Before you go running to Whispers in the Loggia or your copy of NCR, I will ease your fears: Pope Benedict 16 is still alive and well. There is no period of mourning, nor will we be watching CNN in anticipation of white smoke from the conclave.

However, if you are a member of the True Catholic Church, then this a public notice that Pope Pius XIII reportedly received his final reward on November 30, 2009.

If you're still a little confused, let me tell you a little story about an infamous former friar from my province: Lucian Pulvermacher.

Pope Pius XIII was born Earl Pulvermacher on April 20, 1918. He professed solemn vows with the Order of Friars Minor, Capuchin in 1946, taking the name Lucian. He served for a short time as an assistant priest at St. Francis Parish in Milwaukee, WI before going to the Ryuku Islands in 1948. In 1955 he was transferred to Okinawa. After spending much time in Japan and surrounding islands, he moved to Australia in 1970 as a missionary. It was in 1976 that he left Australia and cut himself off from the Catholic Church and the Capuchin Order.

He and three other friars left Australia, claiming issue with the reforms of Vatican II; afterwhich they spent time with Traditionalist groups, specifically the Lefebrve group in Milwaukee. His desire was with the tradition of the Latin Mass and opposition to the many new changes that he saw as leading people astray.

Finding dismay even with this group, stating "that they were not truly Catholic,"(1) he broke off on his own. In his own words:

Father Hector Bolduc (Society of St. Pius X) even kicked me out of the area that was served by the Society. Why? I refused to give the sacraments to the Novus Ordo Catholics. That made me bad in their sight. I just could not understand why they, who called themselves Catholics, could give the sacraments to people who regularly went to the Novus Ordo churches for the sacraments.(2)

Breaking from the Order and the SSPX he was on his own again, until he met a German priest; they got together to discuss the election of a new Pope. Finding fault with this priest, he again separated, and with a group of conclavist Catholic separatists (for lack of a better term) set up the means by which a new pope could be elected.

Seeing Pope Pius XII as the last true pope, saying the following popes: " have usurped the name of the Catholic Church from which they of their own free will departed,"(3) Pulvermacher chose the name Pius XIII. Many of his encyclical writings can be found on his site http://www.truecatholic.us/ on such topics as the Invalidity of Vatican 2, how Catholics can marry without a pastor present, and the "False Beatification of JPII."

Yeah. Wow.

Karl Keating wrote about Pulvermacher years ago in an eletter:

You wonder what happened to the Fr. Pulvermacher of three decades ago. What made him leave not just Australia and the Capuchins but the real Catholic Church? What propelled him, in just a few months, clear past the Traditionalist movement and into a church of his own making?(4)

And Karl has a point. We can joke about how far Pulvermacher "slingshot" from being a part of the Church and the Order to making his own Church and papal office. Perhaps this is God's great joke to the rest of us: "When I said you have to love all of My children, I meant guys like this, too!"

But what happened to this man that caused him to leave everything?

When we in the Order learned of Lucian's passing on the 30th of November (as we often keep in contact with friars who have left us), there was a sense of loss mixed with the occasional joke. I find it admirable that during his time of searching, the Order chose not to force Br. Lucian out. Rather, they valued his fraternity in the community and hoped that he just needed time to work through some personal things. But by taking the title of "Pope" his break from the Capuchins was complete.

And so today, as I ate lunch with Regis Armstrong, Jim Peterson, and other friars of my Order, we lovingly joked and remembered our former brother. And in spite of everything Br. Pulvermacher did, these guys still talked of him in the same way they lovingly talked of other friars who have passed. Regardless of it all, these guys still saw him as their brother - making me proud to be a Capuchin.

So please keep the passing of P13 in your prayers. He may have been a little crazy, but he was my brother...if not in faith, at least in Christ.

Sources:
1-3 www.truecatholic.us: History, Encyclicals, and General Letters
4 I Get A Letter From the Pope by Karl Keating April 2004, catholicanswers.com
Discussions with friars from St. Mary's & St. Joseph Province of Capuchin Franciscans

For those not familiar with the Capuchin Franciscans, especially for those considering a religious vocation, one must wonder: "What makes them different than others?" In my provincial vocations newsletter Vocations Update, Fr. William Hugo OFM Cap. publishes a series of articles explaining the grand topic of Franciscan Prayer.

