We experience a joy in friendship. Friends enjoy spending time together. Going to a fall football game together—wearing the right color, cheering in unison, sharing hot dogs, and celebrating victory—speaks of the joy of being with friends.
There is a strong emotional quality to friendship.
We like being with our friends. Friendship with another person involves a certain indefinable attraction.
Friendships may have a particular focus. We may have sports or music in common. We get together with these friends to go to the game or the concert. We discuss the subtleties of the second movement of the symphony or the energy in the bass guitar. We share advice on picks for the fantasy football draft or the best seats for Saturday’s game.
Friendships often grow over meals. Leisurely meals with a little good food, conversation about the day just past, occasional laughter and reflections on the foibles of life (others’ foibles and our own) build the bonds of life. In conversation we begin to reveal whom we are by what we say and by how we act toward the other.
All of us have experiences of friendship. Some are of friendships gone awry and ended. Many others are of the formative power of relationships. Good friendships influence us deeply.
There is a certain mystery to friendship. Friendship is hard to define. Yet it is a common human experience intrinsic to our humanity.
The St. Francis de Sales Association values friendship highly. The rule of the association states that “Our call to the same spiritual family will encourage us to form mutual friendships …” We believe that God put good friends in our lives.
John W. Crossin, OSFS
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