It's Ash Wednesday, and as every year, I'm trying to figure out how to observe it with a little more depth than at other liturgical times of year. So, I've decided to write in the blog, which gets my creative juices running. Secondly, I'm intending to try and deepen my understanding and living of Franciscan spirituality, and lastly, to understand the place of popular religiosity in the context of Franciscan spirituality.
I apologize ahead of time for any typos. I'm still recovering, almost four months later now, from cervical spinal surgery. My hands are still numb. I can't write nor use a fork with my left hand ( and I left handed). I fat finger keys on the keyboard. So I'm trying to dictate the blog entries, and sometimes it doesn't type what I say. Mea culpable in advance
Saint Francis was a street preacher. He spoke in the language of ordinary people, emerging Italian rather than Church Latin. His religiosity had more to do with the marketplace of the world than with high liturgical rituals. St Francis made the mystery of the Trinity in love accessible to the church as the people of God. What better way to understand the Nativity than to have a manger with live animals, baby, and parents in costume. That was Grecchio, a first, which has become a norm for us at Christmas over eight centuries later.
So, for Lent, I am try to say a crown Rosary everyday. It is part of my focus on understanding more deeply some of the practices of popular religiosity. When I was a student at The Franciscan School of Theology, I thought of myself as a serious student of theology rather than a practitioner of popular piety. So I would never pray the rosary because it was about popular piety rather than lofty theology. It was, in short, a hang up of mine
Then, I had a professor, Dr. Darlene Prides, challenge us students. Her message was simple. Get over your hangups concerning popular religious practices because the people to whom you minister find meaning in these practices. As ministers, we needed to explore and understand why a popular practice might be off-putting to us. So, I've been working on my rosary hang up ever since, and I think that I found for myself a greater depth in praying the rosary. More about that tomorrow.
