{"id":21872,"date":"2022-12-02T09:52:45","date_gmt":"2022-12-02T14:52:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21872"},"modified":"2022-12-02T09:56:06","modified_gmt":"2022-12-02T14:56:06","slug":"returning-to-our-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21872","title":{"rendered":"Returning to Our Roots"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yukkzEX8HYY\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>During <\/em>The<em> <\/em>Future of Christianity<em> online\nsummit, Father Richard spoke about discovering wisdom for Christianity\u2019s future\nthrough the inspiration of those who led courageous lives in Christianity\u2019s\npast: <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the things that the Second Vatican Council (1962\u20131965) taught us in the religious orders, and this was certainly from the Holy Spirit, is that we were each to go back to our founders and say, <strong>\u201cWhat did Catherine McAuley found the Sisters of Mercy for? What did Francis form the Franciscans for? What did Ignatius do with the Jesuits?\u201d. . .&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So as much as we experienced a renewal in scripture [in Vatican II, asking] <strong>\u201cWhat did Jesus really teach?<\/strong>,\u201d we were simultaneously doing the same thing\u2014in our case with Francis of Assisi. We\u2019re an alternative orthodoxy. We\u2019re quite eager to remain in the Catholic or universal church, but some of the things it does are not very universal, not very Catholic at all! And that has shaken us to our foundations. So it did for me, too. <strong>We were founded by a prophet, Francis, who wasn\u2019t the usual pious saint, but he didn\u2019t accuse the system of being inferior. He just went out and did it better. That\u2019s still one of our CAC principles: \u201cThe best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was in Rome a couple of months ago, as some of you know, to visit the Holy Father [Pope Francis]. We took a little side trip to the church of Saint John Lateran; that\u2019s where the pope lived in the thirteenth century. St. Peter\u2019s wasn\u2019t built yet. Out in the courtyard, there\u2019s this marvelous, rather large set of statues, and it\u2019s Francis in the thirteenth century approaching this top-heavy Roman church. <strong>He\u2019s smiling, and his hand is raised in blessing, but it\u2019s also raised in confrontation<\/strong>. <strong>That\u2019s the history we\u2019ve all been dealing with. How do we return to our sources, and discover that almost all our sources were critical of [their current] Roman Catholicism? . .<\/strong> .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>It was such good news! That all the legalism and ritualism I had been taught really weren\u2019t Franciscan at all.<\/strong> For example, I know you, even at the Center, call me \u201cFather Richard,\u201d but Francis didn\u2019t want us to be fathers. <strong>He rejected any title of domination over another person. We were all to be called brothers, in Latin <\/strong><em><strong>fratres,<\/strong><\/em><strong> or friars in English. So we were friars, not monks. Our job was not to be priests, but to live among the people as brothers<\/strong>. Wouldn\u2019t you know it, as soon as Francis dies, they\u2019re laying hands on us, and we\u2019re getting happily ordained as priests. Even when I was ordained in 1970, I didn\u2019t fully know that history. I\u2019m not saying those people weren\u2019t sincere. Many of them are holier than I am. But it wasn\u2019t Franciscanism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>_____________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sarah Young<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have loved you with an everlasting love, since before you were born&#8230;..and beyond the grave. <strong>Be still in my presence, surrender, connect and feel the certainty of My loving presence.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Devote time to developing your friendship with Me and live out of that.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jeremiah 3 1:3  <br>&#8220;If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him to marry another, can he ever return to her? Would not such a land be completely defiled? But you have played the harlot with many lovers&#8211;and you would return to Me?&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lamentations 3:22-26  <br>It is of the Lord\u2019s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During The Future of Christianity online summit, Father Richard spoke about discovering wisdom for Christianity\u2019s future through the inspiration of those who led courageous lives in Christianity\u2019s past: One of the things that the Second Vatican Council (1962\u20131965) taught us in the religious orders, and this was certainly from the Holy Spirit, is that we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21872"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21872"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21875,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21872\/revisions\/21875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}