Ye Webmaster working his fingers to the bone...

May I introduce myself...

   My name is Fred Schaeffer, SFO., and I am an active parishioner at St. Helen Parish. You may have seen me, I sing in the Adult Choir at the 8:45 AM Sunday Mass.

I've been "webmastering" for about a dozen years. I learned how to manage websites while I was a member of the Monks of Adoration, an order which isn't active (last two years) due to lack of vocations. My time there was from March 1998 through May 2002, wonderful years. When I returned to Vero Beach, where I had lived from 1987 to 1996, I did so to retire.

People say that when you retire you begin working harder than when you were employed - and with me, that is so true! Here in Vero Beach, I can quietly work for the Church, having made Vows of Obedience and Chastity, and living in frugality. By previous and ongoing commitment I am also an active member of the Secular Franciscan Order, which is a lay order. The other websites I supervise are the following:

www.franciscan-sfo.org (own site/Secular Franciscan Order in Florida, and Divine Mercy SFO Fraternity in Vero Beach); www.ciofs.org (Secular Franciscan Order, International Website);  www.fredsfo.org (a small website with lots of pen & ink sketches and other images) ; www.paxetbonum.net (a Canadian website of a Franciscan friar, Francis de Ruijte, OFM. It uses big dark fonts because it is set up to benefit people who are blind, as Fr. de Ruijte is. He is a courageous priest who works around his blindness.) These web sites are all "labors of love" because I do not charge the Church for my time. Maybe that's why I have to live so frugally, praise God!

 It pays to volunteer - in Heaven!  So, please lend a hand to your parish, St. Helen.

These websites have a lot to offer to Catholics in general, and Franciscans in particular