Barb Spies, OFS, Director of Mission Services and Pastoral Care

Remember classroom rules? They were posted on the wall, and we were expected to follow them or risk being sent to the principal’s office. Robert Fulghum published a book in 1986, called All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.  I love the basic rules he laid out and how they were still true for him as an adult. He said, “All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned: Share everything. Play fair. Don’t hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.” The list goes on, but you get the idea. These simple rules are ones we should continue to live by.

The Franciscan family has rules too. St. Francis wrote a rule for his Brothers. St. Clare wrote a rule for the women now called the Poor Clares. And there is a rule for the Third Order Regulars, who are all the congregations of women and men, like the Felician Sisters. There is also a rule for Third Order Seculars, the lay men and women who follow the precepts of St. Francis.

I came across a quotation from the Third Order Regular rule that stood out to me: “As they announce peace with their lips, let them be careful to have it even more within their own hearts. No one should be roused to wrath or insult on their account, rather all should be moved to peace, goodwill and mercy because of their gentleness.” What a beautiful guideline for all of us to follow. We don’t need to be a professed member of a religious order to see the good in this expectation. What would our world of politics be like if we all were careful to have peace in our hearts and goodwill toward all others? Let’s announce peace, but let’s also fill ourselves with it till it overflows into our interactions with others.   

Blessed Angela: “I wish you especially the love with which Jesus loved us.”