And I think that was behind my post last week about my Secular Franciscan family and our slightly-past-Christmas Extraction of Saints.
At our Council meeting we decided not to dwell on "who prays for me" and we tried to gently steer the discussion off that topic when it veered there. And we knew it would, because it always does. And no matter what we said, it was going to happen, because that's where some of our members are. There was one member who spent the evening making a list of "who prays for whom" on the back of the prayer page.
We had to let that go.
It occurred to me this morning that this whole thing frustrates us because we want the best for our family--in this case our Franciscan family. We want our brothers and sisters to truly benefit from what is truly a spiritual event in our fraternal life.
And it's OK to do a little joking here and there, like we did when the virtue of Hospitality was chosen for our Minister and everyone told him that this meant his wife was off the hook for cleaning duty when they entertain. I think that was offset by the smiles or kind and heartfelt "thank yous" that were exchanged when announcements were made of who would benefit from special prayer by a certain member this coming year.
Our Fraternity can and will grow in love and virtue because we do have many wonderful members who truly care about each other, and we do have members who care about the ongoing formation of our members. When you love someone, you want the best for them.
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