Today is graduation day at the school where the brothers study theology. It's also the feast of St. Felix, a first generation Capuchin and the first canonized saint of our reform.
The feast of St. Felix is a good day for a friar to receive a theological degree, because Felix was a humble lay friar, no master of "worldly argument" as Paul says, and spent his life in the streets of Rome preaching by his simplicity and seeking alms for the friars.
Education is a form of wealth, and one that inheres in a person with more durability than either the religious or clerical state. By the prayers and example of St. Felix, may we friars who receive professional and academic degrees today know how to hold them sine proprio, not as our own proper achievement, but as the property of the people we serve.
Off topic: Br Charles, I tagged you with a three book meme.:-)
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