While Southwest airlines allows you to “select your own seat,” I am confident that it was not I who selected my seat on a recent return to Alton. As the flight began, the woman next to me inquired about the book I was reading. I explained the title and summarized the contents saying, “It deals with what it means to receive God’s love and from that receptivity, learning to love one’s neighbor.” She followed with hard questions about suffering, death, grief, and forgiveness, sharing her story about her son’s tragic death with honesty and vulnerability. It was clear that there was a great deal of hurt, resentment, anger, and a dire need to forgive and experience forgiveness. Thanks to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and the providence of the recent lectionary cycle at daily Mass, we carried on this conversation for almost the entirety of the two-and-a-half-hour flight during which I was able to share the Gospel (literally) and some insights on forgiveness t...
The Franciscan Way of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George is the road that St. Francis followed: in the footsteps of Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our foundress, Mother M. Anselma.