The following are excerpts of the religious blog of Chris Lowney in CNN. He is a former Jesuit seminarian and at one time served as managing director of JP Morgan & Co. He is the author of the book “Pope Francis: Why He Leads the Way He Leads.”
“Every day, millions of Americans perform a task that epitomizes Pope Francis’ leadership style: They do the laundry. I came to that somewhat surprising conclusion while talking to Jesuit priests who lived with the future Pope, then known as the Rev. Jorge Bergoglio, during the early 1980s. At the time, they were young Jesuit seminarians, and he was their “boss,” the rector of their 100-member community…
“But when I asked these Jesuits what they learned from Bergoglio about being a good leader, the first memory they shared wasn’t a memorable speech or policy initiative. Instead, they recalled Bergoglio doing the laundry. Bergoglio used to stress that the seminarians were a family, and each person had to do his share of the chores to support the other family members.
“Even though Bergoglio was their superior and carried a heavy administrative and teaching load, he also chipped in, taking the role of community laundry man. Any seminarians awake at 5:30 in the morning could find him down in the basement, pitching bales of laundry into balky, 1980s-style industrial washing machines.”
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Let us learn from this example in our following Jesus, who is meek and humble of heart. Let us emulate too the lowliness of Mary, handmaid of the Lord.
Marian Messages 