The Family Foundation School Catholic Community Bulletin
Pauca Verba (Latin for, “A Few Words)
We know (or should know) The Twelve Steps, but do we know The Ten Commandments? It’s said that people reject Christianity because it comes with “commandments” and not just “values” to share. But the Ten Commandments topple like dominoes all around us – especially in the media. Want to start to get your life in good order? MEMORIZE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS – AND THEN START TO LIVE THEM AS NEVER BEFORE.
1. I am the Lord your God; you shall not have strange gods before Me.
2. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
3. Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day.
4. Honor your father and your mother.
5. You shall not kill.
6. You shall not commit adultery.
7. You shall not steal.
8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
9. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.
In our chapel, up front on the left side of the sanctuary, we have a marvelous wall painting of Moses receiving the Commandments of God on Mount Sinai. Don’t let the week go by without knowing the story. It’s in your bible – Exodus – start at the beginning.
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This is my last weekend here before going to Italy for 2 weeks. I am going to visit Assisi again where, on September 8th, the Feast of Mary’s Nativity, some young men (just a very few years older than we are here) are taking the brown Franciscan habit and cord with 3 knots (symbolizing vows – sacred and public promises – of poverty, chastity and obedience.)
Among these young men is Christian, from Mexico, who lived in Las Vegas and had “the world at his feet.” He read the life of St. Francis and everything changed in an instant. He got on a plane and flew to Italy where he knocked on the door of the great Franciscan house (the Porziuncola) in the valley of Assisi. He asked the porter who answered the door to join! The brothers let him stay around for a year to learn Italian and to mop the floors (to see if he really meant it!) He stayed! Any thoughts about your own life!?
Then, on the 15th of September, the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, my friend, Frater Alessandro Mantini makes his final vows as a Franciscan Brother. This is Alessandro who I met in Lourdes years ago and whose friendship has been cultivated across the ocean. What about your own friendships?
Alexsandro is the happiest guy I know on earth! He walked from Assisi to Florence – over the better part of a week – carrying only a small bag on his shoulder – a toothbrush, tiny bible, change of underwear. All along the way, he greeted people, “Pace e bene!” He talked with little kids and old people. He stayed where people offered him hospitality. One little boy ran off and found an apple to share with him. He offered a listening ear, an encouraging word, a little story, his smile, his prayer. You don’t have to walk from Assisi to Florence to do these things you know? Let me ask it again, do you think about what God has in mind for you – the bigger things? The things that matter; the things that last?
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Father Scott will be here with us for Mass on the weekends of the 8th and 15th. Receive him cordially. Pray well at Mass. Don’t leave him to say the responses by himself. And as I said before going on sabbatical last fall:
Be good!
Study hard!
Love God – pray often!
Build community through
love and forgiveness.
Oremus pro invicem!
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John H. (who graduated from The Family School about 4 years ago) is marrying on the 2nd of December in Minneapolis-St. Paul. His relationship to his fiancé (Amanda) is a very pure one. He sleeps on the floor each night and takes a cold shower each day asking for the gift of purity. (Mortification) It’s a way of saying, “God, I am even willing to suffer for purity,” he so sees it as a value and virtue (practiced goodness.) Where are the Milites Christi? The soldiers for Christ?
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Now this is all the rage among some young people today – driving up to the fast-food window and ordering a super sized malted. Then, when picking it up at window 2, throwing the open cup back on the kid who has handed it off and driving away with screeching tires, screaming laughing and flicking cigarette butts. Each human person is made in the image and likeness of God, and in the Incarnation (God becoming human in Jesus Christ) God has given us a still greater dignity. Let’s start to find new ways to acknowledge this truth about ourselves. It’s a God-insult to degrade people – to shame them, burden them, exploit them. Let’s change our thinking and method today!
