Hello everyone:
Before anyone comes in to tell me to take a pill, eat this or not to eat that . . . LOL
I’m very excited. I went to see one of the doctors who care for me. I have to say that he’s awesome, not because of what he had to say, to which I will get in a moment, but also because he’s one of the most humble people I’ve met in medicine. It’s enjoyable being with him. You feel that you’re learning something beyond what color pill to take. My lab results came back showing significant improvement. My immune system is still very low; so he warned me to stay clear of “snotty kids”. LOL, this is truly funny, because most of our ministry is to families. Find me a family that doesn’t have snotty kids or a toddler with a runny nose who’s not adorable, especially when they wipe their noses with the back of their hands and then use your habit as a towel.
It was good to hear that things are going in the right direction. Nonetheless, I have to go in for a brain scan. There is concern about my memory loss. I told the doctor that a scan is unnecessary. It’s not that I’ve forgotten anything, but that I’ve always had an IQ in the single digits.
As far as memory is concerned, I can’t remember whether Lincoln crossed the Delaware or Washington gave a sermon at Gettysburg. Does it really make a big difference today? I mean seriously . . .
But I’ll do what the doctor says. Obedience, obedience, obedience, as St. Pio always said.
I have more great news. On the 28th of April we will be receiving more new postulants. Our little community is growing. It seems that the Lord has seen fit to send us a surge in brothers. We have mature men who are leaving behind careers, money and an established way of life to begin a new journey under the flag of St. Francis of Assisi and young men just out of college. It’s an interesting combination. Don’t get carried away. I’m not talking about tens or hundreds. I’m talking about small, but steady numbers.
We do have a ceiling on the age of the men that we accept, but I also believe in paying close attention to the Providence of God. I remember that God made his covenant with Israel not with a young newlywed couple, but with an older couple beyond the years of childbearing. Had it not been so, we would not be having this exchange. I also think of John the Baptist, because in many ways the vocation to be a religious brother is very much like that of John the Baptist. The religious brother is not always a priest who shares in the priesthood of Jesus Christ. Very often he is John, the voice who cries out “Behold the Lamb of God,” and he points men to Christ the high priest, to the Church, and to the sacraments, which the priest alone administers in union with Jesus Christ. Yet, Christ said, “There has been no greater man born of woman than John the Baptist.” But John also was born to older parents. Once again, age is not a barrier for God. In fact, God uses the older man and woman in very powerful and significant ways throughout Salvation History.
Speaking of brothers . . . the novices and postulants came to see me. I love spending time with them. They’re incredibly curious about everything that is the Gospel, Jesus Christ, the Church, Franciscan life and more, very much like fertile soil. Something came to my mind that I felt I needed to tell them. I want to share it in case it can help anyone who reads this post.
- “When you go out to proclaim the Gospel of Life, keep in mind that the Gospel is not sandpaper. Don’t be abrasive . . . you’re sons of St. Francis. He thought, felt and spoke with the Church and was faithful to the pope. People heard his proclamation of the Gospel, because he was a true son of the Church. And stop wasting God’s time fighting the Church, trying to convert popes and bishops to your idea of what they should be. Look at priests, bishops and popes through the eyes of St. Francis. See the Church as he saw her. You’ll be at peace with her. You will also find interior silence where you can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit.”*
The more time that I spend in recovery and quiet, the more I become aware of my own sins. It frightens me to think of the spiritual damage that my faults can do to my soul. But this is a good thing. It’s too easy to get very busy looking at the Church’s faults or the faults of this priest, that bishop or the other pope. I truly believe that the devil uses those preoccupations to distract us from our personal sinfulness and from the mortality of our souls.
Please continue to pray for me. Make time to be alone and to be quiet. Let the Holy Spirit talk to you about your journey. Join me in praying for children. They have an incredible task ahead of them and a dangerous stretch of history to traverse. I’m convinced that the Holy Father’s words to the young were prophetic when he told them to go out there and “make a mess”. Our children will rebuild the Church and the world; but they need our prayers and good example.
I’m always your brother.
