Dear John,

As an editor at Franciscan Media, it is one of my great blessings to work with creatives every day. Some of those creative forces are writers who contribute to our magazine, St. Anthony Messenger, or to our blog, Franciscan Spirit. I spoke to one such creative recently about writing opportunities. But our conversation almost immediately shifted to the COVID-19 crisis.

“It feels almost biblical,” I said. “I can’t see a light at the end of this tunnel.”
“Then open your eyes,” she responded. “You can’t see the light if you choose to be in the dark.”

Point taken.

As an employee here for nearly 20 years, one source of light for me has been the friars. I marvel at their vocation—in particular how they live in community; how they share their lives with their chosen family. It’s awe-inspiring to me and, to be honest, a little puzzling. After COVID-19 hit, and we at Franciscan Media were instructed to work from home, suddenly the concept of living in community didn’t seem foreign to me. I’m not a Franciscan, but I am certainly a member of a community.

We at Franciscan Media are a family—a loving, lovingly dysfunctional, unit. Being separated from that family since March has been a challenge. Zoom is an essential component to our workday, but I prefer in-person meetings. Slack and other forms of instant messaging are helpful, but I’d rather have a visitor in my office. Simply put: I miss my community.

If you enjoy St. Anthony Messenger or Minute Meditations, Saint of the Day or Faith and Family, please know that it is a group of devoted individuals who put those resources together every day. It is our mission to give battered spirits a lift—to provide light when the world seems impenetrably dark.

One quote in particular aids me in this mission. “All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle” is often attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. There’s no evidence he wrote those words, but the power behind them are so inherently Franciscan that it hardly matters. It is a reminder and a call to action to seek the light, to be an instrument of hope.

We hope that these messages continue to inspire and, if they do, you would consider making a small donation to help our efforts into the future. If you make a donation of over $100, you will receive the gift of a box of Trappistine Quality Candy fudge as a thank-you from Franciscan Media! (Only shipping within the United States, we apologize for any inconvenience.)

Thank you for supporting our work. You, too, are a source of light for us.

Christopher Heffron

Editorial Director
Franciscan Media