This first issue focuses on the pattern of Franciscan prayer. The assumption that this pattern comes from Francis of Assisi is only half true. Certainly his experience, recorded in numerous medieval legends, tells the story of Francis’ prayer in action. But, oddly, his writings do not systematize his pattern of prayer. Instead, it is Clare of Assisi, Francis’ partner in defining the Franciscan way of life, who gives us the four-part Franciscan approach to prayer in her second letter to Agnes of Prague: to gaze, to consider, to contemplate, and to imitate (20-21).

Francis and Clare sought a gospel way of life that would be different from that of monks. Yet, in fact, Clare’s prayer method included three steps that characterized monastic prayer before the Franciscan period, though she used her distinctive words. To gaze was akin to the monastic reading of Christ’s life from a gospel or a different scripture to get the story. Clare’s term to consider was much like the monastic meaning of meditation, i.e., imagining that one is on the scene of the scripture with all its smells, sounds, sights, tastes, feelings and movements. This second step was the work of imagination. Clare’s idea of contemplation even used the word of many monastic methods. It was the prayer of being with God and all the intimacies of conversation and presence after sharing the biblical experience through meditation.

However, Franciscan prayer stands out as different when Clare lists her fourth component as imitation. Monks typically did not include anything like imitation in their definitions or descriptions of prayer. By
highlighting imitation of Christ and God who is our partner in prayer, Franciscans clearly announce that prayer changes their lives. The goal does not end in union with God during prayer, but a transformation of
life brought about through the influence of prayer. Thus, Franciscan prayer and life become closely intertwined. Fashioning your own prayer according to this four-fold pattern, spending 5-10 minutes on each
step, can be a great way to deepen your prayer.

Future Updates will look at other characteristics of Franciscan prayer. But for now, a good way to begin an appreciation of the Franciscan style of prayer is to ask how your own prayer changes the rest of your life.

(William Hugo is Director of Postulancy and teaches Franciscan spirituality and history. He authored Studying the Life of Francis of Assisi: A Beginner’s Workbook, Franciscan Press, 1996.)

This week's homily comes from Fr. Gerard O'Dempsey OFM Cap. who happily contributed his words for the week. Enjoy.

Advent 1st Sunday 2009 Year “C”

Scripture scholars have long discussed the content of today’s gospel passage in regard to the momentous event Jesus is speaking of. Is it the physical end of the world? Some of the language certainly sounds like the end-times language of the book of Revelation. But many scholars are agreed that these words depict the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. That event happened in AD 70 - some forty years after Christ’s death and resurrection, during the lifetime of many of those who were Christ’s original followers. The Jews rose up against their Roman occupiers but were mercilessly crushed. The Jewish people were scattered around the world – Jerusalem and the Temple were laid waste…and the repercussions of that event are still felt in today’s troubled Middle East.

Jesus describes this traumatic event in language that was meant to have a dramatic effect on his listeners and to lodge in their memories. But it isn’t just a warning about the destruction of the Temple. What is important for us today is that Jesus offers his followers a way to approach his second coming and the end times. Jesus warns his followers not to lapse or to be distracted from their prayers or from their confidence in him. Then, no matter happens: earthquake, flood, war, famine and so on, the followers of Jesus can be sure that they will have eternal salvation – this, far from being a dire prediction of disaster – is really a promise of liberation for all who follow Christ.

St. Paul gives similar advice to the people of Thessalonika in his letter, part of which we heard as our 2nd reading this morning. And Paul’s advice is as sound for us as it was for these early Christians. Our lives as Christians will not be well lived unless we keep continue to progress by striving to love one another more and to become more Christ-like each day. Using Christ’s language, we are called to “stay awake”…to be “attentive”.

Now, all this talk about desperate times may seem a bit odd at the beginning of Advent – when the rest of society is busily putting up decorations and telling us to spend on money on this, that and the other thing…shopping malls with eternal loops of Christmas Carols assaulting our ears…Why, when we are beginning our preparations for Christmas, has the Church decided to give us such a gloom laden gospel reading?

