Today, after much effort, I had my first blog visitor. It's a cool feeling to know I can put my thoughts somewhere and other people can share them. So it occurred to me that I should give you a little background to help my posts make more sense. (Things You Need To Know)
I am a Catholic (maybe that's obvious). So I often talk about Catholic things. I have a moderate-liberal Catholic perspective. Other Catholics can be different. We make mistakes. We struggle with our human nature. On good days, we try to be nice.
As a (Roman) Catholic I am also a Secular Franciscan. Franciscans are a religious order of Friars who follow the wisdom and inspirations of Saint Francis of Assisi. It's a lifestyle, within the Catholic community. Secular Franciscans are people like me (married or not married) who admire the friar's way of living and praying and adapt it to our everyday lives. Currently there are about 12,000 Secular Franciscans in the United States with about 40K world-wide. Our Church also has Franciscan sisters who also live the Franciscan lifestyle. The important thing to know is that among these three simple expressions there are many, many smaller groups, teams, communities, houses, and convents--most with slight variations in emphasis and styles. All of us, and many more from other Christian communities, think of ourselves as "The Franciscan Family" and are united by mostly-common beliefs, attitudes and convictions. I once heard someone say "What do you get when you put two Secular Franciscans in the same room?" The answer is "A potluck..."
I became a Secular Franciscan in 2012 by making my "profession". Profession is not a vow, it's more like a willing agreement. For instance, I was asked "Do you want to follow Christ in the footsteps of Saint Francis?" and I answered "Yes. This is what I want!" Ever since then I've spent much of my time scratching my head because Saint Francis lived eight hundred years ago and Seculars can be every sort of person from ultra-conservative to ultra-liberal. I would say we fall naturally to the "left of center" because Francis worked to ease some of the problems in the world, His story is really interesting.
Since I professed I've been learning more about myself, and the Church, than I ever thought was possible. I like to tell people, "I didn't know how much I needed to be converted until I became a Franciscan." By conversion I mean "to go a new direction". For a higher meaning and purpose I guess you'll have to go ask God because I still don't really know. I just know that God wanted me to be a Franciscan, so I am.
Franciscans believe and value many things. I've been trying to sort them out and here are some of the most important.
- Mercy is more important than "being right..."
- Minority means, given two paths to choose from, Franciscans choose lives of service...
- Community: No matter how crazy your life is or how far away it takes you, you always have family. No one gets left behind...
- Church. God made it. It's good. It's also alive, so expect it to grow, change and bear fruit...
- Christ is the Boss. Without him, none of the other stuff makes sense.
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