February 8, 2013

Overheard: St. Francis Is Not A Mushroom

From an edifying friar:

"I turned to study the Church fathers because, when I was a young friar, St. Francis started to give me indigestion. Not St. Francis himself, but the way they used him. Without an idea of the tradition of religious life they would justify any crazy thing they wanted to do with, 'St. Francis says this...' or 'St. Francis says we have to...' as if St. Francis was born like a mushroom."

Apparently, to be born like a mushroom is a French saying that suggests someone or something born ex nihilo, without provenance or parentage.

Amen.
at

2 comments:

  1. Louis M2:42 PM

    If he was a mushroom, it is obviously a porcino, which looks like a pudgy little friar. Sort of.

    Sorry, it's the mushroom hunter coming out in me. :o

    ReplyDelete
  2. A Secular Franciscan7:43 PM

    Mushroom? Never heard that one before! It does make you wonder how various nations and cultures convey the same idea. "He's not a sea anemone." "He's not a lichen." "He's not crab grass."

    ReplyDelete

Faithful, or even just thoughtful criticisms are always welcome. Uninformed rudeness to other posters or to the Lord and His Church is not.

I also reserve the right to reject comments promoting things like private revelations and fringe points of view, if it seems to me like they are being presented in a misleading way.

If you raise a disagreement with something I say but I do not respond, please do not feel slighted or insulted, or imagine that this automatically means I disagree or agree with you. It's just that I don't find the comment box to be a constructive medium for certain forms of debate.