Well, the Advent season has always had a dual focus – we prepare for Christmas, the celebration of Christ’s first coming among us. But we also think about the 2nd coming of Christ, when God’s kingdom will finally be fulfilled and God’s plan of salvation for the whole of creation reaches its ultimate completion. So for the first two weeks of Advent the scripture readings and the Mass prayers point us toward this 2nd coming – we are to wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ. And I guess – waiting is not something we do very happily – in the queue at the checkout, to get onto an aeroplane, waiting for a friend to call us, waiting for the children to come home from a date…we don’t ‘wait’ all that well at the best of times – and yet NOW – we are to wait in joyful hope for this Saviour to come. And our waiting is to be coloured by prayer, attentiveness, and patience.

Today’s gospel reminds us how much we need a savior – someone who can turn the most desolate of situations into victory. Someone who can help us survive any worst-case scenario. Someone who can provide salvation when we most need it. Even the prophet Jeremiah speaking some 600 years before the birth of Jesus, recognized that this savior would come. So we commence Advent aware of this need for a savior and look forward to his coming in glory.

Advent card courtesy of Ben Bell.

While preparing for the Advent season, a time of intense discernment and preparation, I reflect and contemplate on the words of Archbishop Oscar Romero:

We must not seek the child Jesus in the pretty figures of our Christmas cribs. We must seek him among the undernourished children who have gone to bed at night with nothing to eat, among the poor newsboys who will sleep covered with newspapers in doorways. Oscar Romero, December 24, 1979

How will you spend this Advent season?

(The four Sundays in Advent will feature homilies/reflections from different Capuchin friars who have kindly contributed their words to spread. They may offer ideas and challenges for all of us during this season.)

While surfing the net on my day off and running across A Nun's Life (a blog run by sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I came upon an interesting story this week.

In San Fernando, two elderly Franciscan nuns were robbed after buying groceries. The incident is caught on camera and a manhunt is now taking place for the suspect.

The interesting aspect of this article, in my opinion, is while the nuns seem to understand the grace of forgiveness others (something I'm still learning), the police and all other people involved appear quite vigilant in wanting to apprehend this individual, already assigning his "free trip to Hell."

The broadcast can be seen here.

Sister Julie writes more about it here.

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With Thanksgiving approaching, it's been six months since I left Chicago as a Postulant. While I wasn't invested as a Novice until the end of July, the guys here try to forget sometimes forget the two months of preparation spent in Victoria, Kansas.

For the most part I've settled into the routine. Our usual schedule looks like this:

6:30 - Morning Prayer & Meditation
7:20 - Eucharist
8:00 - Breakfast
9:30 - Class
11:30 - Midday Prayer
11:45 - Lunch
1:00-3:00 - Work Projects
4:00 - Rest/Exercise/Recreation
4:45 - Evening Prayer & Meditation
5:30 - Office of Readings
5:50 - Dinner
7:30 - Prayerful Silence
8:45 - Night Prayer
9:00 - Community Recreation

Even the occasional variations for ministry, Days of Recollection, birthdays, etc. don't phase me anymore. For better or worse, the weeks blend together - so much so that I can forget what day of the week it is. While I don't like it when time moves so fast, I realize that if the days were dragging it would be a sign that I hated it here.

I pass the time with a lot of reading. Currently I'm trying to finish several books: Death of the Messiah by Raymond Brown, Thy Will Be Done by Michael Crosby, The Medallin Documents of 1968, Woman and the Word by Heather Hitchcock, Women and the Word by Sandra Schnieder, and a book of sudoku puzzles to keep my mind sharp. I realize that trying to read all these books at the same time is an exercise in futility, but I guess there are worse compulsions than hoarding books.

For the most part I'm doing well here in Novitiate. My recent evaluation was great, although there is concern of this blog taking up too much of my thoughts and prayer time. I find I'm sleepy a lot lately, but otherwise I'm taking full advantage of this Novitiate year.

Perhaps it will ease my mind that my mother has returned to work. There's still no guarantee that she'll keep her job with Michigan's economy the way it is, but her shoulder is healing and she says she's able to do her job. Thank you for all your prayers.

Have a great Thanksgiving. I will be taking some time away from the blog for the holiday. However several friars have agreed to contribute for the 4 Sundays of Advent. So if you're looking for reflections for this Advent season, stay tuned.

Peace,

Br. Vito

My apologies for not finishing this series sooner. Between a headache, a few house jobs, and my time in prayer here at Novitiate I've gotten behind with some of my blogging. While my first and foremost priority is being a Novice (as my formators will agree resoundingly) I will attempt to keep up with the blogs as is available. If I drop off the face of the earth, you can assume I'm either praying or doing something to get in trouble!

