Childhood Inoculations - 974 Words

| Childhood Inoculations| Is it a decision for government or parents?| | Linda Trostle| 602.4.17-10| | There is much debate regarding the necessity and safety of childhood vaccinations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends a series of vaccinations that include 26 doses of various vaccinations before age 6. Each state regulates and enforces the requirements for childhood vaccinations in the United State. Some parents believe that vaccinations can be harmful and want the right to choose to raise their child without immunizations. Since effective widespread immunizations have been accomplished, incidences of diseases have been significantly reduced. These diseases include smallpox, diphtheria,†¦show more content†¦My viewpoint for childhood inoculations supports inoculations because scientific history of vaccine success, current statistics of morbidity rates, and research on vaccine safety. Documentation of the history of Jenner’s achievement with the vaccine to prevent smallpox provides information for vaccination success. (Riedel, 2005) The comparison of the annual morbidity rate of the twentieth century and the morbidity rate of 2000, shows a dramatic decrease. (Malone Hinman, n.d.) These numbers demonstrate the success of childhood immunizations with improved survival rate in the United States. (Malone Hinman, n.d.) Extensive research has been conducted to determine the safety of vaccinations. Thimerosal is accused of possibly causing autism. The CDC has concluded that the â€Å"exposure to ethylmercury from thimerosal-containing immunizations during pregnancy or as a young child, was not associated with any of the ASD (autism) outcomes.† (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011) Reference List Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.) Addressing common concerns. Center for Disease Control and Prevention: Atlanta, GA. Retrieved on September 24, 2011 from http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/Concerns/Index.html Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). CDC study on â€Å"prenatal and infant exposure to thimerosal from vaccines and immunoglobins and risk of autism†. Center for Disease Control andShow MoreRelatedEssay about The Vaccine that Made Me Want to Become a Doctor878 Words   |  4 Pagesprimitive way of dealing with smallpox, known as inoculation. The process of inoculation was basically what does not kill you makes you stronger. A Chinese statesman was shown to have been inoculated against smallpox, probably by having powder from pulverized scabs that were infected with smallpox blown into his nostril. Inoculation may also have been practiced by scratching substances from a smallpox sore into the skin (Bazin, 2000). Inoculation of diseases in that way was not always effectiveRead MoreVaccines : Defense Against Disease Or Illness?1657 Words   |  7 Pageswent to Constantinople where she observed variolation in 1717 (â€Å"Healing Power† 27). Variolation, also known as inoculation, was performed by placing smallpox scabs into a healthy person s body (â€Å"Healing Power† 27). Because Lady Montague was pleased with the process, she had her son inoculated (Riedman 12). After the success with the variolation of her son, Lady Montague spread the inoculation process to England, the Near East, and the Orient (Riedman 13). Lady Mary Wortley Montague helped spread theRead MoreIndividualism And Its Effects On The United States Essay1885 Words   |  8 Pagesby forcing vaccination upon an individual, but not receiving vaccinations doesn t mean that a population isn’t as healthy as it could be or that a disease spreads quickly is not necessarily true. In fact, getting sick with illn esses common in childhood can in turn, yield immunity. There have also been pro-vaccine organizations that have stated that getting sick and the natural vaccination within your body causes better immunity than a booster shot would. â€Å"It is true that natural infection almostRead MoreBenefits in Youth Football1608 Words   |  7 Pageswith sport related stress (Anshel, 2003). Therefore, sports and physical activity also allow youths to clear their minds of academic and social pressures, to literally run off the tension thats accumulated in their muscles. This may serve as an inoculation to build antibodies in children against the more harmful stress viruses they will encounter later in life (Anshel, 2003). This can prevent children who have participated in sports not to develop negative lifelong attitudes toward physical activityRead MoreEssay on Sending Your Child to a Day Care Center3341 Words   |  14 Pagespreschool years. It is very important that the daycare setting ch osen, whether it be center-based, in-home, or any other type, is conducive to the child’s development of thought and learning. According to some studies, day care in the early years of childhood leads to more advanced cognitive development. This includes the child’s language development (Cook et al, 2000). The bad news is that these studies are not final and are usually only conducted in â€Å"good† centers. So what happens if the child isRead MoreTo Vaccinate or Not to Vaccinate? Essay1158 Words   |  5 Pagesthese Inoculations prevent diseases, even deaths, from going around, along with keeping the environment a safer place. As people know, kids get vaccinated from the time born to about the time the child reaches teen years, although getting immunized does not precisely stop at any age. In fact, required vaccinations continue throughout the years. Of course these medical treatments must be tested in order to be given to anyone. In spite of the fact man y people themselves argue that inoculations are notRead MoreThe Heart Of A Heart Transplant907 Words   |  4 Pagesthe normal childhood vaccinations which make them at risk for these, preventable, debilitating, and possibly deadly diseases. When able, the child goes back to school and contracts the Mumps, a preventable disease because another child’s guardian selfishly decided not to get their child inoculated. The child who had a new lease on life because of a new heart now is back in the hospital fighting for their life again. Guardians of healthy children should not be allowed to forgo childhood vaccinationsRead MoreVaccination And Its Effects On Children And Public Health1432 Words   |  6 Pagesof the time