Tag Archives: Franciscan life
Embracing Enoughness
Simplicity Embracing Enoughness Tuesday, June 30, 2020 I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. —Lao Tzu Most of us have grown up with a capitalist worldview which makes a virtue and goal out of accumulation, consumption, and collecting. It has taught us to assume, quite falsely, that more is better. But it’s… Continue Reading Embracing Enoughness
A Minority Position
Alternative Orthodoxy A Minority Position Tuesday, February 4, 2020 The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better. Oppositional energy only creates more of the same. One of the Center for Action & Contemplation’s Eight Core Principles [1] Throughout history, the Franciscan School has typically been a minority position inside of the Roman Catholic… Continue Reading A Minority Position
Dancing Standing Still
Alternative Orthodoxy Dancing Standing Still Monday, February 3, 2020 The Franciscans found a way to be both very traditional and very revolutionary at the same time. By emphasizing practice over theory, or orthopraxy over orthodoxy, the Franciscan tradition taught that love and action are more important than intellect or speculative truth. Love is the highest category for… Continue Reading Dancing Standing Still
Simply Living the Gospel
Alternative Orthodoxy Simply Living the Gospel Sunday, February 2, 2020 The Rule and the life of the Friars Minor is to simply live the Gospel. —St. Francis of Assisi (1182–1226) [1] One of the things I most appreciate about my Franciscan heritage is its alternative orthodoxy. The Franciscan tradition has applied this phrase to itself and its emphasis on “orthopraxy”; we believe that lifestyle and practice are much more important than mere verbal orthodoxy. While orthodoxy is about correct… Continue Reading Simply Living the Gospel
Franciscan Way: Part Two: Weekly Summary
Franciscan Way: Part Two Summary: Sunday, October 6—Friday, October 11, 2019 This is the miracle of love: to discover that all creation is one, flung out into space by a God who is a Father, and that if you present yourself as [God] does, unarmed and peaceably, creation will recognize and meet you with a… Continue Reading Franciscan Way: Part Two: Weekly Summary
Making Peace Like St. Francis
Franciscan Way: Part Two Making Peace Like St. Francis Friday, October 11, 2019 My Franciscan brother Fr. Louie Vitale, who has been a peace activist for almost 40 years, tells how St. Francis was working for peace even at the end of his life. At the time, Bishop Guido of Assisi excommunicated the mayor of… Continue Reading Making Peace Like St. Francis
Francis and the Sultan
Franciscan Way: Part Two Francis and the Sultan Thursday, October 10, 2019 The connection that Francis of Assisi made with “the enemy” in his lifetime may be his most powerful statement to the world about putting together the inner life with the outer, and all of the resulting social, political, and ethnic implications. He also… Continue Reading Francis and the Sultan
Patron Saint of Ecology
Franciscan Way: Part Two Patron Saint of Ecology Wednesday, October 9, 2019 One of the things Francis of Assisi is best known for is his love of nature. Pope John Paul II named him the Patron Saint of Ecology in 1979. Pope Francis entitled his encyclical about caring for our common home Laudato Si meaning… Continue Reading Patron Saint of Ecology
Inner and Outer Freedom
Franciscan Way: Part Two Inner and Outer Freedom Tuesday, October 8, 2019 Francis and Clare of Assisi were not so much prophets by what they said as by the radical, system-critiquing way that they lived their lives. They found both their inner and outer freedom by structurally living on the edge of the inside of… Continue Reading Inner and Outer Freedom
Francis and the Lepers
Francisan Way: Part Two Francis and the Lepers Monday, October 7, 2019 The Lord gave me, Brother Francis, thus to begin doing penance in this way: for when I was in sin, it seemed too bitter for me to see lepers. And the Lord . . . led me among them and I showed mercy… Continue Reading Francis and the Lepers