Caring for the Earth: a Franciscan value

Welcome back dear readers, and a special greeting to my readers in Russia and Serbia.  I hope you will take the time to write and ask any questions or make comments.

St. Francis was discovered preaching to the birds on one occasion, and he held that all of God's creation is part of His body--both plants and animals.  He is famous for his canticle about "Brother Sun, and Sister Moon" and taught that we must love and respect and care for everything and everyone that God created.  St. Francis said:

Praised be You, my Lord,

through Sister Earth our Mother

who sustains and governs us.

 

So, in this spirit, a number of religious communities have begun to cultivate farms on their land, in different parts of the United States.  They use the food crops in their kitchens and frequently allocate a portion of that as food for the poor, donating the produce to homeless shelters and soup kitchens.

Today I want to write about the Franciscan Earth Literacy Center here in Tiffin.  The sisters own about 500 acres of land, much of that being under corn and soybean cultivation by a tenant farmer.  The farmer works the land and shares the profits of sale with the community.

In addition to the farm, there is a six-acre garden where the sisters, staff, and volunteers cultivate a variety of fruits and vegetables.  There are grapes, raspberries, and some new young peach trees; also, there are many vegetables: several kinds of lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini squash, yellow squash, broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower, tomatoes...the list seems endless.  Although the weather is still quite chilly here, Elena the intern has already been growing seedlings and transplanting them into little pots in the greenhouse.  Soon she will begin planting them outdoors.  I should mention that this garden is completely organic, and is fertilized with compost only.  The biggest pest are the deer, which come at dusk or early dawn and feast themselves.  There is much debate about how to best handle this problem.  Some favor having the local hunters come and shoot them with bows and arrows, since firearms are banned on the property.  Others think that it is not Franciscan to kill the deer.  I don't object to that as long as the meat is given to the poor or used for food by someone. In the long run, I hope that the sisters can find the necessary money to get a really high deer fence all around the area. 

Sister Shirley teaches programs and day camps for children.  The science teachers like to bring their classes here for day programs about nature and general science, and in the summer there are camps with various nature-related activities for children.  On the weekends there are programs for adults on such varied topics as gardening, hydroponics, and wind power technology.

Here is a link to the website of the FELC: http://felctiffin.org/welcome/. Franciscan Earth Literacy Center

Heirarchy versus mutuality

The sisters of St. Francis of Tiffin have hired a clinical psychologist to help them to better communicate with one another.  This again is a marked departure from the kind of dialogue before Vatican II, when Mother Superior told you what to do and you did, without complaining, regardless of how you felt about it.

Nowadays, the choice of ministry (work) and the issue of obedience are quite different.
There is a dialogue about what needs to be done, and leadership is by a council of several sisters.  There is more discussion and input from all parties.

This is not only a sign of the times, but as Franciscans this community is trying to get back to its roots.  St. Francis, although he was the founder of his order, disliked giving orders and relinquished the leadership of the community to others.  They almost had to beg him to write a rule, or constitution, to govern their community.  St. Francis encouraged his brothers to never place themselves over another in any way, but to prefer a lesser, or minor, status in all things.

I can think of a few people in Washington, or maybe even Hollywood, who could use some of this medicine to get over their self-promotion. 

The old pyramidal structure is being pushed aside in many forward-thinking organizations in favor of an image of concentric circles.  The sisters are having what they call "community days", in which there is a long dialogue about relationships and the direction of the community, and its mission. 

Highly democratic leadership structures have been noted by various observers in such far-flung places as the Atlas mountains of Morocco, and rural Botswana.  The Berbers of Morocco have a rotating chieftainship, in which a new chief from a different tribe is elected every five years by acclamation.  In Botswana, anyone in a village who has a grievance against anyone else can call for a kgotla: an open discussion that stays in session until everyone has had his say.

So, Franciscan spirituality, like these tribal cultures,
 is anti-hierarchical and takes into account the voice of even the least and the smallest in any circle.  Refreshing, isn't it?

The Vows, Number 3: Obedience

New Year's greetings to my readers, especially those in South and Southeast Asia! 

Today I want to discuss the third vow that sisters take in religious life,  that of obedience.  Again, this vow has somewhat evolved over time.  Gone are the days of scrubbing the chapel floor with a toothbrush for a minor error.  I asked Sister Veronica what this vow meant to her.    She has been in the community for about 50 years.  Right away she said, "It means listening."  I have heard other sisters here make similar comments.  They say it means listening to the needs of the community and putting those needs above your individual desires.  So as with the other two vows of poverty and chastity, it builds  the bonds of community.

There is also obedience to God's word.  This is basic to Christian life, as Jesus himself taught to follow "the Law and the Prophets."   If God is love, which we as Christians believe He is, then doesn't it make sense to follow the law of love that His Son taught us?

The opposite of obedience is not merely disobedience.  It is chaos.