today. Because of inoculation, millions of people worldwide are immunized from fatal epidemics. However, because of unsubstantiated fears, many parents have been withholding vaccines from their children. Despite this, parents should not have the right to withhold v accines from their children for philosophical reasons. Vaccines are the best way to prevent disease, vaccine exemptions endanger individual and public health, and without widespread inoculation, controlled diseases will reboundRead MoreThe Importance Of Vaccines1539 Words   |  7 Pagessenescence, that is, throughout our lives we must apply different vaccines, since vaccination is the best strategy to prevent diseases and prevent death. Vaccines not only help keep the child healthy, they help all children to eradicate serious childhood illnesses. Pediatric associations in each country recommend a specific chronological guideline for administering vaccines, based on international recommendations. Despite the recent boom in the anti-vaccination trend, vaccines have a high safetyRead MoreAddressing Immunization Barriers, Benefits And Risks1217 Words   |  5 Pagesmajor underlying affect. In addition, to having common risks there are also uncommon risks as well. Some people can have allergic reactions to certain chemicals in vaccines such as hepatitis B vaccine and MMR vaccine. Kimmel also wrote that some inoculations can cause â€Å"Febrile seizures, persistent crying that lasts 3 hours or more, and hypotonic-hypo responsive episodes have been reported very rarely after DTaP† (S66). Allergic reactions and seizures can be a terrifying to parents. However, these are

Edwin Arlington Robinson Free Essays

â€Å"One of the most prolific major American poets of the twentieth century, Edwin Arlington Robinson is, ironically, best remembered for only a handful of short poems,† stated Robert Gilbert in the Concise Dictionary of American Literary Biography. Fellow writer Amy Lowell declared in the New York Times Book Review, â€Å"Edwin Arlington Robinson is poetry. I can think of no other living writer who has so consistently dedicated his life to his work. We will write a custom essay sample on Edwin Arlington Robinson or any similar topic only for you Order Now † Robinson is considered unique among American poets of his time for his devotion to his art; he published virtually nothing during his long career except poetry. The expense of Robinson’s single-mindedness,† Gilbert explained, â€Å"was virtually everything else in life for which people strive, but it eventually won for him both fortune and fame, as well as a firm position in literary history as America’s first important poet of the twentieth century. † Robinson seemed destined for a career in business or the sciences. He was the third son of a wealthy New England merchant, a man who had little use for the fine arts. He was, however, encouraged in his poetic pursuits by a neighbor and wrote copiously, experimenting with verse translations from Greek and Latin poets. In 1891 Edward Robinson provided the funds to send his son to Harvard partly because the aspiring writer required medical treatment that could best be performed in Boston. There Robinson published some poems in local newspapers and magazines and, as he later explained in a biographical piece published in Colophon, collected a pile of rejection slips â€Å"that must have been one of the largest and most comprehensive in literary history. † Finally he decided to publish his poems himself, and contracted with Riverside, a vanity press, to produce The Torrent and The Night Before, named after the first and last poems in the collection. In the poems of The Torrent and The Night Before, Robinson experimented with elaborate poetic forms and explored themes that would characterize much of his work—†themes of personal failure, artistic endeavor, materialism, and the inevitability of change,† according to Gilbert. He also established a style recognizably his own: an adherence to traditional forms at a time when most poets were experimenting with the genre (â€Å"All his life Robinson strenuously objected to free verse,† Gilbert remarked, â€Å"replying once when asked if he wrote it, ‘No, I write badly enough as it is. †), and laconic, everyday speech. Robinson mailed copies of The Torrent and The Night Before out â€Å"to editors of journals and to writers who he thought might be sympathetic to his work,† said Gilbert. Read also  How Powerful Do You Find Atticus Finch’s Closing Speech? The response was generally favorable, although perhaps the most significant review came from Harry Thurston Peck, who commented unfavorably in the Bookman on Robinson’s bleak outlook and sense of humor. Peck found Robinson’s tone too grim for his tastes, saying that â€Å"the world is not beautiful to [Robinson], but a prison-house. â€Å"I am sorry that I have painted myself in such lugubrious colours,† Robinson wrote in the next issue of the Bookman, responding to this criticism. â€Å"The world is not a prison house, but a kind of spiritual kindergarten, where millions of bewildered infants are trying to spell God with the wrong blocks. † Encouraged by the largely positive critical reaction, Robinson quickly produced a second manuscript, The Children of the Night, which was also published by a vanity press, a friend providing the necessary funds. Unfortunately, reviewers largely ignored it; Gilbert suggests that they were put off by the vanity imprint. In 1902, two friends persuaded the publisher Houghton Mifflin to publish Captain Craig, another book of Robinson’s verse, by promising to subsidize part of the publishing costs. Captain Craigwas neither a popular nor a critical success, and for several years Robinson neglected poetry, drifting from job to job in New York City and the Northeast. He took to drinking heavily, and for a time it seemed that he would, as Gilbert put it, fall â€Å"into permanent dissolution, as both his brothers had done. † â€Å"His whimsical ‘Miniver Cheevy,’† Gilbert continued, â€Å"the poem about the malcontent modern who yearned for the past glories of the chivalric age and who finally ‘coughed, and called it fate/and kept on drinking,’ is presumably a comic self-portrait. † Robinson’s luck changed in 1904, when Kermit Roosevelt brought The Children of the Night to the attention of his father, President Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt