Franciscan Spirit Blog

empty desert road on Route 66

Maternal Wisdom on the Mother Road

Perhaps the most iconic emblem of Americana is the nostalgic and, at one time, singularly essential stretch of highway known as Route 66. Known universally as the “Mother Road,” I often wondered how this namesake came to be. In bucket-list ...
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The Inbreaking of the Word: Week 2 of Advent

Father Jim Sabak, OFM, invites us into the hope of the Advent season and helps us to meditate upon and contemplate this past Sunday’s readings as we carry the Word with us into our weeks.
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The Inbreaking of the Word: Week 1 of Advent

Fr. Jim Sabak, OFM, invites us into the hope of the Advent season and helps us to meditate upon and contemplate this past Sunday’s readings as we carry the Word with us into our weeks. In the spirit of St. ...
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Elizabeth of Hungary: Beloved Sister in a Troubled World

May I tell you the story of a woman who was married at 14 and dead at 24? Does that sound like the making of a tragedy? What if I told you she left home and family not once but ...
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Being and Making Peace Today

It may be my personality; it may be my mistrust of “righteous causes,” but I’ve never been one to join protest groups or to “work for peace,” as Franciscans are supposed to do. Yet, at the same time, my whole life ...
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All Souls’ Day: The Beauty of Each Life

On my first visit to Rome, I rushed to see St. Peter’s. It was a church I had drawn when I was in third grade after I read This is Rome by Miroslav Šašek. Of all the pictures in that ...
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peace-flag-waving

The Unfolding of Peace

Often, I am haunted and healed by the words of the Spanish mystic Unamuno: “May God deny you peace but give you glory.” Unamuno’s tragic sense of life suggests that what too often passes for peace in our world is ...
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