By Way of Introduction

I am a Secular Franciscan, a lay person who tries to live the Gospel according to the example of St. Francis of Assisi. (And who, in my case, does a rather poor job of it.) The name I use here is that of the Seraphic Doctor, St. Bonaventure, who, in addition to his teaching and writing, served as the Minister General of the Friars Minor and is regarded as their second founder.

Poverty, inner and outer, is the special charism of the Franciscans. Our founder is known as the Poverello, the Little Poor Man, the troubadour of his beloved Lady Poverty, his brothers are the Friars Minor, the lesser brothers. Disputes about the living out of the poverty he willed for his followers threatened for a long time to destroy the order, and finally resulted in its division.

All this is by way of background for a series of reflections prompted by the resistance to thinning out my library I've documented below. Over the course of the next week or two, in addition to the usual japery, I'm going to be exploring detachment, attachment, and the meaning of poverty in the life of a fairly self-centered, comfortably middle-class American, who, in spite of all that, calls himself a Christian.