Franciscan Spirit Blog

St. Anthony of Padua

St. Anthony, Help Me Find…Beauty

St. Anthony of Padua, that Hammer of Heretics, serves as a model to me that I am to preach against any dualism within myself that blocks an openness to beauty.
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Lent with Pope Francis: True Concern for the Poor

Selfishness leads nowhere and love frees. Those who are able to live their lives as a gift to give others will never be alone and will never experience the drama of the isolated conscience.
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Christ crucified | Photo by Christian GAFENESCH on Unsplash

Lent with Father Casey Cole: Filling a Hungry Heart

Chinese food is one of the many gifts from God on this earth. Cheap, easily accessible, usually sold in enormous quantities, and basically uniform in quality across the country.
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thorn tree | Photo by Andrey Grinkevich on Unsplash

Lent: More Than Penance

To think of Lent only as a time of penance is to do it an injustice.
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The Healing of the Sacrament of Reconciliation

“Bless me Father for I have. . . . ” Perhaps one of the hardest things we do is admit to our own wrongdoing. It’s hard to say that we have sinned—and be willing to turn our life around to ...
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Cross and a gray sky | Photo by Markus Schumacher on Unsplash

Lent with Father Casey Cole: Death

My grandmother lived a very long, full life. In the 91 years before she died, she raised a family of 10 children—her crown jewel—who then produced her 28 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
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God’s Gift: The Ten Commandments

In 1988, Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, a multimillionaire, and a man of strong opinions, addressed the National Press Association in Atlanta about the Ten Commandments...
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