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All Good Things
October 19, 2024

Franciscan Values: A Road Map for Life

It can hit hard at any moment. Often when least expected. You find yourself confronted with a grounding reality. Until now, you’ve lived a lifetime without acknowledging or contemplating the prospect of an invading vulnerability. This intrusion shatters you to your core. You ask, “Why me?” you become bitter and lash out at life with accusations of “foul” and “unfair.” Wealth becomes meaningless, status insignificant, vanity loses all appeal, and self-betrayal sets in. You doubt whether you truly are the person you have known yourself to be.

Where do you turn to find perspective and peace? How do you balance pity, pride, empathy, bitterness, victimhood, betrayal, confusion, uncertainty, sorrow, pain, disruption, hopes and dreams? You know you’re not alone, but your existence feels solitary and hollow. Ironically, the solitude of the mind and heart can be the fortress for your deepest reflection as you become convinced that you have the resolve to “push yourself through.”

At the same time, you need relationships with family, friends, co-workers, fellow sufferers, teachers, clergy, and, of course, a “Higher Power” to “pull you through.” The variety of these personal relationships serves well to explore and resolve your layers of pain. A friend may not fully understand what a fellow sufferer might; accordingly, a family member may provide immediate comfort but cannot provide the longer-term peace and freedom from fear that only a Higher Power can provide. There is no exacting formula or blueprint to subside the wounds and damage. There is no man-made apparatus, gadget, or technological solution to measure, record, and bring perspective to your pain.

Our Franciscan values, however, provide direction and a road map to navigate the complexities and exigencies of our humanity. We pray in the name of St. Francis to help us “Enlighten Darkness,” find a “Perfect Clarity,” “bring Pardon to Injury,” “bring Faith to Doubt,” and “bring Joy from Sadness.” Embracing these virtues transforms us into an instrument of Peace to heal life’s emotional, physical, and hidden scars. This is the value of Franciscan Values.

Timothy Cecere
President
St. Francis College

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