As I write to you from my patio, I can hear the early evening song of the crickets, telling me that summer is nearly over. No matter how long I have been out of school, September still seems like the time to begin again, to be reinvigorated, and to feel a new sense of purpose.
What is our purpose as a Franciscan fraternity? There are many potential answers to that question, but two of them occur to me based on recent guidance offered to us by Pope Francis. First, the Holy Father has asked us to devote this month to a special love and care for the beautiful creation in which our God has placed us. Seeing the victims of flooding in New Orleans and New York City recently, most of whom lived in poorly built houses or illegal basement apartments, a quote from Laudato Si (which was on the suggested prayer sheet for the first week of September) came to me: “Both everyday experience and scientific research show that the gravest effects of all attacks on the environment are suffered by the poorest.” There is a clear connection between loving care for the environment and for the poor, both of which were special emphases for our father St. Francis. How can I as a Franciscan become more sensitive to the cries of the earth and of the poor?
Another purpose that we might explore comes to us through Chapter 6 of the encyclical Fratelli Tutti, which we will discuss at our September 19 meeting. The Holy Father reminds us in this chapter that we are to hold to our enduring Christian and Catholic values and at the same time “recognize other people’s right to be themselves and to be different.” He promises that if we engage in dialogue, with special attention to the intrinsic human dignity of the other person, we will “grow in our ability to grasp the significance of what others say and do, even if we cannot accept it as our own conviction.” In other words, the point is not to convince others or defeat their arguments, but to understand. We know how good St. Francis and St. Clare were at doing this, treating with great courtesy even those with whom they disagreed strongly. As someone said to me recently, “If we Franciscans cannot lead in the field of respectful dialogue among people with differences, then who can do it?”
On September 18-19, my husband and I will take our 20-year-old son to begin an internship program in Massachusetts—another beginning. I will miss being with you at this month’s meeting, but you will be in the excellent hands of our Vice Minister Joe Gigliotti, who will lead the meeting.
Indeed, September is a time of new beginnings; as our dear St. Francis reminded us near the end of his life, “let us begin again, for up to now we have done nothing.” Be assured that all of you, my dear sisters and brothers, are in my prayers daily.