not only persuaded Random House to republish the book, but also reviewed it himself for the Outlook (â€Å"I am not sure I understand ‘Luke Havergal,’† he said, â€Å"but I am entirely sure that I like it†), and obtained a sinecure for its author at the New York Customs House—a post Robinson held until 1909. The two thousand dollar annual stipend that went with the post provided Robinson with financial security. In 1910, he repaid his debt to Roosevelt in The Town down the River, a collection of poems dedicated to the former president. Perhaps the best known of Robinson’s poems are those now called the Tilbury Town cycle, named after the small town â€Å"that provides the setting for many of his poems and explicitly links him and his poetry with small-town New England, the repressive, utilitarian social climate customarily designated as the Puritan ethic,† explained W. R. Robinson in Edwin Arlington Robinson: A Poetry of the Act. These poems also expound some of Robinson’s most characteristic themes: â€Å"his curiosity,† as Gerald DeWitt Sanders and his fellow editors put it in Chief Modern Poets of Britain and America, â€Å"about what lies behind the social mask of character, and †¦ is dark hints about sexuality, loyalty, and man’s terrible will to defeat himself. † Tilbury Town is first mentioned in â€Å"John Evereldown,† a ballad collected in The Torrent and The Night Before. John Evereldown, out late at night, is called back to the house by his wife, who is wondering why he wants to walk the long cold miles into town. He responds, â€Å"God knows if I pray to be done with it all/But God’s no friend of John Evereldown. /So the clouds may come and the rain may fall,/the shadows may creep and the dead men crawl,—/But I follow the women wherever they call,/And that’s why I’m going to Tilbury Town. Tilbury Town reappears at intervals throughout Robinson’s work. The title poem in Captain Craig concerns an old resident of the town whose life, believed wasted by his neighbors, proves to have been of value. The Children of the Night contains the story of Richard Cory, â€Å"a gentleman from sole to crown,/Clean favored, and imperially slim,† who â€Å"one calm summer night,/Went home and put a bullet through his head,† and Tilbury Town itself is personified in the lines â€Å"In fine, we thought that he was everything/ To make us wish that we were in his place. The Man against the Sky—according to Gilbert, Robinson’s â€Å"most important single volume,† and probably his most critically acclaimed—includes the story of the man â€Å"Flammonde,† one of the poet’s most anthologized Tilbury verses. Despite the fact that much of Robinson’s verse dealt with failed lives, several critics see his work as life-affirming. May Sinclair, writing an early review of Captain Craig for the Fortnightly Review, said of the Captain, â€Å"He, ragged, old, and starved, challenges his friends to have courage and to rejoice in the sun. Amy Lowell, in her Tendencies in Modern American Poetry, stated, â€Å"I have spoken of Mr. Robinson’s ‘unconscious cynicism. ’ It is unconscious because he never dwells upon it as such, never delights in it, nor wraps it comfortably about him. It is hardly more than the reverse of the shield of pain, and in his later work, it gives place to a great, pitying tenderness. ‘Success through Failure,’ that is the motto on the other side of his banner of ‘Courage. † And Robert Frost, in his introduction to Robinson’s King Jasper, declared, â€Å"His theme was unhappiness itself, but his skill was as happy as it was playful. There is that comforting thought for those who suffered to see him suffer. † Many Tilbury Town verses were among the poems Robinson included in his Pulitzer Prize-winning Collected Poems of 1922—the first Pulitzer ever awarded for poetry. He won his second poetry Pulitzer in 1924, this time for The Man W ho Died Twice, the story of a street musician whose one musical masterpiece is lost when he collapses after a night of debauchery. Gilbert attributed the poem’s success to its â€Å"combination of down-to-earth diction, classical allusion, and understated humor. † In 1927, Robinson again won a Pulitzer for his long narrative poem Tristram, one in a series of poems based on Arthurian legends. Tristram proved to be Robinson’s only true popular success—it was that rarity of twentieth-century literature, a best-selling book-length poem—and it received critical acclaim as well. â€Å"It may be said not only that ‘Tristram’ is the finest of Mr. Robinson’s narrative poems,† wrote Lloyd Morris in the Nation, â€Å"but that it is among he very few fine modern narrative poems in English. † Early in 1935, Robinson fell ill with cancer. He stayed hospitalized until his death, correcting galley proofs of his last poem, King Jasper only hours before slipping into a final coma. â€Å"Magazines and newspapers throughout the country took elaborate notice of Robinson’s death,† declared Gilbert, â€Å"reminding their readers that he had been considered America’s foremost poet for nearly twenty years and praising his industry, integrity, and devotion to his art. â€Å"It may come to the notice of our posterity (and then again it may not),† wrote Robert Frost in his introduction to King Jasper, â€Å"that this, our age, ran wild in the quest of new ways to be new†¦. Robinson stayed content with the old-fashioned ways to be new. † â€Å"Robinson has gone to his place in American literature and left his human place among us vacant,† Frost concluded. â€Å"We mourn, but with the qualification that, after all, his life was a revel in the felicities of language. † How to cite Edwin Arlington Robinson, Papers

Brotherhood and Community free essay sample

