Secular Franciscans celebrate
Last night was the first meeting of the Glory Of Yahweh Secular Franciscan group in 2009. It included a short prayer session, then an Epiphany celebration with food, eggnog, and straw.
Tom, one of the members, had collected straw from a Nativity scene at a local church and cited a story about St. Francis and the first Nativity scene in which the infant Jesus reportedly appeared in the straw. The story continues that people who took the straw home received blessings and miracles. Apparently there's now a tradition that if you bring home blessed straw from a manger scene and place it in an envelope in certain places - such as next to a statue of the Infant of Prague - you will not know want in the coming year.
Okay.
I'm not one for practices that border on superstitious, but we just happened to have gotten a statue of the Infant for Christmas (thanks in-laws), and we did have a run of bad luck in the last few weeks, so ...
One of the other gifts I received was a replica of the Cross at San Damiano that spoke to St. Francis. The cross is iconographic in nature, and I do like icons. In fact, it now hangs in our bedroom between two icons.
Tom, one of the members, had collected straw from a Nativity scene at a local church and cited a story about St. Francis and the first Nativity scene in which the infant Jesus reportedly appeared in the straw. The story continues that people who took the straw home received blessings and miracles. Apparently there's now a tradition that if you bring home blessed straw from a manger scene and place it in an envelope in certain places - such as next to a statue of the Infant of Prague - you will not know want in the coming year.
Okay.
I'm not one for practices that border on superstitious, but we just happened to have gotten a statue of the Infant for Christmas (thanks in-laws), and we did have a run of bad luck in the last few weeks, so ...
One of the other gifts I received was a replica of the Cross at San Damiano that spoke to St. Francis. The cross is iconographic in nature, and I do like icons. In fact, it now hangs in our bedroom between two icons.
posted by A Secular Franciscan | 11:14 AM
1 Comments:
Interesting about the straw! The "twist" on that idea here is that when you bring home the blessed straw from your church manger scene and place it under your tablecloth, your family will not know want.
It's never worked for us, since we don't use tablecloths. They never make it through a meal! Too many spillers in my house.
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