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I am glad you are visiting the Saint Francis Web Site. For over sixty years, Saint Francis has been serving children and families in need. We began as a small residential home and farm for boys in Western Kansas who were orphans or without family resources and support for other reasons. It started as the ministry of an Episcopal priest named Fr. Bob Mize, who later became a bishop, but who will forever be known with utmost respect and affection as “Fr. Bob” by the boys whose lives were transformed through the “Therapy In Christ” he introduced.
Today we care for over 2000 children, young people, and families in crisis in Kansas, Mississippi, and California. Therapy In Christ has remained the foundation of all Saint Francis services throughout the growth and expansion that has taken place over the past six decades. There are four principles of Therapy in Christ, and I commend them to individuals and families, as well as to anyone who seeks to be spiritually sound.
The first principle is unconditional love. None of us merits the kind of love that Jesus taught us, and yet all that he taught centers around love that is given to others just because they are beloved of God. When we can cease trying to earn love and become free to give and receive it because that is how we have been created, then the tendency to judge others, which seems to arise from fear of inadequacy, begins to lessen. When we’re not looking for the faults in our neighbors, it’s much easier to be at peace with others, with ourselves, and with God.
The second principle of Therapy In Christ is the awareness of forgiveness as the greatest instrument of transformation. Jesus taught that there is no limit to forgiveness. As long as our hearts are receptive to forgiving others and to accepting forgiveness for our own shortcomings, this will be a world that abounds in the life-giving hope of genuine new beginnings.
The third principle of therapy in Christ is honesty and responsibility in accepting the consequences of our own actions. We can never be healed of something we keep blaming on others or explaining away.
Finally, the fourth principle is to begin and end each day with prayer. People of prayer are, by definition, open to God’s Holy Spirit. Being open to God’s Spirit means being open to miracles of healing, forgiveness, and hope of a second chance.
May God bless you as you seek to live out these principles in your life.
Fr. Ed+
President, CEO and Dean
of Saint Francis
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