Each week, or chapter, focuses on a Possessions theme:
Week 1: The Problem with Stuff
Week 2: The Problem with Money
Week 3: Reimagining a Vow of Poverty
Week 4: Living Poor for Others
Short introductions are written by the editor and designed to preface selections from the primary texts, and these are followed by questions for discussion or reflection. There are six readings for each week, followed by prayers of intention and spiritual practice suggestions intended to encourage you as you follow Christ in the Way of Saint Francis.
The Francis of Assisi Spiritual Practices series utilized the texts and translations of New City’s groundbreaking and now complete Francis of Assisi: Early Documents Series to offer readers of all backgrounds inspiring, encouraging, and challenging entry-points to the essential issues of a Christian life in the twenty-first century.
Jon M. Sweeney is an independent scholar and one of religion's most respected writers. He is an author of popular history, spirituality, biography, poetry, fiction for young readers, and memoir. He is married to Michal Woll, has four children, and lives in Milwaukee.
Jon has been interviewed on CBS News, WGN-TV, Fox News, and CBS Saturday Morning, and by publications online ranging from CNN to Romper. He's a practicing Catholic who also prays regularly with his wife, a congregational rabbi. He loves the church, the synagogue, and other aspects of organized religion. Sweeney is also co-director, with Rabbi Woll, of The Lux Center for Catholic-Jewish Studies at Sacred Heart Seminary.
His popular history The Pope Who Quit: A True Medieval Tale of Mystery, Death, and Salvation was optioned by HBO. He's the author of forty other books, including The Complete Francis of Assisi; Nicholas Black Elk: Medicine Man, Catechist, Saint; and St. Francis of Assisi, with a foreword by Richard Rohr.
Jon became the editor of Living City Magazine in April 2023.