Just in the human community though we are many we also work at the same purpose in a community, to be in a mutual service and dialogue and for the upbringing of a good and just society sharing and incorporating to them the blessing we have received according to God’s plan and initiative. As what St. Paul said in one of his writing that though we belong to one body and all of us have a different role that played on that one body. Many parts though they are but they all worked for the betterment of the body as a whole. Every part of that human body plays a very important role even how big or small they are they contribute well so that each may work according to what they are meant to be. As lesser brothers in our fraternity we too share and give according to the gifts that we have. So that amidst our diversity and uniqueness we create and we showed to people a different taste and different ways of community living not based on human standards but by God’s own purpose. The Church as the community of all believers favors institutes whose members renew fraternal harmony in a sharing of life and charity. Since we are called to that same mission of Christ, called to proclaim and bring forth the message of God’s love through our deeds and actions. So we are being sent to reform peoples in a newness of life. As we participate in that mission, let us live in the midst of the world as a Gospel leaven so that the people, seeing our way of fraternal life centered in the spirit of the beatitudes, may realize that the kingdom of God has already began in their midst. As what we are practicing and trying to live upon in our day to day living. Through our gospel way of living and gospel witnessing as brothers in the community we may be an inspiration and a living image of Christ’s true presence in our actions. a. Elements of Human Community a-1 – Person If we speak about human person we really define and put at it in general basis as to know the existence or what is the purpose of that person in totality not just human being in the society but as a person created in the image and likeness of God. The human person is an individual creature, distinguished from all other creatures by the gift of freedom, bodily incarnated as male and female and animated by a spiritual principle, traditionally called a soul. The individual human person is at the same time social and historical. That is to say that the person’s humanity is constituted by the wider community of human persons, and they, individually and communally, are constituted by history and by the world in which they live. Indeed, human persons are, in a sense, cocreators with God of both the world and its history (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, n. 39; see also Pope John Paul II’s 1981 encyclical Laborem Exercens (On Human Work): â€Å"The human person is the image of God partly through the mandate received from the Creator to subdue, to dominate, the earth. In carrying out this mandate, the human person reflects the very action of the Creator of the universe† [II, n. 4, para. 2]). Only when the human person is understood in this larger context – not only as an individual, but also as social being, as historical being, and as being-in-the-world – can our theology of human existence hope to be comprehensive and catholic. a-2 – Society According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church number 1880: A society is a group of persons bound together organically by a principle of unity that goes beyond each one of them. As an assembly that is at once visible and spiritual, a society endures through time: it gathers up the past and prepares for the future. By means of society, each man is established as an heir and receives certain talents that enrich his identity and whose fruits he must develop. He rightly owes loyalty to the communities of which he is part and respect to those in authority who have charge of the common good. As what Karl Marx would say, that, â€Å"No individual human being can sufficiently express himself or herself without benefit of society. † Each one of us really contributes and cooperates in building up and developing our society that we live in. For it is already there that we are born, and it conditions the kind and quality of lives we lead. The individual is derived from society and, therefore, is secondary and subordinate to it. a-3 – Relationship of the Person to the Society The commandment of God to love our neighbor as we have love our self is the basis of our relationship with the society that we live in. our existence has meaning insofar as it is connected to God. Living in the society as a human person one has to be rooted in love of God in order for him share that love of God to all. As brothers to all creation as our Seraphic father St. Francis would say, that for him inferior creatures are just that, creatures, manifestations of the power of God, his messengers, means through which man may know him and love him. He knows how to perceive in them the beauty and the goodness which raises him to the source of all good, to Him who is â€Å"goodness itself. † Therefore, he felt himself to be the brother of all creatures: â€Å"He called all creatures brother, and in a most extraordinary manner, a manner never experienced by others, he discerned the hidden things of nature with his sensitive heart, as one who had already escaped into the freedom of the glory of the sons of God. † His vision of faith makes it possible for him always to discover Christ, the Word made flesh, the crown and meaning of all creation. All things symbolize, contain and proclaim him, each one in his own way. Therefore, when Francis removes the worm from the road, he meditates on the prophetic text which speaks of the patient Servant: â€Å"I am a worm and no man† (Ps. 21:6); when he frees the lamb, he thinks of the â€Å"Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world† (Jn. 1:36), or of the meekness of him who allowed himself to be led â€Å"as a sheep to the slaughter† (Is. 53:7); if he walks reverently on stones, he does it out of consideration for him who is the â€Å"Rock† (1 Cor. 10: 4); if he is moved when he perceives the fragrance and beauty of the â€Å"Flower that springs from the root of Jesse† (Is. 11:1). â€Å"So, all things, especially those in which some allegorical similarity to the Son of God could be found, he would embrace more fondly and look upon more willingly. † In general as a Gospel leaven, a friar who is called to the service and as a witness of God’s love. As a brother to all of His creation we regard everything as brothers and siters. Franciscan brotherhood is a universal and cosmic brotherhood. A relationship that does not isolate us to certain human beings but in all that the Lord provides and exists in the society is our brothers and sister. CHAPTER II GOSPEL BROTHERHOOD Evangelical fraternity cannot remain closed in upon itself. The same charity that animates it causes it to spread and open itself to share with others. The Friars Minor, who â€Å"chose to live in the midst of men,† embrace