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Posted By Teresa Redder, on January 1st, 2025 St. Katherine 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
January 2025
O admirable heights and sublime lowliness!
O sublime humility! O humble sublimity!
That the Lord of the universe,
God and the Son of God,
so humbles Himself
that for our salvation
He hides Himself
under the little form of bread!
Look, brothers, at the humility of God
and pour out your hearts before Him!
Humble yourselves, as well,
that you may be exalted by Him.
Therefore, hold back nothing of yourselves for yourselves
so that He Who gives Himself totally to you
may receive you totally.
(St. Francis of Assisi)
(excerpts continue from the Assisi Compilation and daily quotes from various sources)
14 A FLOCK OF LARKS SING ABOVE THE HUT WHERE HE IS DYING
1 – Saturday evening before nightfall, after vespers, when blessed Francis passed to the Lord, many birds called larks flew low above the roof of the house where blessed Francis lay, wheeling in a circle and singing. We, who were with blessed Francis, and who wrote these things about him, bear witness that we often heard him say: “If I ever speak to the emperor, I will beg him, for the love of God and by my entreaties, to enact a written law forbidding anyone to catch our sister larks or do them any harm.
— Time never takes time off.
2 – Likewise, all mayors of cities and lords of castles and villages should be bound to oblige people each year on the Nativity of the Lord to scatter wheat and other grain along the roads outside towns and villages, so that all the birds, but especially our sister larks, may have something to eat on such a solemn feast.
– It’s magnificent to grow old if one keeps young.
3 – Also, out of reverence for the Son of God, whom His Virgin Mother on that night laid in a manger between an ox and ass, everyone should have to give brother ox and brother ass a generous portion of fodder on that night. Likewise, on the Nativity of the Lord, all the poor should be fed their fill by the rich.”
– The voice of Time cries out “Advance”.
4 – For blessed Francis held the Nativity of the Lord in greater reverence than any other of the Lord’s solemnities. For although the Lord may have accomplished our salvation in his other solemnities, nevertheless, once He was born to us, as blessed Francis would say, it was certain that we would be saved. On that day he wanted every Christian to rejoice in the Lord and, for love of Him who gave Himself to us, wished everyone to be cheerfully generous not only to the poor but also to the animals and birds.
– Time is too slow for those who wait.
5 – Concerning larks, blessed Francis used to say, “Our Sister Lark, has a capuche like religious, and is a humble bird, who gladly goes along the road looking for some grain. Even if she finds it in the animals’ manure, she pecks it out and eats it. While flying, she praises the Lord, like good religious who look down on earthly things, and whose life is always in heaven.
– Time is too swift for those who fear.
6 – Moreover, her clothes, that is, her feathers, resemble earth, giving an example to religious not to wear clothes that are colorful and refined, but dull, like earth.” And because blessed Francis considered all these things in sister larks, he loved them very much and was glad to see them.
– Tim is too long for those who grieve.
15 TAKING ALMS CAN ROB THE POOR
7 – Blessed Francis often said these words to the brothers: “I have never been a thief, that is, in regard to alms, which are the inheritance of the poor. I always took less than I needed, so that other poor people would not be cheated of their share. To act otherwise would be theft.”
– Time is too short for those who rejoice.
16 THE MINISTERS AND POVERTY
8 – When the brother ministers urged him to allow the brothers to have something at least in common, so that such a great number would have some resources, Saint Francis called upon Christ in prayer and consulted Him about this. Christ immediately responded that He would take away everything held individually or in common, saying that this is His family for whom He was always ready to provide, no matter how much it might grow, and He would always cherish it as long as it would put its hope in him.
– Time is short, but those who love, Time is eternity.
17 HE RESPONDS TO BROTHER ELIAS AND THE MINISTERS WHO OBJECTED TO THE RULE HE WAS WRITING AT FONTE COLOMBO
9 – When blessed Francis was on a mountain with Brother Leo of Assisi and Brother Bonizo of Bologna to make the Rule,—because the first, which he had written at Christ’s instruction, was lost — a great many ministers gathered around Brother Elias, who was the vicar of blessed Francis. “We heard that Brother Francis is making a new rule,” they told him, “and we fear that he will make it so harsh that we will not be able to observe it. We want you to go to him and tell him that we refuse to be bound to that Rule. Let him make it for himself and not for us.”
