Franciscan Spirit

The promise of resurrection at the heart of our faith allows us to celebrate our loved ones even in their passing, because we know that life, not death, is the final reality.

There’s something attractive about being able to reinvent ourselves. It’s difficult, though not impossible, to do this if we stay in the same place with the same people all our lives.

We like to think that the origins of our holy people are shrouded in mystery, in part because it allows us to set them apart as different from us. This gives us a built-in reason not to emulate them too ...

Does our outward appearance accurately portray our inner attitude? In some measure, the disciplines of Lent—prayer, fasting, almsgiving—help us to bring these two closer together. But we need to be mindful that we don’t take this too far.

More and more people work at occupations that make few physical demands. While there will always be jobs that involve manual labor, not everyone can enjoy the satisfaction that comes with seeing a concrete result from physical work.

Not everyone wants to be well. Too often we become invested in our own weakness, our own sickness. It seems we would rather complain than deal with the responsibility of being healed.