all men in the same love, establishing a communion of life with them through the liturgy, work, alms, and apostolic action. It was not easy to find a balance in that double impulse toward the pleasant retreat in which the sweetness of contemplation and of the presence of the brothers was enjoyed, and toward the multiplicity of a life on the level of normal society. The temptation of isolating themselves arose for the first time when the group discovered the treasure of fraternal intimacy: â€Å"They all conferred together †¦whether they should dwell among men or go to solitary places. † But Francis knew through prayer that he had been sent to all men. The saint taught that what was important was to carry with oneself the advantages of the heritage. â€Å"Wherever we are and wherever we go, we carry the cell with us. Our cell is brother body and the soul is the hermit who is inside the cell occupied in praying to God and meditating; because if the soul does not remain in quiet and solitude in his cell, the cell that is constructed externally profits the religious little. Living in the world â€Å"as pilgrims and strangers, renouncing the economic and ecclesial autonomy of the monastery, as well as the isolation of the hermitical life, the Friars Minor place themselves in the midst of the common religious life of the people and the daily concerns of the human community. They are at the service of all, with maximum responsiveness, and maximum dependence upon the good will of men which implies dependence upon the love of the most high God, Father of all. In this kind of life there is no division, as there would be if the internal fraternity were suspended for the brother when he left to go to the outside. In reality, as long as there was no convent, one could not speak of â€Å"leaving† it. The â€Å"places† in which the fraternities gathered were open to everyone, as specified in the first rule (chap. 7) in virtue of the principle of poverty-minority. In this way the fraternity continues to be united. It communicates strength to the brother who â€Å"journeys through the world, makes him yearn for the warm company of the brothers, and join them again as soon as he has finished his mission among men. During the first ten years lodging was no problem; at nightfall they took shelter in whatever place they could End. â€Å"Their sinister was as spacious as the world;† during the day they scattered two by two through the towns and countryside; at night they stayed in the houses of lepers or in the hermitages. They were always ready to serve others humbly and devoutly. It came to be a common practice for the brothers to go out in pairs as a public sign of fraternal union. Not without reason did Francis call together the first companions, divide them into four pairs, and say to them: Go, my dearest brothers, two by two into the various parts of the world, announcing to men peace and repentance unto the forgiveness of sins; and be patient in tribulation, confident that the Lord will fulfill his purpose and his promise. To those who put questions to you, reply humbly; bless those who persecute you; give thanks to those who injure you and calumniate you. † Jesus had also sent his disciples in pairs (Mk. 6:7; Lk. 10:1). This evangelical reason doubtlessly influenced a custom that came to be a popular characteristic of the presence of the Friars Minor on the roads of the world. Each itinerant pair wanted to witness to the experience of love with the fraternities. No one should be excluded from universal charity; not even the sinner, the heretic, nor the Saracen. The episode of the thieves who were sent away unkindly by the brothers at the hermitage of Mt. Casale, and later searched for with humility and love by command of Francis, is a sample of the way he wished brotherhood with all men to be understood. a. Evangelical brotherhood in the context of Sacred Scripture The impulse to achieve the unity desired by Christ through the bonds of fraternity has always existed in the people of God. Looking upon in the Sacred Scriptures the first community was convoked by Jesus when he first called his disciples. â€Å"According to the Synoptic accounts, the formation of the apostolic community began with the call of the first disciples (see Mk. 1:16-20). Jesus’ words, â€Å"Follow me and I will make you fishers of men,† this imply transformation and re-creation. The invitation is definitive and radical to which corresponds an equally definitive and radical response: one that results in something totally new. The word of Jesus is dabar â€Å"it realizes itself. † Jesus’ words create what they express: â€Å"come follow me,† resulted in sequela â€Å"following,† koinia â€Å"communion,† diakonia â€Å"service,† kerygma â€Å"proclamation. † The call to follow Christ gives birth to a new identity, new community and new mission. The call to follow Christ is actually a con-vocation. Jesus called the first disciples one by one, and they found themselves following one and the same person. Jesus, who convoked them, was to be the defining element of the community of the twelve. Their coming together to be formed into one community was the result of their response to Jesus who told them with authority, â€Å"Follow me. † Then they adhered to him after cutting all the tiers that bound them to their previous life. They gave up everything, including their former relationships and commitments for the sake of Christ (see Mk. 10:28) and the Gospel (Mk. 10:29). Jesus called the twelve, first of all, to be with him, to establish with him a personal, intimate, stable, and lasting relationship. In other words, the sequela first implies communion of life with Jesus and among the apostles themselves. In fact, the first task of the twelve was not â€Å"to go and preach† but â€Å"to establish communion of life with Jesus. † They could not form Christian communities, without first being a community if Christ and for Christ. The twelve were to establish communion of life with Jesus so that they could become his messenger, witnesses, and missionaries. In the eyes of the people the twelve who followed Jesus wherever he went, constituted a living parable. Their abandonment of their occupations, priorities and families showed that Jesus was worth giving up everything (see Mk. 10:29-30). It was the presence of Jesus that held the twelve together. Understandably, his absence would