– God wants the heart.
10 – Brother Elias replied to them that he did not want to go because he feared the rebuke of Brother Francis. When they insisted that he go, he said that he refused to go without them; so they all went. When Brother Elias, with those ministers, was near the place where blessed Francis was staying, he called him.
– My worth to God in public is what I am in private.
11 – Blessed Francis responded and, seeing those ministers, he said: “What do these brothers want?” “These are ministers,” Brother Elias answered, “who heard that you are making a new rule. They fear that you are making it very harsh, and they say, and say publicly, that they refuse to be bound by it. Make it for yourself and not for them.”
– The measure of a person’s character is what he would do if he were never found out.
12 – Then blessed Francis turned his face to heaven and spoke to Christ in this way: “Lord! Didn’t I tell you they wouldn’t believe you?” The voice of Christ was then heard in the air, saying “Francis, nothing of yours is in the Rule: whatever is there is mine.
– Power is never good unless the one who has it is good.
13 – And I want the Rule observed in this way: to the letter, to the letter, to the letter, and without a gloss, without a gloss, without a gloss.” And He added: “I know how much human weakness is capable of, and how much I want to help them. Those who refuse to observe it should leave the Order.”
– A good name is better than wealth.
14 – Then blessed Francis turned to the brothers and said: “Did you hear? Did you hear? Do you want me to have you told again?” Then the ministers, confused and blaming themselves, departed.
– Patient endurance attains all things.
18 HIS RESPONSE TO CARDINAL HUGOLINO AND TO THE BROTHERS ABOUT TAKING AN EXISTING MONASTIC RULE
15 – When blessed Francis was at the general chapter called the Chapter of Mats, held at Saint Mary of the Portiuncula, there were five thousand brothers present. Many wise and learned brothers told the Lord Cardinal, who later became Pope Gregory, who was present at the chapter, that he should persuade blessed Francis to follow the advice of those same wise brothers and allow himself to be guided by them for the time being.
— Great works are performed not only by strength but perseverance.
16 – They cited the Rule of blessed Benedict, of blessed Augustine, and of blessed Bernard, which teach how to live in such order in such a way. Then blessed Francis, on hearing the cardinal’s advice about this, took him by the hand and led him to the brothers assembled in chapter, and spoke to the brothers…
— Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.
17 – God has called me by the way of simplicity and showed me the way of simplicity. I do not want you to mention to me any Rule, whether of St. Augustine, or St. Bernard, or St. Benedict. And the Lord told me what He wanted.
– What can’t be cured, must be endured.
18 – He wanted me to be a new fool in the world. God did not wish to lead us by any other way other than this knowledge. But God will confound you by your knowledge and wisdom. But I trust in the Lord’s police that through them He will punish you, and you will return to your state, to your blame, like it or not”. The Cardinal was shocked and said nothing and all the brothers were afraid.
– The Word of God became man that you also may learn from a man how a man becomes a God.
19 – HIS EXPLANATION OF THE BROTHERS’ RELATIONSHIP TO CLERICS
19 – Although blessed Francis wanted his sons to keep peace with all and to behave as little ones toward everyone, he taught them to be particularly humble toward clerics by his word and showed them by his example.
– Real unselfishness consists in sharing the interests of others.
20 – He used to say: “We have been sent to help clerics for the salvation of souls so that we may make up whatever may be lacking in them. Each shall receive a reward, not on account of authority, but because of the work done.
– The secret of being lovely is in being unselfish.
21 – Know then, brothers, that the profit or good of souls is what pleases God the most, and this is more easily obtained through peace with the clergy than fighting with them. If they should stand in the way of the people’s salvation, revenge is for God, and he will repay them in due time.
