1 Franciscan Way

During this Easter season and this month of May devoted to our Blessed Mother I have been reflecting on the Easter Vigil homily of Pope Francis. In the Gospel he recounts how the women told the disciples Jesus’ command, “to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” He goes on further to describe the significance of their return to Galilee. “Galilee is the place where they were first called, where everything began!”  Where did everything begin for Mary? What was her Galilee? I returned with her to the moment of the Annunciation. It is the beginning of Mary’s vocation as the Mother of God. Her yes leads to the indwelling life of Jesus within her and the call to go forth and care for her cousin Elizabeth. This has led me to return to my own moment of saying yes to become a Sister and the new life I received in following the Lord’s will, which is the message of the Resurrection. Now may you ponder these questions which Pope Francis gives to us “What is my Galilee? Where is my...

I was born three years after he was elected.  I was a teenager when he came to St. Louis in 1999.  I was a young adult when he died.  Until I was 24 years old, he was the only Pope I knew.  Now he is a saint.  On Divine Mercy Sunday, one of my favorite feastday because it emphasizes God’s unbounding love and desire that all would respond to that love, I rejoiced with the Church as Pope John Paul II was canonized alongside Pope John XXIII.  It was an occasion on which I was renewed in gratitude for the gift of the name given to me when I was received into the community.  He was not even beatified when I received the name, but we all knew it would happen sooner than later.  I wanted to be named for a zealous, missionary catechist.  He was not the first to come to mind, but after my initial ideas were rejected, it became clear that he fit the bill.  In the nearly eight years I have borne his name, different aspects of his life and teachi...