This last article finishes the talk given by Fr. Charlie Polifka about the "Three Gimme's" as stated in Francis' prayer: true faith, certain hope, and perfect charity. If you haven't read either of the two previous articles, you can find them here: true faith and certain hope.

Out of the three things Francis asks of God in his Prayer before the Crucifix, one of the ones that we can easily identify with is the concept of charity. Yet just the same as we did with faith and hope, we need to identify exactly what we mean when we use these terms.

A great view on charity comes from Pope Benedict XVI's letter: Caritas in Veritate. In his letter he describes charity: "Charity is love received and given."(3) As God shines his love onto us, it's our role as Christians to share God's love with others in a genuine fashion.

The challenge, as Pope Benedict goes on to discuss, is to recognize this expression of God's love in a rapidly globalizing world. While Francis' world was much smaller, our inter-dependent world puts us in contact with people we don't know and our actions affect people in other countries for which we may never meet. How does one love a group of people one has never met?

The understanding of perfect charity is at the heart of the Franciscan charism: the ability to see Christ in the poor. In a recent article, I talk about the Francis' love of the poor in his conversion...with specifics to the Encounter with the Leper. His drive was not just that he saw Christ in the leper (the lowest of low in his time and culture), but that he recognizes that he sees all of creation as his brothers and sisters in Christ.

For us as followers of Francis, the challenge before us is to learn how to love all of God's creation, and to share that love that has been shown to us. It is a lovely idea and Francis' life is filled with examples of how he is able to accomplish this (not least of all, how he learns to deal with a growing community of brothers!). But in our technological era and in an individualistic society, we are presented with different challenges in order to attain this perfect charity.

How then do we go about this? First and foremost, we have to let go of the things we cannot do. For goal-oriented people like me, there is a great desire to "save the world," "cure world hunger," or "end poverty." We are but human beings given gifts from God. Oscar Romero puts it best: We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.

Too often our desire is to solve. But in doing that, we run the risk of doing charity for selfish reasons. I have friends who are homeless, yet I am not capable of solving the homeless problem myself. If the root of charity is God's love, than my main focus is living that love and not seeing people as a means to achieve a temporal goal. When the poor become statistics, their humanity is taken away.
Second, Francis give us a great example when he is presented with his own community who want to share in his lifestyle:

And when God gave me brothers, no one showed me what I should do, but the Most high revealed to me that I should live according to the form of the holy gospel. I had it written in few words and simply, and the lord pope confirmed it for me. And those who came to receive life gave all that they had to the poor and were content with one tunic patched inside and out, with a cord and trousers. And we did not wish to have more.

Our witness should be to this new way of living, this new kind of community where we focus on the needs of the poor and marginalized.

Third, and perhaps most important, is that we must not only educate ourselves of the poor and needy in this world, but as former OFM Provinial Fr. Joseph Chinnici writes: "We must enter into the experience of the poor." PCO6 Letter #16. It is there that we understand and begin to know the poor that we can truly spread God's love. It is the Sense and knowledge that follows Francis' request for perfect charity.

What then, is God's holy and true command? Again, it is that we "die on earth," and willingly choose to live the Kingdom of God here on Earth. It is a monumental challenge for each of us friars, yet it is the example that has been set before us by our founder Francis. And even he realized he needed help along the way.

This is the third and final article of the series. If you found these articles helpful, insightful, or informative, be sure to share them with someone you know. Peace. -V

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Post Novice David Alan Hirt was nice enough to include me and the other Novices from the Mid-West province in a lovely video that is becoming big.

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/F8QjzH1f6qgWdx4S?cmpid=ey_fb_self

Be sure to grab some pics of your friends and share in the Office Max fun

Elf Yourself

Out of a necessity to deal with continual ad spam, as well as making the blog easier to share, Disqus is being imported into the site.

All of the comments have been temporarily removed as Disqus converts them into its format and I can re-integrate them into the site.

We've recently had an issue with one of our provincial websites, and it was the tipping point for me to inact this change. Hopefully it will not be any impediment to either the reading or the ability to respond with what you read here.

Peace and take care.

