As I am coming to the end of my first semester at St. Louis University, I am, as a co-Sister put it, “eye-brow deep” in studying for finals. In the midst of my studying, one of my favorite ways to take a “brain break” from trying to cram all the information I’ve learned this past semester into my brain, is to pull out my dictionary and look up new words or to go online and find etymologies to words. Call me a nerd, but I just find words and their root meanings or how to came to be fascinating. Seeing as to how we are right smack in the middle of Advent, I thought it fitting to look up the etymology to the word advent. It turns out that advent comes from the Latin word adventus and has quite a range of meanings. It can mean a coming, arrival, or appearance—all fitting for the way we understand Advent and our waiting for the coming of Jesus on Christmas. However, I came across a translation that both surprised and struck me. Adventus also has a military conno
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.