cause the community’s disintegration. Christ himself foretold this disintegration: â€Å"You will all fall away; for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (Mk. 14:27). In fact, in Gethsemane the arrest of Jesus was followed by the dispersion of the disciples: â€Å"†¦ they all forsook him and fled† (Mk. 14:50). They remained dispersed until they were re-gathered around the Risen Lord by the Holy Spirit. Thus only Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit can truly hold the faith community together. What the first community of Jerusalem attained temporarily, an impossible ideal for the entire ecclesial community reappears continually as the vocation of smaller groups who keep alive the Christian aspiration to that goal. As what the Acts of the Apostle would say: â€Å"They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers. All who believe were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them according to each one’s need. Everyday they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple area and to breaking bread in their homes. They ate their meals with exaltation and sincerity of heart, praising God and enjoying favor with all the people. And everyday the Lord added to their number those who were being saved† (Acts 2:42-47). Evangelical brotherhood / Gospel brotherhood is rooted in the example of Jesus’ calling his disciples and forming them into an intimate group of brothers and friends. It is a gathering of men coming from different ways of life; they become united by the bond of their relationship with Jesus Christ who called them to leave behind their old lives and to begin anew with him as his disciples. The disciples were called into that brotherhood, and each of them was personally invited by Jesus Christ to follow Him more closely, and to live the Gospel with him as his close companions. The center and heart of the brotherhood of disciples was the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the center and the heart of the brotherhood. Their vision is his vision, their mission flows from Jesus’ mission. The Gospels are very clear that this small group of men who formed a community of disciples were very close to Jesus. Their closeness also invited them to follow Jesus more closely, his footsteps and his way of life. This Gospel brotherhood had Jesus as its center: it followed more closely the very actions, deeds and works of Jesus himself. When Jesus prayed, they prayed with him. When Jesus went to preach to peoples, they went to preach with him. This evangelical / Gospel brotherhood is a contemplative and prayerful brotherhood. This evangelical / Gospel brotherhood is a missionary and preaching brotherhood. One of the most characteristic of Franciscan Capuchin life is its basic foundation as called to live the Gospel way of life. When St. Francis was called by the Lord to follow in his footsteps, Francis really followed Jesus as what the Lord had inspired him on how to live on this world. Giving up everything and renouncing all his wealth and even his vices and sins. b. Evangelical brotherhood in the context of the Franciscan tradition Inspired by God, St. Francis initiated a gospel form of life that he called a brotherhood according to the example of the life of Christ and his disciples. The impulse to achieve the unity desired by Christ through the bonds of fraternity has always existed in the people of God. The Franciscan Order, which is an expression of consecrated life in the Church, aims to follow this sacred religion of evangelical / Gospel brotherhood. Jesus Christ, who is the heart of the brotherhood, is the source and end of this way of life that was initiated by Saint Francis of Assisi. Franciscans live together as brothers of one family, under the Fatherhood of God the Father, united in their love of Christ, their brother. The Franciscans support one another through prayer, mutual encouragement, honest communication and joyful sacrifice. Before Francis found brotherhood as an ideal of evangelical life, he found his brother in Jesus Christ first. And his brother Jesus Christ is present in his brothers around him, his neighbor – there Christ reveals himself to Francis as his brother. Through Christ and his Gospel, Francis gradually grasped the full meaning of the universal fatherhood of God and of the family of the sons of God that unites the baptized, all men and the whole creation. For Francis each brother is a person with his own human individuality and spiritual features, and also with his own depth of feelings and concerns. The new spiritual family that has welcomed him should not look upon him as one who has been torn away from his natural family; rather, a certain communion of love should be created between the one family and the other. The saint called the mother of each brother the mother of all the rest. One day a poor, old lady who had two sons in the fraternity came to the Portiuncula. She was looking for help in her economic difficulties. Francis went to the minister general, Peter Catanii, and said: â€Å" Can we find something for our mother? † and since there was nothing in the house except a copy of the New Testament that was used for liturgical readings, he said: â€Å"Give our mother the New Testament; she will sell it to take care of her needs. I firmly believe that we will give greater pleasure to the Lord and to the Blessed Virgin his Mother by giving it to her than by reading it. † Celano comments that this was the use made of the first New Testament that was in the order. Evangelical fraternity cannot remain closed in upon itself. The same charity that animates it causes it to spread and open itself to share with others. The Friars Minor, who â€Å"chose to live in the midst of men,† embrace all men in the same love, establishing a communion of life with them through the liturgy, work, alms, and apostolic action. It was not easy to find a balance in that double impulse toward the pleasant retreat in which the sweetness of contemplation and of the presence of the brothers was enjoyed, and toward the multiplicity of a life on the level of normal society. The temptation of isolating themselves arose for the first time when the group discovered the treasure of fraternal intimacy: â€Å"They all conferred together †¦whether they should dwell among men or go to solitary places. † But Francis knew through prayer that