Today is the feast day of St. Mark the Evangelist. Tradition has it that this is the same John Mark, the cousin of St. Barnabus who was on the first missionary expedition of St. Paul – which was actually led by Barnabus. For some reason Paul went on his own for his second and third missionary trips. Tradition has it that in the course of time, Mark founded the Church in Alexandria and later resided in Rome where, with St. Peter, as his source, wrote the Gospel of Mark. There are other traditions and scholars debate them to this date. In any case, we honor the St. Mark the Evangelist on this day. Continue reading
The Feast of St. Mark
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A good friend and staff member at Sacred Heart in Tampa (where I served for many years) was asked by the friars to prepare a reflection on St. Francis in honor of his Feast Day. Barbara is the Director of Faith Formation at the parish and a wonderfully vibrant and faithful woman. The final line of her reflection describes her well: “May we strive to emulate the spirit of St. Francis by leading lives of humble service to one another and to love the Lord God above all.”
It is later in the autumn of 1206 that with his decision to “leave the world” Francis began to be aware of the powerful Divine Presence in his life through, his work among the lepers near Assisi, and his habit of taking refuge in churches for prayer and rebuilding the structures. At San Damiano he encountered the consoling presence of the Savior who had suffered and died for him. It was a presence he soon came to recognize in other churches: “And the Lord granted me such faith in churches that I would pray simply and say: We adore you, Lord Jesus Christ, in all your churches throughout the world, and we bless you, because by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.” (Testament 4-7). Francis was at the beginnings of an inner peace. 
“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Not my favorite verse in Scripture because of they way I think we tend to hear the word “humble.” I suspect a lot of people hear “get too arrogant, prideful or presumptuous – you’ll be put in your place and get what’s coming to you.” Merriam Webster defines humility as freedom from pride or arrogance. That seems a little thin; it tells us what humility is not and by implication tells us what not to do in life…but… 
The priest I lived with in Kenya was away for a much-needed break. He assured me it would be a quiet week. Which is of course a guarantee that something will happen. Perhaps not monumental in the way of things, but yes indeed is was a memorable week. It was the week the Kenyan Security Forces came looking for the leaders of the Rwandan refugee community – of which my name was on the list. We were all in a meeting when they showed up. We all slipped out the windows in the back of the church. All very dramatic, but in truth I don’t think they tried that hard to catch us. Still, kind of memorable to be on a top ten list if even for an hour. But that wasn’t the most memorable. 
friarmusings 