Allow me to point out a great community of Franciscans here in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis: the
Franciscan Brothers of Peace. They are the first canonically established brotherhood in the archdiocese, and they are an outstanding group of men devoted to a common life of prayer, repentance and service, particularly to those who are most vulnerable, such as pre-born children, the severly disabled, survivors of torture, the poor and the homeless. They do a sorely-needed task and one, I am sure, that is very dear to Our Lord.
Loome's has been endeavoring to supply the brothers with a suitable library which will benefit them and their work. For behind any noble apostolate is a life of prayer and study. And in support of prayer and study there are books: liturgical books, prayerbooks, scriptural studies, books on moral theology, dogmatic theology, spiritual theology, even books on bioethics, etc, etc... books on all kinds of important things! And brothers actually read!
But brothers are not typically wealthy, except perhaps in spiritual treasure. And booksellers are not tyically wealthy, except in odd bits of trivia gleaned from thousands of books. Seeing this divide between our books and the brothers who need them, we set up what has been called the
Catholic Library Renewal Network. Its mission is to connect donors with Catholic institutions who need professionally constituted libraries. It's presently a part of Loome's, but we would like to see it become its own entity, possibly a non-profit. For Loome's part, we donate the labor and as much in books as we can. Donations go directly to the brothers and are tax-deductible. Go
HERE to see the brothers' page on the Network's website. There you can make a donation if so inclined. Also, please feel free to contact us with further thoughts on this endeavor. And there are other projects brewing...
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