Would it be a 'Franciscan' House of Prayer without plenty of God's little creatures. Trust us when we tell you that we have plenty here in the wild, and if you come to visit us, you will not leave here without meeting or hearing any number of them. Maybe we'll get into that
in the future, but for now, you know that we have a faithful dog, Benji. His picture was published earlier. Benji was a gift from a friend in the area who just knew that a Franciscan Prayer Fraternity had to have a dog. Benji fills the role nicely.
Benji has two companions, who, appropriately for a 'Franciscan' house, are named 'Francis' and 'Leo'. We don't need to explain where the name 'Francis' comes from. 'Francis' is affectionately called 'Frankie', maybe to keep him separate from our Fr. Francis who is the 'Local Minister' here. St. Francis would be wonderfully proud to know that one of our cats is named after him.
Now, what about Leo; where does that name come from? If you are not familiar with Franciscan history, Leo was one of St.
Francis of Assisi's 4 closest companions, and was his scribe. When Francis wrote the Rule for the early friars, it was Br. Leo who was his faithful scribe. We can almost hear St. Francis say: "Br. Leo, please take down these words." Our second cat, who arrived here at our doorstep one year ago on June 5, 2009 (probably because he was dropped off by someone along the road), is named 'Leo'.
Here's a picture of Francis and Leo, the two very faithful 'Franciscan' cats (especially in name) here at the Franciscan Prayer Fraternity in Ava, MO. If you come here for a visit, they will be ever present to you, soaking up any amount of attention you can give them.