he had been sent to all men. The saint taught that what was important was to carry with oneself the advantages of the heritage. â€Å"Wherever we are and wherever we go, we carry the cell with us. Our cell is brother body and the soul is the hermit who is inside the cell occupied in praying to God and meditating; because if the soul does not remain in quiet and solitude in his cell, the cell that is constructed externally profits the religious little. Living in the world â€Å"as pilgrims and strangers, renouncing the economic and ecclesial autonomy of the monastery, as well as the isolation of the hermitical life, the Friars Minor place themselves in the midst of the common religious life of the people and the daily concerns of the human community. They are at the service of all, with maximum responsiveness, and maximum dependence upon the good will of men which implies dependence upon the love of the most high God, Father of all. In this kind of life there is no division, as there would be if the internal fraternity were suspended for the brother when he left to go to the outside. In reality, as long as there was no convent, one could not speak of â€Å"leaving† it. The â€Å"places† in which the fraternities gathered were open to everyone, as specified in the first rule (chap. 7) in virtue of the principle of poverty-minority. In this way the fraternity continues to be united. It communicates strength to the brother who â€Å"journeys through the world, makes him yearn for the warm company of the brothers, and join them again as soon as he has finished he mission among men. During the first ten years lodging was no problem; at nightfall they took shelter in whatever place they could End. Their sinister was as spacious as the world;during the day they scattered two by two through the towns and countryside; at night they stayed in the houses of lepers or in the hermitages. They were always ready to serve others humbly and devoutly. It came to be a common practice for the brothers to go out in pairs as a public sign of fraternal union. Not without reason did Francis call together the first companions, divide them into four pairs, and say to them: Go, my dearest brothers, two by two into the various parts of the world, announcing to men peace and repentance unto the forgiveness of sins; and be patient in tribulation, confident that the Lord will fulfill his purpose and his promise. To those who put questions to you, reply humbly; bless those who persecute you; give thanks to those who injure you and calumniate you. † Jesus had also sent his disciples in pairs (Mk. 6:7; Lk. 10:1). This evangelical reason doubtlessly influenced a custom that came to be a popular characteristic of the presence of the Friars Minor on the roads of the world. Each itinerant pair wanted to witness to the experience of love with the fraternities. No one should be excluded from universal charity; not even the sinner, the heretic, nor the Saracen. The episode of the thieves who were sent away unkindly by the brothers at the hermitage of Mt. Casale, and later searched for with humility and love by command of Francis, is a sample of the way he wished brotherhood with all men to be understood. b-1) Rule of Life of the Friars Minor Before he found brotherhood as an ideal of the evangelical life, Francis found his brother. On his brother man, his brother Christ revealed himself to him. And through Christ and his gospel, he gradually grasped the full meaning of the universal fatherhood of God and of the family of the sons of God, that unites the baptized, all men and the whole creation. In his writings Francis always speaks of fraternity when he refers to the group of his followers. The word â€Å"brother† is constantly repeated in the two rules and in the Testament, frequently with adjectives that are full of affection: â€Å"my brothers,† â€Å"my blessed brothers,† â€Å"most beloved brothers. † And this attains theological elevation in chapter 22 of the first rule. It is a fraternity bound to the proclamation of the Kingdom, and therefore itinerant, always ready and open. The fraternity itself is freed – not only each brother – from earthly anxieties, and projected toward men. It is a fraternity of the poor, and therefore, a fraternity of â€Å"Minores. † The Rule of Life of the Franciscans is very clear regarding the Gospel way of life that Jesus proposes. Franciscans, as consecrated persons, strive to live out more closely the Gospel pattern of life that Christ himself left for us all. Evangelical / Gospel brotherhood is part of this pattern of life. Both the verbally approved Rule and the Rule with the Papal Approbation Seal contains this element of Gospel life in brotherhood among the Franciscans. Holy Mother Church has so confirmed this Gospel way of life of Saint Francis and recommends it to all faithful who have the same calling as of Francis and his first companions. At the beating heart of the Franciscan religious life is to live in Gospel brotherhood inspired by Christ who is our brother. Evangelical brotherhood cannot remain closed in upon itself. The same charity that animates it causes it to spread and open itself to share with others. The Friars Minor, who â€Å"chose to live in the midst of men,† embrace all men in the same love, establishing a communion of life with them through the liturgy, manual work, alms, and apostolic action. b-2) Our Life in Fraternity According to the Constitutions of the Capuchin Friars Minor The Capuchin Franciscan life, which is rooted deeply in the very spirit and life of St. Francis of Assisi, and being a true branch of the Franciscan first Order, continues this sacred and blessed tradition of Gospel brotherhood among the Capuchin Friars Minor. The Constitutions jealously preserve this aspect of the Franciscan life. The santa et bella riforma Capuccina (holy and beautiful Capuchin reform) keeps true to this divine inspiration of living in brotherhood according to the vision of St. Francis of Assisi. It has a special chapter on the brothers’ Life in Fraternity, and all the other chapters of the Constitutions are imbued with the same ideal spirit of brotherhood. The Capuchins’ life of chastity, penance, obedience, poverty, mission and apostolate, economy, formation, and government are all deeply ingrained with the spirit of Gospel brotherhood and its vision. Life in community is an important part of