Solitude in the woods

If you do decide to visit the Franciscan sisters in Tiffin, Ohio, you have the option of lodging in a rustic and peaceful cabin in the woods. 

St. Francis used to retire to a hermitage in a remote woods to get away from the demands of leading a community, to pray and reflect.

Nothing but the sounds of crickets and the crackling fire.  Ok, and maybe a raccoon or fox rummaging around outside.  Sister Mouse may join you in the cabin...but her nearest relation met an untimely demise with a trap.  Oh dear.  St. Francis would probably have given her some cheese. 

Tiffin, Ohio

I come from a major metropolitan area.  People rush, they always think you are in the way, they don't work to build community much because they want to retire someplace else.  Bosses can be harsh and it is not uncommon to have an experience with a person who is being just plain rude.  Of course there are kind people, but they are sprinkled in like roses among weeds.

Out here in Tiffin, it is different.  People are decent almost as a rule.  The teller at the bank waived a fee for me the other day.  That doesn't happen where I come from.  A stranger I met in a café offered to introduce me to a woman he knew who had access to a horse stable, after I passingly mentioned I like to ride horses.  A faculty member in charge of my attendance at classes, and whom I have never personally met, sent me a get-well email after I came down with a stomach bug.  People from Ohio just typify that saying: "Midwest nice."  Now I know what it means.

Seneca County had its annual heritage festival and parade this weekend.  There were baton girls, and tractors--lots and lots of tractors.  The actual Budweiser Clydesdale horse team was present and it was a magnificent sight.  The sisters marched in the parade with a float to raise awareness about peacemaking in a conflict ridden world, and another one to highlight their work to help the victims of human trafficking.

Enjoy the photos.  Come visit us.

The Vows: Chastity

Chastity is the second vow made by religious.  Actually, all people are called to live in a chaste manner, and the issue is explained in detail by the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  Follow this link: http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a6.htm Chastity 

It is an idea that involves self-control, self-mastery, and right relations with others.  Just look at what sexual scandals have done to some prominent politicians, and you get the idea.  Yes, even married people must be chaste, and treat their partners with reverence and respect, not commit adultery, and so forth.   Consider what sins against chastity do to women, especially.  Women are made into chattel, into objects of lust and pleasure, and are not valued as whole persons.  Pornography is an example of the evil that results when chastity is thrown out the window.  Men who frequent brothels around the world sin against chastity, and the result is human trafficking and de facto slavery for many women.  On that note, many women's religious communities are working to free people who have been the victims of trafficking, and to stymie this horrendous practice.

Some young people have taken vows of virginity until marriage, and wear a chastity ring to show their commitment.  It is a positive rejection of media images of women who are perpetually tarted up like Vegas showgirls...little more than sex toys.  Chastity elevates the status of women, in particular, and preserves the dignity of men.

 For members of religious communities, chastity means that they will not marry, will of course refrain from all sexual union, and this leaves them free to be a brother or sister to everyone.  They are not bound in an exclusive relationship but can relate freely to their community with their time and resources, and reach out to the larger community.  Sins against chastity are, because of the vows, particulary egregious among the religious.  Observe how even non-Catholics are appalled at the sexual abuses of some priests.  Somehow, people expect more from a priest, who is supposed to lead us to goodness.  As it should be.

It is also a sort of asceticism, one that requires we channel our energies for the works of love to which our faith compels us.  Chastity calls us to a higher kind of love, a broader love.  Granted, the value of chastity is sometimes taken to extremes.  For example, a woman in Pakistan or some other Muslim countries can be the victim of an honor killing if she is unchaste, or worse yet the victim of a rape.  Chastity in some countries consigns women to walk about covered head to toe in burqas and abayas.  In Europe women had to wear chastity belts.  As in all things, the vows and virtues must be gentle burdens and viewed with an understanding eye.  We all stray from the right path, and it is with patience and gentle encouragement that we get back on it.

The vows, #1: Poverty

The vow of poverty is not exactly what you think.  When most people think of poverty, they think of the destitution and disease and squalor of third world slums.  That kind of poverty is not good, it is a sign of the presence of evil in the world.

There is such a thing as good or healthy poverty.  What religious mean by poverty is living simply, having what you need and not to acquire excess possessions or wealth.   This is what Hilaire Belloc meant by sufficiency.  It means, in a somewhat Buddhist attitude, of non-attachment to material things and social position.  St. Francis eschewed property because, as he said, if they had property they would have to get weapons to protect it, and that would be a source of conflict with others.  Remember the state of Italy when he lived:  small kingdoms across Italy were constantly fighting with each other over territory, resources, and power.  Francis chose to live off that particular grid.

Sisters do take vacations, although they are not staying at five-star resorts.  Some communities maintain modest vacation homes so they can go for rest and refreshment, just like most people do.  They content themselves with shopping at budget stores and thrift stores.  They do not need to be slaves to fashion and feel that they are somehow less than socially acceptable if they lack designer goods.  They have opted out of the consumerism of secular society, so they can devote their time and resources to their ministries in the interest of helping others.  They are putting the word and work of God first, and their comfort second.  They do receive a small stipend from their communities for clothes and toiletries, etc.

That is the essence of the vow of poverty.