Category: Franciscan Friars

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Committing Ourselves to Justice

Reflect

To follow Jesus is to commit ourselves to justice. This requires inward change more often than we would like and can be a complicated journey. May this prayer help us live the way of Jesus more authentically in our own hearts.

Pray

Jesus,
I sometimes resist
when my perspective
is challenged,
when others cry
“injustice”
over something
I cannot see.
Make my heart
humble and teachable
to witness
the experience of others
so that I can best discern
where the pursuit
of justice leads.
Amen.

Act

Identify one thing that has been labeled a “justice issue” but makes you feel uncomfortable. Find at least one thoughtful, clear-headed voice who can share an opposing perspective with you. Resolve to read or listen to that person’s words with an open mind.

Today’s Pause+Pray was written by Shannon K. Evans. 

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Minute Meditation – Love Conquers Sin

It was because Christ was the perfect adorer of God, the perfect bridge between creatures and the Creator, that he could bridge the gap created by sin. Sin was not first in God’s intentions; but because we sinned, when God does come among us as Jesus Christ, his perfect adoration ends up being his perfect sacrifice.

He didn’t come to repair sin, he came to be the firstborn perfect creature; but because we sinned, he showed us just how great is God’s love: God not only becomes one of us, but he dies with and for us and made peace “through the blood of his cross.”

—from the book Nourishing Love: A Franciscan Celebration of Mary
by Murray Bodo, OFM

Love Conquers Sin | Franciscan Media

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Minute Meditation – God’s Playful Spirit

What if our relationship with God is as simple but as joyful and sweet as spending the day playing with our grandchildren? We are delighted with their every tentative move, questioning eyes, captivating smiles, out-of-left-field antics, half-blurted syllables. Before someone hauls me before the Inquisition for heretical ideas, may I offer the scenario of the third joyful mystery, the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ? The three Wise Men traveled from afar, guided by the bright star, anticipating the once-in-a-lifetime meeting with the promised Messiah.

At the end of their long and harrowing journey, there was Jesus, asleep in the manger—a beautiful, gentle, innocent baby.

Our loving God will do anything to gladden our hearts. Anything to make our day. Surely, God will happily play with us, as Christ did with his earthly parents, Mary and Joseph. Can we open our hearts, “become like children” (Mt 18:3), and allow God to play with us?

—from the blog “At Play in the Fields of the Lord“
by Ed Gamboa, MD

God’s Playful Spirit | Franciscan Media

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Mary’s Yes

Mary’s Yes

She is remembering now what she has stored up in her heart all these years. It began the first time she experienced the Light that is God. It dwelled inside the angel’s words, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Luke 1:35). That is what happened in the very moment of the angel’s speaking. And she embraced the light that was the words themselves.

She said yes to so beautiful a proposal, its light, its love. And she said simply that she was God’s handmaid. May it be done to her according to God’s word spoken by the angel. And the Light then filled her whole being. And the angel left her alone with the light illumining her womb.

—from the book Nourishing Love: A Franciscan Celebration of Mary
by Murray Bodo, OFM

Mary’s Yes | Franciscan Media

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The Call to Christian Discipleship

The Call to Christian Discipleship

Our love and suffering as Christian disciples, like the Lord’s on the cross, does not happen in vain. As the Franciscan scholar Zachary Hayes stated so clearly, “We become like what we love,” and that transformation recasts the categories of our ordinary experience into something else, something greater, something more than what we had originally expected. This is not to deny the real pain, loss, and trauma that can accompany suffering, but it does suggest that the meaning of human experience is deeper and more significant than we think.

Like Francis of Assisi, we too can be transformed by the power of love and embrace the call to Christian discipleship with passion. The task at hand is to see that the Word continues to call us to move beyond ourselves, to enter into an evermore intimate relationship with God, to make God’s story our story, to work for justice and peace in our world, and to embrace the love and suffering that comes with following Christ.