Continuing with Fr. Charlie Polifka's talk on the three "Give Me's" of Francis of Assisi as seen through his prayer before the San Damiano crucifix, we move to Certain Hope. If you missed the first article on True Faith you can find it here.

For many of us, hope is often articulated in a temporal sense. We hope for ourselves and our families in this world. If someone young is struck down, we hear: "He/she had such high hopes." Even in my own life I have hopes for my future as a friar, I hope and pray for the well-being of my family, my fellow Novices, and for the people I meet each day.

While there is nothing wrong with these hopes (in fact I think we could use a little more hope in the world!), if they remain solely temporal then it is inevitable that our hopes will become dashed.

I'm reminded of a movie I recently watched called Sin Nombre. It's a movie about a girl and her family that leave Honduras in an attempt to come to the United States. In her attempt to go north, she crosses paths with El Casper, a gang member from Southern Mexico who is marked by his own clicke for breaking away. They cross paths and they accompany each other in hopes of reaching the US.

I won't spoil the movie for you (as I think it something everyone should see), but there is a lot of sadness in the movie. The realization of people hoping for a better life, and the discussion in the movie that: "Half of these people won't make it to to America," left me with a sense of hopelessness for those struggling in poverty.

If hope for things in this life are destined to be dashed, what then is certain hope? Is it completely futile to hope and desire for things in this life, be they as benevolent as safety, security, and good will towards your neighbor if these hopes are fleeting? I don't think that's what Fr. Charlie was getting at. Rather, he used a personal experience to describe his interpretation of certain hope. For this article, I borrowed a story from a fellow Novice. It's a story that may resonate with a personal experience of your own:

Years ago as a hospital chaplain, I remember visiting a very sick woman. She was being eaten alive by cancer, and it was expected that she'd live only a few more days. She had no family (at least none that ever visited) and she was in a great deal of pain.

When I first went into her room, I felt like I was the wrong guy for the job. "This woman needs a priest!" I thought, "not some schmuck with a Bible." But she greeted me, and I introduced myself, and we started talking.

We talked about her life, the church she'd gone to, her battle with cancer, the weather...I thought: "If I keep her talking, maybe she won't feel as bad about dying."

During our talk, a nurse came in with a needle. My experience as a hospital chaplain told me there was no medicine for what was ailing this woman; the nurse could only give her something for the pain. Not only did my time at the hospital tell me this, but I could read it on the expression of the nurse's face.

Very politely, the dying woman says to the nurse before she can even say a word: "Oh no, but thank you, dear. That stuff will put me to sleep. I'm dying, and I want to be awake when the Lord comes for me."

The nurse tried to reason with her, telling her that it would relieve the pain.

"The pain's not so bad," she responded. "And this nice young man and I are talking. Thank you dear, but I'll be all better soon enough."

I could see the nurse trembling slightly, doing her best not to burst into tears. She left the room as those tears formed in the corners of her eyes.

"Poor thing," the woman said to me as the nurse left. With a concern look she said: "Perhaps you should talk to her for a bit."

I was breathless. "Why would I need to see her?" I asked in response. "You're the one who's dying. My job is to be with you during this time."

She smiled at me and gave me a dismissive wave. "Dear, I already know where I'm headed. But that young lady," she said, referring to the nurse, "She needs some hope right now."

Certain hope is more than just our desires or our dreams. It is a reality we choose to accept and incorporate into our lives. As Pope Benedict writes in Spe Salvi: "Eternal, in fact, suggests to us the idea of something interminable, and this frightens us; life makes us think of the life that we know and love and do not want to lose, even though very often it brings more toil than satisfaction, so that while on the one hand we desire it, on the other hand we do not want it." (12)

Our challenge to live certain hope is to look at the eternal life and accept that as a reality for us as Catholic Christians. Even in the life of Francis, as he prepares to die in the Portiuncula, he recognizes that "Eternal life is." And the sooner we can come to this certain hope here on Earth, how much better followers of Christs could we be!

Certain hope is our preparation for the eternal life, a divesting of self as preparation for a new life with Christ. Again, it can be seen as a form of "death on Earth" as our path leads us to be followers of Christ.

This is the 2nd article in a three part series.

