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Ha ha. Mea culpa!

Must have been those Anglican Franciscans. :p

Hehe, only kidding

ProCatholico

Mike C., please, don't imply that Third Orders are to be taken lightly - I know I had to go through a year of inquiry, a year of novitiate, and a year of temporary profession before being allowed to profess the Rule permanently. I know several folks who took five or more years to permanantely profess. Third Orders are not to be taken lightly. We do have a habit - it's the tau cross - which most folks wear around their necks, but some of the men do wear them as pins. Third Orders are different from Benedictine Oblates (not technically a Third Order, as I understand it, although a wonderful group of folks), K of C (which is a Catholic social and service club, but certainly not an Order), or Opus Dei (which I'm not entirely sure what it is -- but as I understand it, and correct me if I'm wrong, they are not an Order).

I know some folks get a little riled again about we who practice Byzantine but who follow St. Francis, but, really, the great saint's simple way of imitating Christ was really quite Eastern in its philosophy. I guess he just wouldn't have ended up founding an Order per-se if he had been born a few more miles to the East on the map.

Dear Annie,

Actually, St Francis didn't found an Order as per se - and he refused any privileges, as you know, to be shown to his monastic followers.

In his words to them,"Let your singular privilege be . . .to have no privilege."

St Francis crossed himself with three fingers and venerated icons - the Pope he visited, Innocent III, wrote a treatise defending the three-fingered Sign of the Cross.

And the Tau Cross is the Coptic Cross of St Anthony - and the San Damiano Cross is an excellent example of an icon cross.

St Francis really was "Western Orthodox-Catholic."

Alex

And the really funny thing is that as the sisters and brothers become more secular, the laity seem to be trying to become more monastic!

Check out this website [directory.google.com] listing all sorts of magazines, books and websites about "voluntary simplicity", frugality, the dangers of "overconsumption", etc. ...

Maybe all the sisters and brothers could just take over the cities, and let the lay people have their abandoned monasteries and convents ...

All,

Guess I should have asked about this earlier.

Mike C. said: Who were these sisters? Does anyone know of this order?

Thanks

ProCatholico

Those sisters with the very modern habits were called the Sisters of Christ the Teacher.

Mike,

Thanks for that info. I had been curious for some time as to what exactly happens to religious orders or monasteries when their membership ceases to grow? In other words they do not have any new vocations. Who shuts them down? I would assume that the local diocese or eparchy that they are in would do this. But how is this done exactly? And could an order ever be started again with the same charism as the one before it?

Thanks

ProCatholico

ProCatholico:

I have a sister-in-law whose order began preparing for their closing many years ago. They sold their Motherhouse and with the money built a nursing home where they have housed all their elderly sisters. My sister-in-law recently moved in since she turned 75 last year. If I understand her, her diocese will eventually own a nursing home when the last religious sister dies.

This might be one way this happens.

BOB

P. S.: For whatever reason--and I don't pretend to know why--her order hasn't taken in more than a few in the last 25 years.

Theophan (Bob),

JESUS CHRIST HAS RISEN!

Thank you so much for your response.
I am glad to know that despite the sad realization that their order would close the money was inverted to good use-to the creation of a nursing home. Praise God!

And for some hope I am sure that the Church will never forget the works performed by those sisters. And though we often hear of a vocation shortage in our church- we will always have at least some people, youth-like me, especially that will hear God's call. And that will make all the difference.

God Bless You,

ProCatholico

ProCatholico:

We are all called to have a "vocation" in the Lord's Vineyard. Vatican Council II called the laity to become more involved and to deepen their own spiritual lives. We're called to be living witnesses. It seems to me that means to pray and study, having a regular confessor and a good spiritual director that you would meet with on a regular basis and who would direct your reading and study so that you don't get off on some tangent away from the Church and the Lord rather than growing closer.

It also seems to me that our "habit" as laity is the way we live our lives. Someone once told me that I might be the only Bible someone else ever reads--and believe me they do read us! Someone else also said that we must live our lives so that if being a Christian became a crime we would be convicted of a capital offense and not laughed out of court for lack of evidence.

May God guide you and look after you, not letting a single hair fall from your head without His Permission.

In Christ,

BOB

[QUOTE]Check out this website listing all sorts of magazines, books and websites about "voluntary simplicity", frugality, the dangers of "overconsumption", etc. ... [QUOTE]

I find this very compelling. I am a public school teacher and I see every day how consumerism is affecting kids. Sharon wrote on another page that she doesn't have cable TV - probably one of the best things you can do to limit society's consumerism on your kids. With the size of my family and the size of my income this is really not a big issue, but it is something to think about. (Or it's just sour grapes! )

Well, it would be decidedly "non-humble" to go out and found an Order on purpose, but that is how it turned out in the end. Roman Catholicism seems not to like happy little friars and sisters and lay men and women skipping about and doing their best to imitate Our Lord without the legalities of approved Rules and Orders.

Francis did pen the rough words of a Rule - we still use his prologue - but I'm sure it was hard to get him to sit still and think about something like that.

Allegedly, depending on whom you ask, the San Damiano Cross was crafted by Serbian monks. My Serbian friends at least, swear that to be the case, particularly since they are fond of St. Francis - even though he's not technically on their list of saints.

The tau suits us because it is simple and correct and because St. Francis favored it. Although by nature and nurture, I am probably most fascinated by large iconic crosses edged in gold and enamel inlay, and I really can gawk at them for long lengths of time (not because of their monetary value, but because of the heavenly-inspired craftsmanship), I do think the plain, simple, wooden tau has a simple beauty.

And one of the little snippets usually attributed to the Little Poor Man is one of my favorites, "Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words when necessary."

Cheers from another Secular,

Sharon

And my all time favorite of our Seraphic Father Francis, "Let us begin to do good, for up to now we have done little." Don "Dominic Mary"