By Mimi Keel
What story is your family living in? This question has been shaping me lately, especially through the influence of St. Francis and the Franciscan community I visit each year.
Each year, I have the joy of spending time on retreat with the Franciscan monastic community at Little Portion Hermitage in Berryville, Arkansas. Each time I am there, I learn more about the way of St. Francis through joining the community in morning, noon and evening prayer and mealtimes. This past spring, I got to share in their practice of fasting. Each Wednesday, they share a simple meal of bread and water at noon. They, like St. Francis, practice limiting their appetites in order to have more awareness and dependence on God and to create awareness of those without food. Their daily rhythm of life is designed thoughtfully and intentionally around three things- prayer, work and community. When I join the Franciscans in their daily rhythms, I’m reminded that my daily life, too, can be shaped with intention. I experience the idea of “less is more” and oh how it refreshes my body, mind and spirit!
St. Francis of Assisi was an Italian mystic, poet and Catholic friar, who founded the religious order of the Franciscans. Francis grew up in a wealthy family and he traded his riches for a simple lifestyle of joyful union with God. Francis took the words of Jesus into his daily life. John Michael Talbot wrote, “He didn’t stop to calculate how it might hurt his career or cramp his lifestyle. He was caught up in the splendor and loveliness of God’s world. And he joyfully paraded through the streets, climbing onto rooftops singing music he wrote to proclaim the goodness of God.”
As I spend time with the Franciscans and read about St. Francis, I am inspired to consider my way of living. What story am I living in?
During the Covid-19 pandemic, our lives were suddenly pruned. Many of us rediscovered what really mattered. But as time has passed, we’ve picked back up not only what we laid down—but often even more. St. Francis reminds us that less can truly be more.
Last fall, Pastor Jessi Marcus of Jacob’s Well Church exhorted congregants to consider their lives. She invited us to take an inventory of all the things that make up our daily lives. Then she invited everyone to put three words at the top of the page: tend, grow, prune. And she invited us to consider the things we listed in light of these three words. What do we want to tend this year? What areas would we like to develop or grow in? What might we prune? Jessi said, “Even good things may need to be pruned, so the best can come forth.
John Michael Talbot also wrote a bit about pruning in his book “The Lessons of St. Francis: How to Bring Simplicity and Spirituality into Daily Life.” Here is the excerpt-
“Just outside the Indiana farmhouse, where I lived as a young man, stood several large mulberry trees that seemed like they were a part of the house. One day these beloved trees endured a three hour attack by a uniformed professional crew wielding chain saws. Quickly and efficiently the crew sawed, trimmed and pruned the trees, reducing a large, leafy mass to a skeleton of a few stark, naked limbs hanging from lonely trunks surrounded by mounds of sawdust and leaves. I felt certain the trees would never recover from the assault. But to my surprise, the following spring, the trees grew larger and fuller than ever before, bursting forth in an extravagant display of flowers, leaves, and mulberries. Instead of killing off these marvelous trees, the process of pruning helped them blossom into their fullest productivity. What’s good for mulberry trees is good for us too. And the virtue of simplicity is a time-tested tool that we can use to prune our lives. Like the branches of an unpruned tree, our attachment to possessions and wealth often choke our lives and enslaves us, hindering both human community and union with God. Francis prescribed simplicity as an antidote to our often unquenchable yearning for more and ever more.”
Like the mulberry trees, our families can flourish with new life when we are willing to prune with the idea of simplicity as our guide. I wonder if it might allow us to live more deeply into the story God is telling through us?
I invite you to join me in considering your life… and then in considering your life as a family.
Parent Practice
Consider these questions. You may want to journal your responses.
- What story is my life telling? (view your calendar to help you name how you spend your time)
- What do I want to grow in this year?
- What needs tending?
- What could be pruned—even if it’s good?
Family Practice
Grab a big sheet of paper and a variety of colored sticky notes. Give each family member a different color stack of sticky notes. Invite everyone to write down all the activities, commitments, and relationships they have. Then draw three columns on the big sheet of paper—Grow, Tend, Prune—and invite everyone to place each sticky note where it belongs.
Ask:
- What do you notice?
- What feels important to you?
- What is surprising?
About Mimi Keel: Mimi Keel serves as the children’s ministry pastor at Jacob’s Well Church in Kansas City, Missouri. She works with her team to create environments that capture the imaginations of children with the kingdom of God through innovative pedagogy, healthy relational community, and classic spiritual formation practices. She also enjoys life with her husband Tim, their adult children, and grandchildren.