– Living in our selfishness prevents our transformation into divine love.
22 – So, be subject to prelates so that, as much as possible on your part no jealousy arises. If you are children of peace, you will win over both clergy and people for the Lord, and the Lord will judge that more acceptable than only winning over the people, while scandalizing the clergy.
— The most satisfying thing in life is to have been able to give a large part of oneself to others.
23 – Cover up their failings, make up for their many defects, and when you have done this, be even more humble.”
– It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
20 HIS REFUSAL TO REQUEST PRIVILEGES FROM THE ROMAN CURIA
24 – Some of the brothers told blessed Francis: “Father, don’t you see that sometimes bishops do not permit us to preach, allowing us to remain idle in an area for many days before we can preach to the people? It would be better if you arranged for the brothers to get a privilege from the Lord Pope: it would be the salvation of souls.
– The man who is poor in the spirit realizes things mean nothing and God means everything.
25 – ” He answered them with a stern rebuke, telling them: “You, Lesser Brothers, you do not know the will of God, and will not allow me to convert the whole world as God wills. For I want to convert the prelates first by humility and reverence. Then, when they see your holy life and your reverence for them, they will ask you to preach and convert the people.
—He is not poor who has little, he that desires much.
26 – These will attract the people to you far better than the privileges you want, which would lead you to pride. And if you are free of all avarice, and lead the people to give the churches their due, they will ask you to hear the confessions of their people.
– People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy.
27 – Although you should not be concerned about this, for if they are converted, they will easily find confessors.
– If we behaved like true Christians, there would be no pagans.
28 – For my part, I want only this privilege from the Lord: not to have any privilege from any human being, except to show reverence to all, and, by the obedience of the holy Rule, to convert everyone more by example than by word”.
– The hope of the future lies not in better human inventions, but in better human relations.
21 CHRIST COMPLAINS TO BROTHER LEO ABOUT THE INGRATITUDE OF THE] BROTHERS
29 – One time the Lord Jesus Christ said to Brother Leo, the companion of blessed Francis: “I have a complaint about the brothers.” “About what, Lord?” Brother Leo replied. And the Lord said: “About three things. They do not recognize My gifts which, as you know, I generously bestow on them daily, since they neither sow nor reap. All day long they are idle and complain. And they often provoke one another to anger, and do not return to love, and do not pardon the injury they receive.”
– Nothing is a greater impediment to being in good terms with others than being ill at ease with yourself.
22 HE BLESSES THE BROTHERS AND SHARES BREAD WITH THEM WHEN HE WAS VERY ILL
30 – One night blessed Francis was so afflicted with the pains of his illness that he could barely rest or sleep that night. In the morning, when his pain eased a bit, he had all the brothers staying in that place called to him, and when they were seated around him, he considered them and regarded them as representatives of all the brothers.
– God did not make human beings perfect. He made human beings pilgrims after perfection.
31 – Beginning with one brother, he blessed them, placing his right hand on the head of each one, and he blessed all who were in the religion and all who were to come until the end of the world. He seemed to feel sorry for himself because he was not able to see his sons and brothers before his death.
– Ideals are like stars-we never reach them but we chart our course by them.
Posted By Teresa Redder, on November 30th, 2024 St. Katherine 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
December 2024
Wherever we are, in every place, at every hour, at every time of the day,
every day and continually,
let all of us truly and humbly believe, hold in our heart and love, honor, adore, serve,
praise and bless, glorify and exalt, magnify and give thanks
to the Most High and Supreme Eternal God, Trinity and Unity,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
Creator of all, Savior of all who believe and hope in Him, and love Him,
Who, without beginning and end, is unchangeable, invisible, indescribable, ineffable,
incomprehensible, unfathomable, blessed, praiseworthy, glorious, exalted,
sublime, most high, gentle, lovable, delightful,
and totally desirable above all else for ever.
Amen.
The excerpts are taken from the Assisi Compilation and daily quotes are from various sources.
