St. Katharine Drexel Regional Fraternity
Regional Spiritual Assistant
St. Francis of Assisi Friary
1901 Prior Road
Wilmington, Delaware 19809
tel: (302) 798-1454 fax: (302) 798-3360 website: skdsfo email: pppgusa@gmail.com
February 2025
Pope Francis Prayer for the Holy Year 2025
From within both humanity and the Father in heaven,
may the faith you have given us in Your son, Jesus Christ, our brother,
and the flame of charity
enkindled in our hearts by the Holy Spirit,
reawaken in us the blessed hope for the coming of Your Kingdom.
May Your grace transform us
into tireless cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel.
May those seeds transform the whole cosmos
in the sure expectation of a new heaven and a new earth,
when, with the powers of Evil vanquished,
Your glory will shine eternally.
May the grace of the Jubilee
reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope,
a yearning for the treasures of heaven.
May that same grace
spread the joy and peace of our Redeemer throughout the earth.
To You our God, eternally blessed, be glory and praise for ever.
Amen
Daily excerpts continue from the Assisi Compilation 23-36, daily quotes from various sources
23-26 THE DWELLINGS OF THE BROTHERS SHOULD BE POOR; ABOUT FURNISHINGS, BOOKS, AND BEDS
1 – He taught his] brothers to make poor little dwellings out of wood, and not stone, and how to build these huts according to a crude sketch. He did not want the brothers to live in any place unless it had a definite owner who held the property rights. He always wanted to have the law of pilgrims for his sons.
– God says to us: With your very wounds I will heal you.
2 – This man not only hated pretense in houses; he also abhorred having many or fine furnishings in them. He disliked anything, in tables or dishes, that recalled the ways of the world. He wanted everything to sing of exile and pilgrimage.
– Never fear shadows. They simply mean there’s light shining somewhere nearby.
3 – He taught that in books the testimony of the Lord, not value, should be sought, edification rather than elegance. He wanted few books kept, and these should be available to the brothers who needed them.
– All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.
4 – Finally, beds and coverings abounded in such plentiful poverty that if a brother had a ragged sheet over some straw he considered it a bridal couch.
– Give me faith, Lord, and let me help others find it.
27 HE REBUKES A BROTHER WHO TOUCHED COINS LEFT AT THE PORTIUNCULA
5 – While this true friend of God completely despised all worldly things, he detested money above all. From the beginning of his conversion, he despised money particularly and encouraged his followers to flee from it always as from the devil himself. He gave his followers this observation: money and manure are equally worthy of love.
– Lord teach me to be generous.
6 – Now it happened one day that a layman came to pray in the church of Saint Mary of the Portiuncula and placed some money by the cross as an offering. When he left, one of the brothers simply picked it up with his hand and threw it on the windowsill. What the brother had done reached the saint, and he, seeing he had been caught, ran to ask forgiveness, threw himself to the ground, and offered himself to be whipped.
– A humble knowledge of myself is a surer way to God than a search after learning.
7 – The saint rebuked him and reprimanded him severely for touching coins. He ordered him to pick up the money from the windowsill with his own mouth, take it outside the fence of that place, and with his mouth to put it on the donkey’s manure pile.
– If I saw myself as my friends and other people see me, I would need an introduction.
8 – While that brother was gladly carrying out this command, fear filled the hearts of the rest who heard it. From then on, all of them held in even greater contempt what had been so equated with manure and were encouraged to despise it by new examples every day.
– It isn’t a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it I a calamity not to dream.
28-30 HIS EXHORTATIONS ABOUT AVOIDING SOFT CLOTHING AND ENDURING LACK OF NECESSITIES
9 – Clothed with power this man was warmed more by divine fire on the inside than by what covered his body on the outside. He detested those in the Order who dressed in three layers of clothing or who wore soft clothes without necessity.
– It is better to be patient than powerful.
10 – As for “necessity” not based on reason but on pleasure, he declared that it was a sign of a spirit that was extinguished. “When the spirit is lukewarm,” he said, “and gradually growing cold as it moves from grace, flesh and blood inevitably seek their own interests.
– It is better to win control over yourself than over whole cities.
10 – When the soul finds no delight, what is left except for the flesh to look for some? Then the base instinct covers itself with the excuse of necessity, and the mind of the flesh forms the conscience.”
– I thank God for my handicaps, for through them, I have found myself, my work, and my God.
11 – And he added: ”Let’s say one of my brothers encounters a real necessity: he is affected by some need. If he rushes to satisfy it, what reward will he get? He found an occasion for merit, but clearly showed that he did not like it.”
– Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things “turn out”!
12 – With these and similar words he pierced those who would not tolerate necessity. He taught that not bearing patiently with need is the same as returning to Egypt. He did not want the brothers to have more than two tunics under any circumstances, and these he allowed to be mended with patches sewn on them. He ordered the brothers to shun fine fabrics, and those who acted to the contrary he rebuked publicly with biting words.
– Bing shots are only little shots who keep shooting.
13 – To confound them by his example, he sewed sackcloth on his own rough tunic and at his death he asked that the tunic for his funeral be covered in cheap sackcloth. But he allowed brothers pressed by illness or other necessity to wear a soft tunic next to the skin, as long as rough and cheap clothing was kept on the outside. For he said: “A time will come when strictness will be relaxed, and tepidity will hold such sway, that sons of a poor father will not be the least ashamed to wear even velvet cloth, just changing the color.
– Make sure the thing that you’re living for is worth dying for.