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This week, we were lucky to have Fr. Charles Polifka, Capuchin come speak at Novitiate during our Day of Recollection this November. The theme of his talks was "The Three Gimme's of Francis." The note of his talk have been reprinted here with his permission. Please enjoy! -V

Most people don't associate the term "franciscan spirituality" and the words: "Give me..." We've developed a great sense of self-emptying and poverty, that many people who view us don't see us people who ask, but people who give. Yet in his prayer before the crucifix at San Damiano, Francis asked for three specific things:

Most High

Glorious God

Enlighten the darkness of my heart

and give me

True* Faith

Certain Hope

and Perfect Charity;

sense and knowledge

Lord,

that I may carry out

Your holy and true command.

(*sometimes correct faith in some translations)

To start off, What is faith? Most often when people talk about their faith they speak in labels: I am Catholic, I'm Christian, I'm Muslim, etc. In actuality this is not our faith, rather they are a set of histories, traditions, and doctrines that help to guide us in our faith. We must look at faith as the destination, and the other traditions and doctrines as the roadmap to how we get there.

What then is faith? Faith is our desire to encounter the God that has been revealed to us. Faith is not built from the fear of death or the promise of rewards. It is the desire to enter into relationship with God, a relationship that penetrates all aspects of our being.

Perhaps the best example is to look at the story of the rich, young rule that encounters Jesus:

A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’”

“All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.

When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy.  -Luke 18:18-23

Often our view is focused on the lesson of the rich being hard-pressed to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Yet let's take a look at this man. He's lived the commandments of Jesus since he was a boy. Most likely, he continued to live that life at meeting Jesus. And at the time of his death, the command was fulfilled, since none of us can take our worldly belongings with us after we die. It is in his eventual death, as well as ours, that he is free from his worldly possessions to follow Jesus.

What Jesus asked of the rich, young ruler was "to die on this earth," to completely sever his old life and live entirely for Christ in all ways. It's a challenge that is continuously put before us as Capuchins and as Christians.

And much like the rich, young ruler...faith is a labor. As Catholic Christians, we must accept that our faith is a struggle. For if faith is akin to a relationship with the revealed God, our faith will struggle as all relationships are capable of hardship. And much like Francis' faith, our faith develops into different stages until we're able to come to a place where we can truly die in this life.

The stages of faith development look similar to this: (from the perspective of a Cradle Catholic)

1. Early Stage In the beginning of our faith when we're young, we can only learn and process so much. We learn words like Jesus, Heaven, God, and begin to associate those terms to something bigger than our parents.

2. Stories The use of stories to teach lessons is pervasive in the Gospels, and it is a teaching tool that is often used in our own catechesis. Stories of the Bible are used to explain lessons, doctrines, virtues, and many other important lessons that help us develop a relationship to God.

3. Expectations In our growth, we understand certain expectations put upon us to follow the road to faith. We attend church, we say our prayers, we engage in acts of charity. In essence we are doing what we have been told will lead us to faith.

Fr. Polifka talks about how too many Catholics today struggle in this stage. A good example he gave was how many people left the Catholic Church when the Tridentine Mass was changed to the Novus Ordo (from the Latin Mass to the English Mass in rudimentary terms). The issue comes not in way people experience God in the Old Mass, rather the belief that the Tridentine Mass is better because it is right. He warns that a faith based on legalistic terms such as correct/incorrect leads to a selfish understanding of faith: "If I do X, God gives me Y." If faith is about entering into a relationship with God, it must be more than just what I can get from God, rather what we're willing to give each other.

4. Self-Conflict The deeper we're willing to enter into our own faith journey, the more visible the struggle to connect with God becomes. We ask questions about the "Preferential Option of the Poor" and see the wealth of the Vatican and wonder...as one example. The struggle to find a faith within the context of an organized faith can be tough for a lot of people, yet the grace is to continue to seek that relationship with God in one's faith community. I touch on this a little in my discussion on Conversion, and how we as people striving for faith have to reorganize our world views to further encounter God.

5. Death in Life The best example of this can be seen in the meeting with Francis, his father, and the Bishop of Assisi. In a display of his true faith he undresses himself and places his needs and desires on the Father who art in Heaven, and not the man who gave him birth. The bishop welcomes Francis into his arms, and from that point after, Francis views the world in a much different way. His love, dependence, and total being are in relation to God...as was asked of the rich young ruler we looked at earlier.

In this is Francis' prayer for true faith answered, and the challenge for us continues as we live as Capuchins.

This is the first of a three-part series.