Franciscan Meditations, Part II

Hi folks... sorry about the long interval... so much going on doesn't leave time to blog.

Since I have my 3rd inquiry meeting this weekend, I'll continue on my meditations on the Prayer of St Francis.
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Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Who are the hated "lepers' in our society? How do we sow love?

To answer the session questions (which is in reference to Francis' encounters with lepers), one of the first to come to mind is the homeless, the great invisibles. But who else might be considered lepers? I think of the obese; the ones the pretty people call "ugly;" those who don't play the political games; those who love the truth.

To sow love? Drop the blinders, get active. TJ is much better at this than me, as he is out at this moment doing outreach to homeless teens. After a few encounters with unpleasant disenfranchised while out in the Golden State gave me an aversion to any of them. I have to be better. Assault can do that to you, though.

Closer to home, I was talking to a professed member who said to me, "The hardest thing about being Franciscan is to love those who have insulted or hurt me. It's a constant struggle." It is especially hard when it is one of your own flesh and blood. See the next line.

Where there is injury, pardon.
How can we bring about reconciliation and healing to those who have been injured?

Dialog. Keep on that quiet tapping on the door. Sometimes, all one can do is try to convey such contrition. My sister said to me not a week ago that it's easy to call for forgiveness but it's dreadfully hard to continue to do so when one is constantly being insulted.

Forgive, lest ye be forgiven?

Again, it's easier said than done. I can forgive one who has hurt me, but it's much harder to forget, especially when it festers and is fed and heaped upon. Mom always said that "hate" is a word that should rarely than ever be used. Hate is a draining emotion, as is anger. To aspire to the serenity of Christ, who stayed calm in the midst of so much vitriol!

"Forgive anyone against whom you have a grievance." Mk 11:25

To forgive the grievous ill done to oneself is probably the hardest task of all.


Where there is doubt, faith.
Are the youth around us experiencing doubt? How can we share our faith, give them support, give them encouragement?

Answer to session question: Does anyone doubt that today's children are seeing incredibly mixed signals? Play nice, but daddy talks trash about mommy/grandpa/uncle/auntie. You musn't hit Jane, but the television shows all sorts of horrors. The golden rule is not about doing good unto others, but more about who has the gold. No wonder the kids are all screwed up. No wonder they doubt.

I know what it is like to be in a Catholic minority. Worse than many Protestant sects, the Mormons liken Catholics to the Anti-Christ. I learned early that it didn't pay to advertise, and this was 20, 25 years ago. I can see in my mind the four other Catholics in my grade and only one of them went to CCD with me, and we didn't get along much.

How different would it have been to have someone, an adult, tell me to hold my head up, to not be ashamed to be Catholic in those Mormon dominated days. It's only as an adult that I see that I could have used just one supporter! I didn't know any better, and too ashamed to say anything, without the concrete of the Baltimore Catechism behind me (singing "Kumbaya" and "If the devil doesn't like it he can sit on a tack!" It's not that Mom and Dad didn't raise me right, but schoolyard politics are something else. Then, in high school, my religious education had been dropped, and though I knew plenty of Catholics there, none were at my parish and again, no one to nudge me to say, 'hey! keep on track!'

Faith starts in the home. Mom instilled the foundation that sustains me today. Is your home a Catholic home? (Notice how I didn't say "Christian"--for we are the original Christians despite what some Papist-haters think). I have a crucifix by the door, adorned with tinder-dry palms. I remember back when I had the birthday party for TJ where a very very very Lutheran friend just stared at it, then looked at me. I just raised my eyebrows and thought... yeeeeesss? May I help you?

I'm watching a niece's doubt being fed when her mother says that they don't have time for her Catechism because said niece has school and sports and club athletics and all this globe-trotting. Excuse me? To me, they have their priorities wrong. The parents are teaching her that God and faith are low on the list, and I think that is very sad.

A nephew has never been to Mass, not that he could sit through it anyway. I need to nudge his mother as he's of age to have his First Communion. But no, Mom doesn't have time and Dad doesn't care one whit. The poor kid.

There's a quote by JPII: "As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live." How true, how sadly true. We have watched the destruction of the family unit by the society in which we live, and look where it's gotten us.

Quote of the Day:
"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible."