Daily Excerpt: Sula and the Franciscan Sisters (Sula) - The Sisters, Their Convent Home and Work, and Our Mission
Excerpt from Sula and the Franciscan Sisters - The Sisters, Their Convent Home and Work, and Our Mission
A long time
ago, the Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement, as an order, were not Catholic;
they were Anglican. Then, they became Catholic. As Franciscans, they found
their way to Old Mission San Juan Bautista, a Franciscan Mission established by
St. Junipero Serra and Franciscan friars from Mexico in 1797. The Franciscan
sisters came later. Once here, they helped the parishioners, other people, the
cats who came to visit them at the convent, like my friend Julius, and, of
course, me.
The Franciscans are a mendicant order. That means that they work. Some orders are cloistered—they spend their time inside all the time, praying. Some orders teach; the Jesuits like to teach. The Franciscans teach, too. The Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement at San Juan Bautista have taught at the St. Benedict School in nearby Hollister. They also have taught catechism, Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, and served as a source of information and inspiration for the Monday night bilingual prayer group. They know a lot; everybody at our Mission has learned a lot from them.
To
understand the Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement, you have to know who St.
Francis is because he was the great-great-great times many greats spiritual
grandfather of our Mission and of the Sisters of the Atonement. They follow the
Rule of St. Francis. The building of our Mission by the local Mutsun Indians
(fun fact for Trekkies—their language is the basis for Klingon) was overseen by
the Franciscans, who to this day follow the Rule of St. Francis. (The Rule
follows the guidelines that St. Francis wrote for his community in the 1200s,
even before he was a saint.)
There are a
lot of stories about St. Francis. You can read about some of them in my book, Saints
I Know. Many other books about St. Francis tell other stories though
perhaps some are more legend than true stories. One thing for sure, St. Francis
liked nature and animals. I talked to him every morning after daily Mass in the
Mission garden; it started my day out right.
I know that
the Franciscan sisters talked to him a lot, too, though they may not have come
and sat at his feet literally like I did. Figuratively, though…
So, this book is about a Franciscan Mission, with Franciscan sisters, a Franciscan cat, and lots of Franciscan statues. I will share pictures of all of that with you in this book.
To read more posts about Sula and her books, click HERE.
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