"Be All that You Can Be"

For years "Be all that you can be" was used by the U.S. Army as a recruiting slogan. The recruiting ad challenged people to consider becoming the person he or she has the potential to be. Today, "Be all that you can be" would be an appropriate conversion slogan for God. We are challenged to become the full person we are capable of being by rejecting what prevents us from loving God to the fullest. Franciscan Father Benet Fonck, OFM has sketched out a simple, straightforward way to do this that is based in part on Francis' First Letter to the Faithful.

In his manual for the formation of lay Franciscans, Fr. Fonck outlines his approach “Penance is primarily a positive experience: choosing spiritual health (whole soul), mental health (whole mind), emotional health (whole heart), physical health (whole strength), and social health (loving neighbor as self) as the way of returning the love God has bestowed upon us. It is setting oneself on a five-point program of daily living which fulfills God’s plan for a healthy, productive, stimulating, creative love-life with God. It is a conscious, concerted effort to work toward well-being of the spirit, mind, feelings, body, and social interactions in order to be open to intimacy with God. It is a decision to embrace specific attitudes and concrete behavior to make one’s human/divine life more fulfilling in the complete range of its expressions from the transcendent union with the God to outreach with others with healthy self-love, to the development of one’s mind and intellect, to the use of emotions, to careful attention to the physical dimension of living. It is the commitment to experience everything we do from the sublime to the mundane as part of an over-arching continuum of striving for holiness.” (Fully Mature with the Fullness of Christ, Fr. Benet Fonck, OFM, Candidacy #2, page 08-5)