The Gospel Through a Franciscan Lens – 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Fr. Christopher
From the Lord’s point of view, what really matters is not what you get. What really matters is that one works in the vineyard.
Holy be Your Name: A Call to Praise and Purpose
When we pray “holy be Your name,” we ask that God’s name be honored not only by our words, but also by the way we live. St. Francis reminds us that the more deeply we come to know God, the more clearly we recognize His blessings, promises, majesty, and judgments. As we give thanks for His presence in our lives, our relationship with Him deepens.
The Gospel Through a Franciscan Lens – 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Fr. Christopher
Forgiveness is realizing that we cannot change the past; forgiveness is refusing to let what we cannot change control us.
Who are in Heaven
We can never be certain how St. Francis of Assisi envisioned heaven and the majesty of God. Francis was a medieval man, and his understanding of the cosmos was radically different from ours. But for centuries, Christians had accepted a model of the universe as one constructed with the Earth at the center, and the Sun, the Moon, and the planets in separate, concentric spheres moving outward to the sphere of the stars.
The Gospel Through a Franciscan Lens – 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time – Fr. Christopher
What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?
Our Father
As we continue our celebration of the “Easter of St. Francis,” our attention now turns to his relationship with God. For the theme of this issue of the TAU, we have chosen the Prayer Inspired by the Our Father (FA:ED, vol.1, p.158). This prayer is one of the clearest windows into St. Francis’s inner spirituality: contemplative, Trinitarian, and centered on God’s overflowing goodness. It is an authentic Franciscan text preserved in the earliest manuscript collections and universally accepted by modern scholars.
Purity of Heart – OFS Rule, Article 12
Article 12 may be only one sentence long, but it offers a rich and powerful invitation: to witness to the good yet to come and to seek the purity of heart that frees us to love.
The Gospel Through a Franciscan Lens – 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time – Fr. Christopher
What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?
The Gospel Through a Franciscan Lens – 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Fr. Christopher
St. Matthew presents us with an uncomfortable encounter with Jesus. A Canaanite woman comes to Him desperate for help. Her daughter is suffering. She knows Jesus has the power to heal. She approaches Him with faith, calling Him, “Lord” and “son of David.”
The Gospel Through a Franciscan Lens – 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Fr. Christopher
Peter does not ask to walk on the water. He requests that Jesus command him to come to him on the water -- a journey ever deeper into Christ -- a journey that entails the overcoming of fear, the courage not to be afraid. Jesus responds with one word, “Come.”