the normal Capuchin routine. Compared to the great monastic houses, Capuchin communities are usually very small and the brothers easily felt each others’ presence almost always, even in quiet and work. â€Å"Formation is a the development of the brothers and the fraternities in such a way that our life may daily more conform to the holy gospel and the Franciscan spirit according to the needs of times and places. † (Constitutions n. 22) Naturally this work of formation is more intense during a candidate’s forst years in the Order, but it goes on all through life, because we never reach perfection in this world. â€Å" the first school of fomation is the daily experience of religious life, with its normal rhythm of prayer, reflection, community life and work† (n. 43). prayer is bith public and private, menatal and vocal. Public prayer consists of the Divine Office and the Mass. , which is the highlight of the daily round. â€Å"We should highly esteem the mystery of the Eucharist and the liturgy of the hours. St. Francis wanted them to mould the entire life of the fraternity† (n. 47). Life in community is an important part of the normal Capuchin routine. Compared to the great monastic houses, Capuchin communities are usually small. The old Constitutions considered twelve to be the ideal number; this of course, was only a rough indication of what was desirable. â€Å"Inspired by God, Saint Francis initiated a way of gospel life which he called a fraternity, following the example of Christ and his disciples† (n. 83). b-3) Fraternal life of Capuchins in the Philippines The Capuchins here in the Philippines are relatively young as an Order. They have recently celebrated the 25th Anniversary as a Philippine Province, that is, no longer under the Spanish – Navarra Province from which it was born. There were struggles at the beginning but these were necessary parts to build a stronger brotherhood among the Filipino Capuchins. Most of them initially were formed under the Spanish formation, but later on, they had the eagerness and the initiative to create a formation system of their own that is truly Filipino and truly Capuchin – a combination of both. Filipino brotherhood has its little differences compared to Spanish brotherhood, our Filipino culture adds a beautiful twist to the expression of brotherhood among the members and this was carefully drawn from the members to make. The authentic Filipino Capuchin that we contribute is that our â€Å"Bayanihan Spirit†, wherein as brothers in the province shared and express this in our dealings with the other provinces and jurisdiction of the capuchins especially where our services and our pr esence is needed. Solidarity of personnel is highly offered especially to places where no one dared to live and serve upon. In every place and whatever circumstances that we are into our Filipino – Capuchin flavor always rooted and flavor by the same rule and constitution that we profess. Chapter III Franciscan Gospel Brotherhood as a Deepening of Human Community in the Light of Christian Vocation a. Reflections Living among the brothers in the community was perhaps the most challenging and a most daring adventure of love. A characteristic that I could assume as I sum up with all that we have discussed and presented it as our guide in living a harmonious and living according to a radical call of living the Gospel values itself. As a friar minor among the Capuchin order it was indeed a very challenging for me since the time I entered and had professed this kind of life. Recalling all my experiences before I entered the seminary living as a whole or in a family, it was really hard for me to go with other people before since I don’t have that kind of close intimacy with my family or even among my friends. I tried to isolate myself and tried to live as if I could do everything on my own. b. Conclusion â€Å"No man is an Island† as what John Donne is saying. Man needs companions in his life, he does not live alone in this world. A community helps man achieve his greatest potentials as an individual altogether. It helps him perfect his social existence, his physical power, his emotional possibilities, his spiritual journey, and his fullness as a creature. Every single person enriches a community of persons who are gathered together with the same vision and mission in life. Likewise, every community, enriches altogether all the members of that community. It is a two-way process, and one that is necessary to achieve the ends for which all was made, either the community and the individual person. The vocation of St. Francis and of the Franciscans in general highlight this landmark in human existence! The capacity of man that allows him to form groups is a blessed inheritance that has been passed on from one generation to the next. Community building has become an indispensable part of the growth of human persons. What St. Francis and the Franciscans do is to rouse people in the spirit of brotherhood and give everyone the chance to translate these human values into spiritual values, transforming them into heavenly riches that calls man to attain to the highest perfection, and that is, union with God – or even in a nobler way – communion with God – where a community is no longer formed by merely men who human vision, but a community is forged between Man and God, and they become one in vision and heart! This spiritual genius that is long kept as t tradition and way of life of the Franciscans remain to be a most precious jewel in the history of humanity as a whole. Human relationships are deepened when clearly viewed in the light of Gospel values and teachings. It is important, therefore, that Franciscans of today remain faithful to this vocation to brotherhood or building communities, because this is how they enrich the Church and the world as a whole with their particular charism. It is a challenge for them all to continue to early beginnings of St. Francis, so as to find a world that is more of a family than a market place. Each person, each individual is part and parcel of a blessed unity of whole that together sojourns its way to the bosom of God. No one ought to be left behind, it is a journey everyone takes together, hand in hand, with the good of the other in mind, imbued by the Love that binds together as a family under the one Fatherhood of God. We are all called into one universal fami