issionary life in the United States is not as difficult as that of the other missions of the Franciscans of the Immaculate. I recall receiving email request from our mission in Nigeria for books, a FAX request from Brazil for Church documents, a forum question on liturgical problems in the Philippines, for English materials for our mission in Russia and a copy of the novenas for England. Perhaps one of the task-exacting works in our American friaries is that of sending materials and help to our missions. In one way or another, we participate and share in the laborious task of our confreres in the mission apart from our own work in the United States. God has certainly blessed our North American friaries with adequate material and technological means necessary for our work. But what about our poor missionaries in Benin, in Nigeria, in Russia, in the Philippines. 

With this consideration in mind, I thought of providing little assistance to our missionaries as well as information to the Catholic faithful of the missions of the Franciscans of the Immaculate. Assistance in the form of the following:

• Collaboration among our missionaries by providing forums where they can share thoughts, experiences and even ask questions on various aspects of the missions.

• Providing resources for a continuous missionary formation of our confreres by way of spiritual and doctrinal literature and documents of the Church on the missions.

• To server as information center on the developments of various missions of our Institute.

• Downloadable ready-made brochures and pamphlets that can be used in the work of the missions.

• And a host of other possibilities in the future.

Certainly, I do all of these electronically, that is, via the internet and email. What is so wonderful about this modern technological means is its capacity to evangelize as many souls as possible in cyberspace without moving from one's physical space. Far from a duplication of the work of our friars in Italy for the cause of the mission, this is rather a humble complement especially in the English-speaking world. And all of these are done to promote a greater knowledge and love of the Immaculate, so that through Her, the Kingdom of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus may reign in every single heart.

Fr. Martin Mary of the Crucified Jesus, FI
Webmaster - Immaculate Mediatrix On-line