Franciscan Spirit

St. Francis: Lover of the Eucharist

St. Francis of Assisi’s life is a study in contrasts. He is admired the world over, yet he’s a hard one to neatly categorize. Born into great wealth, the young Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone stripped himself, literally, of all material affluence to embrace “lady poverty.” 

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Embracing the Now

“We should do this more often.” A middle-aged man is speaking to a woman somewhat north of middle age standing at his side. I am doing what I do best: Eavesdropping.
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Facing Life’s Monsters

It’s October, and the long sunlight in the afternoons and the coming chill in the air sing the approach of autumn. Fall has always been my favorite season, with hayrides and visits to the apple orchards south of Chicago with ...
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fountain pen on paper

The Letters of Saint Thérèse, Pt. 2

Thérèse has much to teach our age of the image, the appearance, the “self.”
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Flowers on paper

The Letters of Saint Thérèse, Pt. 1

Mother Marie de Gonzague, the superior at the cloistered convent at Carmel, wrote this of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux: “Tall and strong, with the air of a child, with a tone of voice and an expression that hide in her ...
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Saint Thérèse: Simple, Profound Love

The young religious sister whom Saint Pius X described as “the greatest saint of modern times,” spent nine years in a cloistered convent in northern France.
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Why St. Francis Belongs on the Birdbath

Since his death, St. Francis of Assisi has been the subject of some of the world’s most admired works of art.
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