Franciscans, as Pilgrims, Walk to DC

  • Thread starter Thread starter Beau_Ouiville
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
B

Beau_Ouiville

Guest
"They’ve been mistaken for Jedi-wannabes headed to a Star Wars convention. They’ve been investigated by police, approached by strangers, gawked at from cars and offered gifts of crumpled dollar bills and Little Debbie snacks.

After trekking along more than 300 miles of dusty Virginia country roads and suburban highways, six Franciscan friars reached Washington on Tuesday, having seen it all during an offbeat modern-day quest for God.

For six weeks, the brothers walked from Roanoke, with only their brown robes, sandals and a belief in the kindness of strangers to feed and shelter them. "

washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/28/AR2009072803220.html?hpid=artslot&sid=ST2009072803246
 
Beau_Ouiville said:
"They’ve been mistaken for Jedi-wannabes headed to a Star Wars convention. They’ve been investigated by police, approached by strangers, gawked at from cars and offered gifts of crumpled dollar bills and Little Debbie snacks.

After trekking along more than 300 miles of dusty Virginia country roads and suburban highways, six Franciscan friars reached Washington on Tuesday, having seen it all during an offbeat modern-day quest for God.

For six weeks, the brothers walked from Roanoke, with only their brown robes, sandals and a belief in the kindness of strangers to feed and shelter them. "

washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/28/AR2009072803220.html?hpid=artslot&sid=ST2009072803246
Click to expand...
Those are my brothers. 👍

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
What a beautiful story – I wish the article was longer.

I also wish we could know what happened to the lady who gave all her money. I am quite certain there is a miraculous and joyful story there…
 
CSN said:
What a beautiful story – I wish the article was longer.

I also wish we could know what happened to the lady who gave all her money. I am quite certain there is a miraculous and joyful story there…
Click to expand...
That is the miracle. She gave what she had to the poor. How many people do that?

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
As I reflect on this article on my brothers, I wonder how many readers realize what is happening here.
  1. Let’s look at the friars themselves. What are they doing? They are returning to their roots. Vatican II called on all religious to return to the roots. We were to return to the spirit of the founder, to recover it and bring it back to life today. These friars have done just that. They have experienced what our holy Father Francis experienced. They walked, they prayed, they played, and they preached. To some this may be a scandal. Why aren’t they in a parish? Because they were never meant to be in parishes. They were meant to be itinerant preachers, who worked with their hands and their minds. When they could not get just compensation for their work, they were to beg and depend on God for their needs.
  2. Let’s look at the people whom they met. They opened up their hearts to the friars. They opened up their purses and even their homes. Why? Because the friars were Christ who knocks at the door very gently, asking for a place to sleep, asking to be heard, asking to be loved and loving in return. These people responded with the kindness of the woman who annointed Christ with expensive perfumes and oils and whom Judas tried to criticize. These people had a moment with Christ, a moment of grace in their lives. What happens from there is up to them and God. But at least they opened the door to their hearts. That’s the beginning of conversion.
  3. Let’s look at ourselves on these thread. How much time do we spend on the road? We spend so much time arguing about this form of the mass vs that form of the mass. Yes the mass is the summit of the Christian life. But sometimes we forget the life part and focus only on the summit. The friars and the people whom they encountered lived the life of the Gospel. Being friars, I’m sure that they celebrated the Eucharist, maybe under a tree or something. We don’t know, because we don’t know if any of the friars are priests. But surely, if they are not priests, they probably found churches along the way to worship. They combined the whole of Christian life into one walk, worship and witness.
Thee is a great deal to be learned here and we should give thanks that for once the secular media has noticed something good and powerful in Catholicism.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF
 
Since they are returning to Chicago (and I think I know which Church!) I’d like to meet up with them. I wish I could have walked a ways with them.
 
Awesome story! 🙂

I like the end as well:
Their message will be simple: “Anything can happen when you live in the moment, one step at a time,” said Mark Soehner, 51, one of the mentors to the young friars. “But to find that out, you have to be willing to take that one step.”
Click to expand...
:cool:
 
I enjoyed this story, on many levels, one is my brother is an SF who walks the walk and, with the Franciscans who staff his parish, does embrace evangelical poverty in his life as much as possible. I also work with a group of TORs who live the Franciscan charism in a radical way, and they are doing great things here.

But I signed on to comment that I had to laugh, because while visiting grandson, who is still attached to last year’s Darth Vader halloween costume (he wears it constantly while at home, even the mask) I heard his mom in exasperation tell him to put it away. He had a 4 yr old melt down “Well who CAN I be then?” and as we were playing a Star Wars Lego video game at the time, I suggested we look at all the characters and suggested he get an Obi Wan costume. Mom sighed, he protested, “I don’t HAVE that costume and I want it NOW.” Mom glares at me, but we looked through his cousin’s collection of dress-ups and costumes and found the St. Francis costume somebody had for All Saints day at their school, and he was very satisfied with that, and now that is the new after-school wear.
 
puzzleannie said:
But I signed on to comment that I had to laugh, because while visiting grandson, who is still attached to last year’s Darth Vader halloween costume (he wears it constantly while at home, even the mask) I heard his mom in exasperation tell him to put it away. He had a 4 yr old melt down “Well who CAN I be then?” and as we were playing a Star Wars Lego video game at the time, I suggested we look at all the characters and suggested he get an Obi Wan costume. Mom sighed, he protested, “I don’t HAVE that costume and I want it NOW.” Mom glares at me, but we looked through his cousin’s collection of dress-ups and costumes and found the St. Francis costume somebody had for All Saints day at their school, and he was very satisfied with that, and now that is the new after-school wear.
Click to expand...
Love it! My kids have done the same. In fact, on Halloween, they go trick-or-treating, but also participate in the Church’s trunk-and-treat where they wear their All Saints costumes. Besides the dual-purpose Franciscan/Jedi garb, there is also the knight costume (St. George and St. Michael - just add wings).
 
One year I won our corporation’s costume competition with a Franciscan tunic.
 
Beautiful story. I pray that God will take care of the poor woman who gave everything she has away. May she and her daughter be blessed in their life.

Cheers,
Ben
 
JReducation said:
That is the miracle. She gave what she had to the poor. How many people do that?

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
Click to expand...
Yes, good point. The greatest miracles are the miracles of conversion, as they say.

And good ‘other post’ as well…
 
I’m jealous. I wish I could take the time and had the physical stamina to do something like that.

I’ll have to content myself with my half-hour each-way walk to church each week … I pray the Rosary en route, so I suppose it’s kinda sorta a mini-pilgrimage 🙂
 
They actually chose their end point first, then backtracked to figure out where to start for an approximately 6-week walk.
What an inspiring and blessed bunch they are.
 
MLWilliams said:
They actually chose their end point first, then backtracked to figure out where to start for an approximately 6-week walk.
What an inspiring and blessed bunch they are.
Click to expand...
We Franciscans tend to be creative. 😃

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top