This article is for Catholics and others who want to know about forgiveness instruction, facilitation, and training and how that is being provided in Palestine by a Secular Franciscan in Minnesota. The article directs readers to another recent article I wrote for Central Minnesota Catholic explaining my work with a Catholic Relief Services humanitarian aid … Continue reading Minnesota Franciscan Working for Forgiveness in Palestine
Franciscan Wisdom: Wellness Needs Openness to Change
This article is for Catholics and anyone who feels and sees a need for change in their life, especially with a desire to experience greater wellness for themselves than what they are experiencing in their current situation. This article explains how openness to change is required for attaining and improving wellness and the personal and … Continue reading Franciscan Wisdom: Wellness Needs Openness to Change
School Cell Phone & Social Media Limits Confirm the Friendship & Digital Wellness Connection
This article summarizes an article in OSV News highlighting the bans on cell phone and social media use in Catholic schools, including some observations of positive impacts as a result of the effort. This article also reviews the importance of friendships and definition of digital wellness explained in a previous Live and Forgive article, How … Continue reading School Cell Phone & Social Media Limits Confirm the Friendship & Digital Wellness Connection
Notre Dame Professor Melissa Moschella Explains Natural Law and Human Flourishing
This article summarizes a recent interview in OSV News of Dr. Melissa Moschella, a professor of the practice in philosophy at the University of Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute for Church Life, on the topic of natural law and human flourishing. Natural law and human flourishing are explained, as well as the connection between them (photo: … Continue reading Notre Dame Professor Melissa Moschella Explains Natural Law and Human Flourishing
How to Improve Your Digital Wellness and Life Wellbeing with Better Friendships
This article is for Catholics and others who want to improve their digital wellness (personal use of the internet, technology, social media, artificial intelligence, etc.) and life wellbeing. Wellbeing or wellness is explained as having eight dimensions. Friendships are explained as important to at least three of those dimensions: the social, emotional and spiritual dimensions. … Continue reading How to Improve Your Digital Wellness and Life Wellbeing with Better Friendships
Pope Sets New Jubilee for 800th Anniversary of St. Francis of Assisi’s Death
Death and Ascension of St. Francis, Giotto di Bondone, 1325, Basilica of Santa Croce Big news for our community of Secular Franciscans in Central Minnesota today! Pope Leo XIV has decreed a special Jubilee Year of Saint Francis to take place from January 10, 2026 to January 10, 2027, on the occasion of the eighth … Continue reading Pope Sets New Jubilee for 800th Anniversary of St. Francis of Assisi’s Death
How to “Know, Pray, Do” for Better Forgiveness
(art: La Vierge aux Lys, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1899) This article is for Catholics who want to renew and grow in their practice of forgiveness, especially in the new year of 2026. This article highlights insights into forgiveness by Pope Leo XIV during the 2026 Solemnity of Mary homily for the mass and Angelus. The insights … Continue reading How to “Know, Pray, Do” for Better Forgiveness
Central Minnesota Religious Orders Host Life Awareness Retreat for Vocations Interest
(photo: St. Benedict's Monastery, Minnesota, 2026) Here in Central Minnesota we are fortunate to serve as a home for more than a few religious orders and monastic communities, including Franciscan Sisters, Poor Clares, Maryknolls, Crosiers, Benedictine Sisters and Benedictine Brothers. This event is an opportunity to explore what "vocation" really means, as in its original … Continue reading Central Minnesota Religious Orders Host Life Awareness Retreat for Vocations Interest
“As you were called…”
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another. As the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do. And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of … Continue reading “As you were called…”
New Research: Here’s How Self-Kindness and Being Social Can Support Your Self-Forgiveness
(photo: Seth Willingham, 2016) This article is for Catholics who want to be better at forgiving themselves or help others forgive themselves. This article reviews new research that demonstrates the connection of self-kindness to self-forgiveness, and explains how a person can improve their kindness to themselves as a way of more easily engaging in self-forgiveness. … Continue reading New Research: Here’s How Self-Kindness and Being Social Can Support Your Self-Forgiveness
Live and Forgive 