Celebrating the Transitus

Today we celebrated the feast day of our founder St. Francis. Perhaps some of you got your pets blessed today. We, of course, have no pets - nor did we do any blessing. Instead we began our celebration last night with the Transitus service at the nearby Monastery of the Franciscans of the Holy Land [you may have read about them recently fighting with the Orthodox at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in a prime example of the spirit of ecumenism]. The Transitus is a service commemorating the passing of Saint Francis into eternal life and consists mostly of evening prayer as well as the retelling of Francis' death. This was followed by a reception, but I got there too late and most of the food was gone. I must say that for a community that prides itself on poverty, we can sure eat a lot.

Today we began our day with a celebratory Mass. Monday's are busy days for everyone, so we are going to have our own big house meal on Sunday when everyone can attend. Think of it somewhat like moving Ascension Thursday to Sunday. Unfortunately, we didn't get class off today - despite the fact that my professors are both Franciscan.

Meanwhile our house is slowly falling apart with leaks and other things falling into disrepair. We are seriously contemplating moving into the nearby bishops residence if anything else happens. Tomorrow I begin training for the deaconate at the seminary for the Dominicans here in DC. This should prepare me for saying such important parts of the Mass as "Bow your heads and pray for God's blessing," in an appropriately authoritative voice.

Wishing you the peace of Francis