1 Franciscan Way

The last couple of years I have been a student at Benedictine college studying Biology. I was first drawn to biology through my love for nature. A major part of my love of nature comes from the fact that for me it is a place of radical encounter with God.  It is when I’m sitting next to water or within the woods that I find a stillness within me which brings me to God’s peace and love. In fact, I was first drawn to St. Francis because he was the patron saint of ecology. Since then I have realized that there is much more about him and his spirituality that I love including his love of the cross and the Eucharist. Yet, his ability to see God and God’s will and works within creation remains one of the ways in which I connect to St. Francis.             It has been a gift for me to continue the biology degree which I started before I entered the convent. It’s continued to bring home to me the amazing intricacies of God’s creatio...

How’s your Lent going so far? Sometimes we can view Lent as that time of darkness or 40 days of agony until we can do or have the things we gave up and often a season to just get through or try to avoid. Sometimes the penances or challenges of giving up the things we enjoy or changing the ways we have become comfortable allow for a struggle and accept change in our hearts.  I can remember times in my own life when I would begin grumbling as the beginning of Lent was approaching. My false idea of Lent was that Jesus did not want me to be happy or joyful for 40 days but rather I was to walk around moping with a sad almost mournful appearance. Well this is definitely false! This is not at all what Jesus wants us to do during this season of Lent. Yes, we do recognize our great need to turn away from our sinfulness and look at how we can grow in virtue and change our vices but there is HOPE! Even in this time of fasting from the things we enjoy, Jesus tells us “When you fast, do no...

I recently received a letter from my mom, and something she said left me thinking: "I forget we cannot store up the grace and love of God.  We have to gather it daily.  His peace flows freely to us, but we must seek it daily by prayer.  Our Lord had designed us to need him day by day even moment by moment." We can't store up the grace and love of God.  Just like the manna in the desert for Moses and the Israelites, he will always give us what we need for each day.  We can be tempted to seek after extra and store it up in fear that it will fail to be there when we need it.  If we trust in His faithfulness, we never question, we never doubt whether His Love and Grace will be there. The problem I often face is "Am I open to receiving all He is offering."  Do I fill  up my time with God in prayer with my words, according to my plan, seeking control because there are some things I would rather avoid?  The Lord wants to come be with me and ...

In the Collect for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, celebrated on February 2nd, we pray, “Almighty ever-living God, we humbly implore your majesty that, just as your Only Begotten Son was presented on this day in the Temple in the substance of our flesh, so, by your grace, we may be presented to you with minds made pure.”  On this Feast, also considered the World Day for Consecrated Life, several of us presented ourselves to our Eucharistic Lord at Saints Peter and Paul Church, not far from our Provincial House here in Alton.   There we joined many other religious communities from the area to praise the Lord who has gifted us with a sure path to following Him more closely: the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience.   These three vows are a present from the Lord to each of us, safeguarding our vocation to be united to Christ in the religious life.   The Holy Family witnessed to each vow as they brought their Divine Son to the templ...