Morality 1st Quarter, 2nd Assignment
Fall, 2015
Due Date: 10/21/15
Instructions: Select either Choice 1 or Choice 2 then submit a one page (no more and no less)
double-spaced, typed essay which addresses and responds to your choice. The essay page should have
standard margins, use 12 point Times New Roman or Calibri font with a least three indented
paragraphs. Also submit a Cover Page which has your name, class period, and which choice you
selected. Do not place any heading on the essay page. Do not plagiarize.
Choice 1: Hospitality: In the Footsteps of Francis
Background:
In his book When Saint Francis Saved The Church1, author Jon M. Sweeney
writes,”Hospitality to all was the chief Franciscan virtue besides personal poverty…Francis took the
teaching of Jesus about hospitality, in practice if not in theory, to an almost nondualist2 extent.
[Francis’s] spiritual practice emphasized the ultimate, essential interconnectedness of all things.”3
Francis treated all, people and things, with great care and hospitality and was “deeply respectful of
them.”
Choice 1 Assignment: Reflect upon your personal history. Write about one (1) personal experience
in which you showed hospitality or failed to show hospitality to someone or to some part of creation.
Include how this one (1) experience impacted, shaped or influenced your moral development to date.
Choice 2: Beauty in All: One Way of Francis
Background:
In his book When Saint Francis Saved The Church, author Jon M. Sweeney writes,
“…Francis found beauty in the ordinary things of the world around him that others thought were
prosaic4 or ugly… [Francis] felt a deep kinship5 with all Creation…showing respect to creatures and
things…he felt a bond with everyone and everything he encountered, imagining that every created thing
might be seeking to see God truly, just as he [Francis] was.”6
Choice 2 Assignment: Reflect upon your personal history. Write about one (1) personal experience
in which you showed a deep, abiding respect very close to or actually a way to show reverence to this
person or creature perhaps one in which you felt something like a “bond of kinship.” Provide details to
describe the experience and summarize what meaning such an experience had (or has) for you and how
this one (1) experience impacted, shaped or influenced your moral development to date.
1
Sweeney, Jon M. When Saint Francis Saved The Church. Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, Ind. (2014) pp. 6-7
Providing one reason or explanation rather than more than one: in this case the principle of hospitality: that is,
“…friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers.”
3
Supra, see note 1: pp. 54
4
commonplace or unromantic
5
Blood relationship; a sharing of characteristics or origin; harmony, compatibility, understanding.
6
Supra, see note 1: pp. 116
2