[10] [HIS HUMILITY TOWARD THE BISHOP OF TERNI “I MAY YET HAVE SONS AND DAUGHTERS”]
1 – One day he was preaching to the people of Terni in the piazza in front of the bishop’s residence. The bishop of that city, a discerning and spiritual man, attended that sermon. When the sermon was over, the bishop stood up and, among the other words of God that he spoke to them, he said: “From the beginning, when the Lord planted and built His church, He always beautified it with holy men who would improve it by word and example. Now, in this final hour, God has beautified his Church with this little poor man, lowly and unlettered,” pointing all the while to blessed Francis.
– Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a gift and not giving it.
2 – “And because of this,” he continued, “you should love and honor the Lord and avoid sin ‘for He has not done this for every nation.’ ” After the sermon, blessed Francis came down from the place where he was preaching, and together the Lord Bishop and blessed Francis entered the bishop’s church.
– If you can find a path with no obstacles it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.
3 – Then blessed Francis bowed down before the Lord Bishop and fell down at his feet, saying to him: “I tell you the truth, my Lord Bishop: no person in this world has yet honored me as much as you have today. Other people say: ‘That man is a saint!’ They attribute glory and holiness to the creature, not to the Creator.
– The most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even touched; they must be felt.
4 – You, however, like a discerning man, have separated what is precious from what is vile.” Often when blessed Francis was honored and people said, “This man is a saint,” he would respond to such expressions by saying: “I’m still not sure that I won’t have sons and daughters.” And he would say: “If at any moment the Lord wanted to take back the treasure He has loaned to me, what would I have left except just body and soul, which even non-believers have?
– People want the front of the bus, the back of the church, and the center of attention.
5 – I must believe, rather, that if the Lord had granted a thief and even a non-believer as many gifts as He has given me, they would be more faithful to the Lord than I.” He continued: “As in a painting of the Lord and the Blessed Virgin on wood, it is God and the Blessed Virgin who are honored, and God and the Blessed Virgin are held in memory.
– The first law of history is not to dare to utter falsehood; the second, not to fear to speak the truth.
6 – The wood and the paint attribute nothing to themselves because they are merely wood and paint. In the same way, a servant of God is a painting, that is, a creature of God, in whom God is honored because of His goodness. Like wood or paint, he must not attribute anything to himself, but give all honor and glory to God.
– You are deceived if you think that Christians can live without persecutions.
7 – He should not attribute anything to himself while he is alive except shame and trouble, because, while he is alive, the flesh is always opposed to God’s gifts.”- What you are speaks so loudly I cannot hear what you say.
[11] [HE RESIGNS FROM OFFICE IN THE ORDER AND ALWAYS WANTS TO HAVE A GUARDIAN]
8 – Blessed Francis wanted to be humble among his brothers. To preserve greater humility, a few years after his conversion he resigned the office of prelate before all the brothers during a chapter held at Saint Mary of the Portiuncula. “From now on,” he said, “I am dead to you. But here is Brother Peter di Catanio: let us all, you and I, obey him.”
– Setting an example is the only means of influencing another.
9 – Then all the brothers began to cry loudly and weep profusely, but blessed Francis bowed down before Brother Peter and promised him obedience and reverence. From that time on, until his death, he remained a subject, like one of the other brothers. He wished to be subject to the general minister and the provincial ministers, so that in whatever province he stayed or preached, he obeyed the minister of that province.
– In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: It goes on.
10 – What is more, a long time before his death, for the sake of greater perfection and humility, he said to the general minister: “I ask you to put one of my companions in your place regarding me, so that I may obey him as I would obey you. For the sake of good example and the virtue of obedience, in life and in death I always want you to be with me.”
– No one really becomes a fool until they stop asking questions.
11 – From that time until his death, he always had one of his companions as a guardian whom he obeyed in place of the general minister. One time he said to his companions: “Among other favors, the Most High has given me this grace: I would obey a novice who entered our religion today, if he were appointed my guardian, just as readily as I would obey him who is the first and the eldest in the life and religion of the brothers.
– It’s not until quite late in life that many discover how easy it is to say: I don’t know.
