FRANZISKA NOTES December 2010

There was a rare snowfall in Rome. A Sister from South Brazil was enchanted at the sight. Looking at the trees in the garden carrying their white load she exclaimed, “Now I know why we always put cotton on our Christmas tree!” It is a sign of the internationality of the Congregation founded by Franziska Lechner that a sister from one part of the world could experience a revelation from a place far from her own birthplace. We have heard many times that we must “think global”. Franzi the little girl from a village in Bavaria would have loved that expression because that is the story of her life. She saw opportunities for good in the widespread major empire of her day and sent her sisters to express, in concrete form, the love of God. She wrote of the stop she and her sisters made in an inn in Bosnia. They sat on the cushions around the small table and drank the strong coffee offered in cups that were “sanitized” by the proprietor with his saliva and apron. They realized that love of God demanded acceptance of the practice without negative reaction. If we want to live as true followers of Jesus who revealed the love of God to us, especially in the poor manger at Bethlehem, we must be open to differences and always see the stranger as a child of God and our own brother or sister. The media today can so easily brain wash us to generalizations. We must let the Holy Spirit enter our minds and hearts with light and love. Everywhere there are good people and they need to find us also to be “good people”. This may be on a bus, in a supermarket, a doctor’s office or in a distant land. Wherever our legitimate life’s work takes us we are meant to be ambassadors of God’s love. The evil forces in the world today want to separate us with hatred and suspicion. Jesus calls us to even love our enemies….. how does that contrast with making enemies of people we don’t even know yet? Paraphrasing Franziska Lechner, let us “do good, give joy, make happy… and so … lead to heaven”.