Franciscan Spirit Blog

The Inbreaking of the Word: Week 4 of Advent

From Father Jim: "While we celebrate the birth of Christ as this great memorial, as this great celebration, as this great solemnity. We are a people with feet in two worlds, the world to come and the world that is ...
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Shepherd with his sheep

Jesus: The Good Shepherd

One of the most beloved images of Jesus is of him as the good shepherd.
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The First Words of Christ

For centuries we have reflected on the Seven Last Words of Christ during Lent, but few people have spent much time considering his earliest words in the Gospels at the same time.
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St. Anthony and the Albigensian Heresy

St. Anthony of Padua (1195-1231) was a Franciscan friar who spent a number of years as a traveling preacher.
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Who Was St. Valentine?

How did this holiday of love and romance originate and, more importantly, how did St. Valentine become involved? The answers to those questions are not easy ones. Valentine’s Day is a holiday shrouded in mystery and legend.
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The Catholic Roots of St. Valentine’s Day

Although the mid-February holiday celebrating love and lovers remains wildly popular, the confusion over its origins led the Catholic Church, in 1969, to drop Saint Valentine's Day from the Roman calendar of official, worldwide Catholic feasts.
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wheat field | Photo by Rose Erkul on Unsplash

When Darkness Becomes Dawn

The coming of the dawn is the rising up of an inner light.
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