I haven’t been maintaining this website for the quite some time, as anyone can see. I finished my term as Our Lady’s Fraternity’s minister last year, and have been (frankly) enjoying the reduced responsibilities. This page was an experiment, really, because I know many of our members don’t use the internet very much, and I have never felt comfortable posting more than basic information here. I have my thoughts and opinions about issues and topics, as do we all, but I’ve always been cautious about appearing to speak for the fraternity as a whole. We all don’t think alike on many issues, whether it be the importance of this or the significance of that. And even when reporting on fraternity activities, I want to avoid an implicit bias appearing in my writing. I suppose being a literature major and English teacher makes me more sensitive to things of this nature.

Regardless, I still think there’s value in this webpage. Living the Secular Franciscan life is a journey, one mostly filled joy but also confronting us with challenges of balancing the Franciscan with the secular. As Our Lady’s Fraternity’s webpage re-emerges, I want to ensure that it shows the breadth and depth of the Secular Franciscan experience as we live it. Please treat any individual writings as just that—how each of us works to live from Gospel to Life and Life to Gospel.

—Andy