‘Brother, Where Is Your Coat?’
GUEST COLUMN
When I about five years old in 1930, my Dad’s cousin, Brother Aloysius Gilmartin, would come down on the train to Altoona, Pennsylvania, from St. Francis College in Loretto to visit us. He would get off the train and walk half a block to Westfall’s Men’s Store where Dad worked. Dad would usually bring him home for lunch. He enjoyed our big family so much. And we all loved Br. Aloysius too; he was such a gentle and humble man.
One day it was bitter cold, about zero degrees, when he came to Dad’s store. Dad was shocked to see that he was not wearing an overcoat.
“Brother, where is your coat? It’s freezing out!” my Dad exclaimed.
“Oh, Frank, I don’t have one,” he replied. The monks of the Order of Francis take a vow of poverty and do not personally own anything, even their clothes.
You May Also Enjoy
For a person with a strong social conscience, chastity is a mature response to a great evil. It is a form of rebellion.
The first victim of media vilification following the decision was Justice Antonin Scalia, who made clear that he thought the Court had overstepped its bounds and that the majority opinion "poses a threat to American democracy."
Aristotle, like Plato, recognizes just how sovereign music and literature are in a man's life. "Virtue consists in rejoicing and loving and hating aright," he writes.