Thank you so very much. That was such a beautiful message. I don't know what to say.

I will ask that you keep my religioius family and my diocese in your prayers. The diocese is restructuring the Respect Life Office. We need money. I know that God has plenty of it. So please pray that he remembers us at this time of need. I will be going on a begging tour (like my spiritual father Francis before me) to raise more funds for this ministry.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

Dear Br JR,

Thank you so much for your presence on these boards, where there is so often rather a great deal of anger, vitriol, and even hatred. You show great patience and compassion, which I would of course expect from a Franciscan (insert emoticon if you wish), but your calm and infinitely well-reasoned explanation of hte histories, charisms, roles, rules, responsibilities, of the Order of Preachers (and some other guys, too, if I recall) seemed positively Dominican (you can add one there, as well) in its breadth and depth and rationality. Ive never found dogmatic, doctrinal, or scriptural evidence that viciousness is a necessary concomitant to orthodoxy, and I am always very grateful when you manage to talk people back from the precipice. Thank you for your spirit here; it matters.