Carbon Rangers Missioning During Feast Week of St. Francis of Assisi

Saint Francis offers Christians an example of genuine and deep respect for the integrity of creation.

-Blessed Pope John Paul II

As part of the exploration of the lives of the saints, 8th grade students of Guadalupe Regional Middle School (GRMS) were inducted into a long-standing tradition of becoming Carbon Rangers as part of a larger effort of the Congregation of Christian Brothers to support justice efforts in school ministries.

The GRMS Carbon Rangers, under the direction of veteran teacher Br. Arthur Williams, CFC, oversee recycling efforts in the school's classrooms. Each Friday for an entire school year, these 8th grade students take time from their mornings before the first school bell to collect paper from bins in each of the rooms for recycling.

St. Francis only lived until about 44 or 45 years old. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia:

Not long after his return to Assisi [in 1205], whilst Francis was praying before an ancient crucifix in the forsaken wayside chapel of St. Damian's below the town, he heard a voice saying: "Go, Francis, and repair my house, which as you see is falling into ruin."

Taking this behest literally, as referring to the ruinous church wherein he knelt, Francis went to his father's shop, impulsively bundled together a load of colored drapery, and mounting his horse hastened to Foligno, then a mart [market] of some importance, and there sold both horse and stuff to procure the money needful for the restoration of St. Damian's.

When, however, the poor priest who officiated there refused to receive the gold thus gotten, Francis flung it from him disdainfully.