I led a two-day workshop at San
Pablo Seminary on the life of St. Francis of Asis and prayer.
The life of St. Francis brought some interesting responses from
the students. One student asked, “Why are we learning about
a Roman Catholic?” Others asked, “Since we are saved
by grace, why walk away from everything we own?” The first
response—rejecting anything perceived to be Roman Catholic—is
common in Mexico but thankfully the prejudice is gradually reducing
itself. It was the second comment, why renounce the world like
Francis did, that raised red flags for me. We might restate the
concern, for Presbyterians is there a place for asceticism?
Asceticism in essence means discipline or training. Christian
asceticism means allowing ourselves to be trained to do the will
of God. Now perhaps you share my concern. The fact that seminary
students were perplexed by the life of Francis, who renounced
ownership of worldly goods as part of his training to do the Will
of God, is not a good sign. It shows a basic misunderstanding
of what “saved by grace” means. Saved by grace does
not mean that we are exempted from making sacrifices! What it
means is that by God’s grace we have the ability to make
them! We need to make sacrifices or discipline ourselves so that
we can to do the will of God and not follow the will of caprice,
greed, pride, and sloth that try to dominate us at every turn.
When St. Francis chose to serve God and not wealth, he was not
being a Roman Catholic but a faithful member of the Holy Catholic
Church, just as we Presbyterians are! We would do well to learn
the biographies of other great men and women of God.
Valerie is in Grenoble, France, taking advantage of a junior
year abroad program. Before leaving she taught the introductory
level Greek class at seminary! We are very proud of her, and her
students gave excellent evaluation. Kristen is finishing high
school and wants to go to nursing school next year. Pray that
she does well on her ACT tests. David is doing fine in ninth grade.
We are planning to go to Dallas in July, 2006, for a year of home
assignment. So we would like to start asking churches to let us
know when you might like us to visit! Having an opportunity to
share with you in person is important to us and we pray to be
able to visit many churches.
Pray for the enormous damage of Hurricane Stan in Chiapas. Many
Presbyterians lost their homes. Hurricane Wilma caused a great
deal of loss in Cancun and Cozumel. If you can send help to either
of these places please let me know. Also if you are interested
in Benedictine life please write. We have been helping to establish
two communities here, one for men and one for women.
In His peace,
Don and Martha Wehmeyer |