31 HE GIVES AWAY A MANTLE TO A POOR WOMAN
14 – In Celano at winter time, Saint Francis was wearing a piece of folded cloth as a cloak, which a friend of the brothers had lent him. While he was at the palace of the bishop of the Marsi, an old woman came up to him begging for alms. He quickly unfastened the cloth from his neck, and, although it belonged to someone else, he gave it to the poor old woman, saying: “Go and make yourself a tunic; you really need it.”
– Nothing is profane down here for those who know how to see. On the contrary everything is sacred.
15 – The old woman laughed; she was stunned—I don’t know if it was out of fear or joy—and took the piece of cloth from his hands. She ran off quickly, so that delay might not bring the danger of having to give it back, and cut it with scissors.
– A time like this demands strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands.
16 – But when she saw that the cut cloth would not be enough for a tunic, she returned to the saint, knowing his earlier kindness to a degree, and showed him that the material was not enough. The saint turned his eyes on his companion, who had just the same cloth covering his back. “Brother,” he said, “do you hear what this old woman is saying? For the love of God, let us bear with the cold! Give the poor woman the cloth so she can finish her tunic.”
– God’s presence is not discerned at the time that it is upon us, but afterward when we look back.
17 – He gave his; the companion offered his as well; and both were left naked, so the old woman could be clothed.
– God exists within us even more intimately than we exist within ourselves.
32 RETURNING FROM SIENA HE GIVES A MANTLE TO A POOR MAN
18 – Another time, when he was coming back from Siena, he met a poor man, and said to his companion: “We must give back to this poor man the mantle that is his. We accepted it on loan until we should happen to find someone poorer than we are.”
– God is an unutterable sigh, lying in the depth of the heart.
19 – The companion, seeing the need of his pious father, stubbornly objected that he should not provide for someone else by neglecting himself. But he said to him: “I do not want to be a thief; we will be accused of theft if we do not give to someone in greater need.” So his companion gave in, and he gave up the mantle.
– Lord, put into my heart an unshakeable conviction that you have a place for me, even though I might not yet know it.
33 AT THE “LE CELLE” DI CORTONA THE BROTHERS HAVE TO RANSOM HIS MANTLE FROM A POOR MAN
20 – A similar thing happened at “Le Celle” of Cortona. Blessed Francis was wearing a new mantle that the brothers had gone to some trouble to find for him. A poor man came to the place weeping for his dead wife and his poor little family that was left desolate. The saint said to him: “I’m giving you this cloak for the love of the Son of God, but on the condition that you do not hand it over to anyone unless they pay well for it.”
– Ideal are like stars, you will not succeed in touching them with your hands, but following them you will reach your destiny.
21 – The brothers immediately came running to take the mantle away and prevent this donation. But the poor man, taking courage from the father’s look, clutched it with both hands and defended it as his own. In the end the brothers had to redeem the mantle, and the poor man left after getting his price.
— Unless there is within us that which is above us, we shall soon succumb to that which is about us.
34 HE GIVES A MANTLE TO A POOR MAN, ON THE CONDITION THAT HE PARDON HIS MASTER
22 – Once when he was at Colleb in the county of Perugia, Saint Francis met a poor man whom he had known before in the world. He asked him: “Brother, how are you doing?” The man malevolently began to heap curses on his lord, who had taken away everything he had. “Thanks to my lord, may the Almighty Lord curse him, I’m very bad off!” Blessed Francis felt more pity for the man’s soul, rooted in mortal hatred, than for his body.
– All people should learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why.
23 – He said to him: “Brother, forgive your lord for the love of God, so you may set your soul free, and it may be that he will return to you what he has taken. Otherwise you will lose not only your property but also your soul.” He replied: “I can’t entirely forgive him unless he first gives back what he took.”
– People may doubt what we say, but they will believe what we do.
24 – Blessed Francis had a mantle on his back, and said to him: “Here, I’ll give you this cloak, and beg you to forgive your lord for the love of the Lord God.” The man’s mood sweetened, and, moved by this kindness, he took the gift and forgave the wrongs.
– Lord, put into my heart the desire to get involved in your plan, regardless of what it may cost me.
35 – 36 HE EXPLAINS A PASSAGE FROM EZECHIEL TO A BROTHER PREACHER
25 – While he was staying in Siena, someone from the Order of Preachers happened to arrive; he was a spiritual man and a Doctor of Sacred Theology. He visited blessed Francis, and he and the holy man enjoyed a long and sweet conversation about the words of the Lord.
– What most people tend to forget is that we have unbelievable control over our destiny.
26 – This teacher asked him about the words of Ezekiel: If you do not warn the wicked man about his wickedness, I will hold you responsible for his soul. I’m acquainted with many people, good father, who live in mortal sin, as I’m aware. But I don’t always warn them about their wickedness. Will I then be held responsible for their souls?”
– Today’s decision is tomorrow’s reality.
27 – Blessed Francis then said that he was an unlettered man, and it would be better for him to be taught by the other rather than to answer a question about Scripture. But that humble teacher replied: “Brother, it’s true I have heard these words explained by some wise men; still, I’d be glad to hear how you understand it.”
– The enemy of the best is not the worst but the good enough.
28 – So blessed Francis said to him: “If that passage is supposed to be understood in a universal sense, then I understand it to mean that a servant of God should be burning with life and holiness so brightly, that by the light of example and the tongue of his conduct, he will rebuke all the wicked. In that way, I say, the brightness of his life and the fragrance of his reputation will proclaim their wickedness to all of them.” That man went away greatly edified, and said to the companions of blessed Francis: “My brothers, the theology of this man, held aloft by purity and contemplation, is a soaring eagle, while our learning crawls on its belly on the ground”.
– Life is God’s novel. Let God write it.
Peace and Blessings
Fr. Francis A. Sariego, OFM Cap
Regional Spiritual Assistant
