real world outside of this pandemic.”
(This story was originally published in the SJB News Notes)
