Franciscan Life
Franciscan life is a love story — with God, with the poor, with the earth, with the stranger. Rooted in the spirit of Francis and Clare of Assisi, these posts explore what it means to embrace simplicity, kinship, and courageous countercultural choices in a world that constantly pushes the other direction. From returning land to Indigenous communities to the spirituality of dumpster diving to what the feast of St. Francis has to teach us today, this is a space for anyone drawn to the Franciscan way — whether you’ve taken vows or are just beginning to feel its pull.
Technology habits and the connections that really matter
Over the past five years, I have gradually become attached to a laptop. A couple of months ago, I reluctantly got a smart phone. Of…
Anticipation and Ashes
tomorrow, everywhere: next to strangers friends, neighbors We form lines. around blocks down church aisles arise and admit we sin, we suck we…
Franciscan Bookshelf: A Simplified Life: A Contemporary Hermit’s Experience of Solitude and Silence
By day, guest blogger K.P.—a good friend of Sister Julia’s—reads, writes, and has conversations about literature for a living. By night, she devours theology, sits…
As the insects, like the swans: Living the vow of obedience with a free spirit
I am in the woods on Mount Subasio above Assisi, Italy, at a sacred place of prayer called La Carceri. It’s July 20, 2014. I…
Franciscan Bookshelf: “Following Francis”
By day, K.P.–a good friend of Sister Julia’s–reads, writes, and has conversations about literature for a living. By night, she devours theology, sits silently with…
Heaven and Earth: Lessons learned in Assisi
This past summer I had a profound experience that helped me to remember that heaven and earth are one. I was in Assisi, Italy, on…
Australian crime drama removes plank in my eye
By Guest Blogger Sarah Hennessey, FSPA How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the…
Old-fashioned trunk-centered simplicity
I admire my sisters’ tales of trunks. Long before I entered the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration – and long before Vatican II for that…