The Power of Prayer
At Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center in Prior Lake, MN, the Sacrament of the Sick is usually celebrated in the context of one of the Eucharistic Liturgies, and most of…
Donor Story – Deacon Don Kunkel
Br. Bob Roddy, OFM Conv. and Mary Ann Reuther pose by a bench dedicated to the memory of the late Deacon Don Kunkel, a longtime retreatant at Franciscan Retreats and…
Handprint On Our Hearts
I live in a city named after one of the great Franciscan saints, Saint Anthony. San Antonio was named after Saint Anthony over 300 years ago when the Franciscans made…
A Journey Home
My journey back to the Catholic Church was not straightforward but came unexpectedly through a series of events where the Holy Spirit urged me to reconnect with God and the…
Peace In The New Normal
2022 is the year when everything changed. Some are calling it the “New Normal,” but there is nothing normal about social distancing from your own mother. It was May 2022,…
Gather Us In
Encounters often lead to relationships, and sometimes these relationships are life-changing. In 1977 I had a Franciscan friar, Daniel Manger, as a student in my English Composition class and from…
Ecological Transformation – The Hope of Laudato Si’!
In 2018 the Vatican held an international conference to celebrate the third anniversary of the publication of the encyclical Laudato Si’! Many ecological experts and theologians from various parts of…
Coffee Shop Synodality
When I was a teenager, my uncle, who worked in the circulation department of a morning newspaper, asked me to cover a route for him temporarily. The route was more…