—from the book The Last Words of Jesus: A Meditation on Love and Suffering
by Daniel P. Horan, OFM

Franciscan Media: https://www.franciscanmedia.org/

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Wield Your Words Well

Wield Your Words Well

When it comes to how we communicate with others—especially in this an election year—let’s turn to the Gospel of Matthew who gives us a strong warning: “On the day of judgment people will render an account for every careless word they speak. By your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned” (12:36-37). Especially in today’s fractious times, using the Bible’s rich advice can improve our interactions and soothe our wearied souls. God’s words should heal us.

When our words are kind and gentle, our spirits will be too. We will have fewer regrets and be more charitable and peaceful. Today, let’s wield our words well, confident in the guidance of God’s word.

—from St. Anthony Messenger‘s “Five Steps toward Better Communication“
by Colleen Arnold, MD

Franciscan Media: https://www.franciscanmedia.org/

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Lovely Lady Poverty

Lovely Lady Poverty

The true religion of Francis’s heart means gospel poverty, the poverty of the poor Christ, and the concrete image of that true religion is Lady Poverty, whom he takes as his bride. Lady Poverty is the Bride of Christ, the only one to ascend the cross with Christ on Calvary. And Francis’s marriage to Lady Poverty assures him the great treasure, which is the kingdom of heaven, but at the cost of the cross, which Francis embraces as eagerly as he embraced his spouse. In this rendering, Francis becomes the epic hero of the gospel who has the courage to find and hold on to the hidden treasure, Holy Poverty, which in a grand paradox means having nothing, which will bring him everything, and at times feeling abandoned by God, only to discover that God is closest when God feels farthest away.

This mystery of gospel poverty is the great desire of Francis’s heart and soul because it is the mystery of Christ, who is being born within Francis as Francis dies to himself to become like Christ.

—from the book God’s Love Song: The Vision of Francis and Clare
by Murray Bodo, OFM, and Susan Saint Sing

Franciscan Media: https://www.franciscanmedia.org/

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You are Remarkable

You are Remarkable

Have you ever stopped to marvel at how amazingly unique you are? I don’t mean in an inflated sense, as in our delusions of grandeur, but in the mere odds of it all. Of all the billions and billions of people in the world, and none of them is quite like you. From the color of your eyes to the shape your nose, from the way you walk to what you dream about, you are a complex combination of features that exists nowhere else in time and space than where you are. No one ever has been or ever will be the you that you are.

That is remarkable. You are remarkable.

—from the book Let Go: Seven Stumbling Blocks to Christian Discipleship
by Casey Cole, OFM

Franciscan Media: https://www.franciscanmedia.org/

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God Wants Our Truest Selves

God Wants Our Truest Selves

Jesus does not want masks. He does not want projections of our superficial selves that bear no resemblance to who we really are. When he calls us to follow after him, he does not want the person we wish we were or the person we pretend to be. No, when he calls us, he wants the person he created, the person we are becoming in his love, our truest selves.

If we want to follow after him, we must strip ourselves of everything that is superficial, inauthentic, forced, or pretend. We need to let go of all those partial and superficial selves. They just get in the way.

—from the book Let Go: Seven Stumbling Blocks to Christian Discipleship
by Casey Cole, OFM

Franciscan Media: https://www.franciscanmedia.org/

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Longing for God

Longing for God

It is our Christian belief that when Christ, the Incarnate Word, came to dwell among us, we entered a whole new era of God’s saving presence in our world. It’s a presence that no longer relies on a visible Temple. Referring to Christ’s birth and quoting from Isaiah, Matthew refers to Jesus’ name as “‘Emmanuel,’ which means ‘God is with us’” (Matthew 1:23). At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, moreover, the risen Jesus tells his disciples: “And behold, I am with you always until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

We also believe that through the Eucharist and other sacraments God’s presence among us is celebrated and nurtured. And our great longing is satisfied. We think of Jesus’ words: “Remain in me as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me” (John 15:4).

—from St. Anthony Messenger‘s “Psalm 42: Longing for You, O God“
by Jack Wintz, OFM

Franciscan Media: https://www.franciscanmedia.org/