April 7 William Cufitella of Scili b. 1316 d.1411

Thommy and John

good morning
i love you

it talkes all kinds to make the world go round. it takes all kinds to round out each individual's fulfillment. two parents - God does have a good plan there. one parent is not enough for a child's fulfillment of your gifts, talents, graces etc. and the diversity of mentors and models helps you to identify your vast potentials and give you guidance on what to do and how to do it.

William of Scili is very different from William of Eskill.....

William started the pursuid of his vocation as a Franciscan tertiary. an option available to everyone one. our church has so many facilitators of our vocation, our pursuit of perfection, our desire for holiness. the tertiaries of various orders not only bind people together around a core of spiritualies, they also provide a smorgaborg of options for how to pursue our personal holiness.

William became a hermint in Scili, Sicily. seventy years in a little cell. imagine that! the little cell as home and hearth. a modus of spirituality, a way to better dedicate oneself fully to God. there are many ways to screen out the distractions and temptations that constantly rise up to pull us away from God and from doing what's right and good. learning to shut our ears to the prying and heckling and dissing of people who see our pursuit of God's perfections as a witness against them instead of an opportunity to also become closer to God instead of immersed in themselves of their wrong faith or their unfaith or their anti faith.

William lived on vegatbables - home grown or gifts. living on vegatibles does not sound so appealing to me but the discipline and simplicity of diet are ways to cleanse one self from distractions from God....

William left his hermitage to care for the sick and tend to the nearby church. what brings you out of your abode? why go forth? a better first question - what is happening under your roof? how are you living in your abode so that yo are better knowing, loving, serving God in your mano a mano with Him? so that when you do go forth, you're bringing the love and grace of God with you. to do what? care for the sick? help the church? your gifts of time, talent, and treasure to the Church?

Many people came to William of Scili for guidance and direction in their spiritual life. one measure of how you are developing, what you are creating within yourself to pass forward, to give back, to share and make the world a better place, one measure of who you are is what do people ask of you? what do people see in you that they desire you to share?

the people of Scilli heard the city's church bells ring and ran to William's hermitage - there to find him dead on his knees with his arms raised.... how will we be discovered at the moment of our death....? we do have some control over our last message, our last statement about ourselves, how we die, how we are found when we do die....

i love you
dad