12 – A subject should not consider his prelate, a human being, but God, for love of Whom he is subject to him.” He likewise said: “There is no prelate in the whole world who would be as feared by his subjects and brothers as the Lord would make me feared by my brothers, if I wished. But the Most High gave me this grace: that I want to be content with all, as one who is lesser in the religion.”
– Life’s greatest tragedy is to lose God and not miss Him.
13 – We who were with him witnessed this often with our own eyes. Frequently, when some of the brothers did not provide for his needs, or said something to him that would ordinarily offend a person, he would immediately go to prayer.
– Visitors should always make us happy: some when they come and others when they leave.
14 – On returning, he did not want to remember it by saying “Brother so and so did not provide for me,” or “He said such and such to me.” The closer he approached death, the more careful he became in complete perfection to consider how he might live and die in complete humility and poverty.
– One can fail many times, but they are not a failure until they begin to blame somebody else.
[12] [AS HE IS DYING HE BLESSES BROTHER BERNARD AND PREDICTS HIS HOLY DEATH]
15 – The day Lady Jacoba prepared that confection for blessed Francis, the father remembered Bernard. “Brother Bernard likes this confection,” he said to his companions. Calling one of his companions, he told him: “Go, tell Brother Bernard to come to me immediately.”
– It is safer to err on the side of mercy.
16 – The brother went at once and brought him to blessed Francis. Sitting next to the bed where blessed Francis was lying, Brother Bernard said: “Father! I beg you, bless me and show me your love. I believe that, if you show me your love with fatherly affection, God Himself and the other brothers of the religion will love me more.”
– You cannot unsay a cruel word.
17 – Blessed Francis was not able to see him, since many days earlier he had lost his sight. Extending his right hand, he placed it on the head of Brother Giles, the third of the first brothers, who at that moment was sitting next to Brother Bernard. He thought he was placing it on the head of Brother Bernard.
– Every path has a few puddles.
18 – Feeling the head of Brother Giles, like a person going blind, he immediately recognized him by the Holy Spirit, and said, “This is not the head of my Brother Bernard.” Brother Bernard immediately drew closer to him. Blessed Francis, placing his hand on his head, blessed him.
– The best sermons are lived, not preached.
19 – “Write what I tell you,” he then said to one of his companions. “Brother Bernard was the first brother the Lord gave me. He began first and most perfectly fulfilled the perfection of the holy Gospel, distributing all his goods to the poor. Because of this and his many other prerogatives, I am bound to love him more than any other brother in the whole religion.
– Most of the things people worry about are never going to happen anyway.
20 – As much as I am able, it is my will and command that whoever becomes general minister should love and honor him as he would me. Let the other provincial ministers and the brothers of the whole religion hold him in my place.”
– Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.
21 – Because of this, Brother Bernard was greatly consoled as were the other brothers who saw this. Another time, considering the outstanding perfection of Brother Bernard, blessed Francis prophesied about him in the presence of some of the brothers:
– Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
22 – “I tell you, some of the greatest and most cunning devils have been sent to test Brother Bernard. They will send him many trials and temptations. The merciful Lord, however, will deliver him toward the end of his life from all troubles and temptations, internal and external. And He will place his spirit and body in such peace, quiet, and consolation that all the brothers who see or hear of this will be greatly astonished, and consider it a great miracle.
– The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.
23 – In this peace, quiet, and consolation of both body and soul, he will pass from this world to the Lord.” The brothers who heard this from blessed Francis were greatly astonished, since everything he predicted about him through the Holy Spirit came true, to the letter, point by point. In his last illness Brother Bernard was in such great peace and quiet of spirit that he did not want to lie down.
– One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day had been.
24 – if he lay down, he lay in a sitting position so that not even the lightest mist of humors would reach his head, inducing fantasies or dreams, rather than thoughts of God. And if this happened, he would immediately get up and strike himself, saying “What was that? Why was I thinking that way?”
– Kindness is the language that the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
25 – For relief, he gladly used to smell rose water, but as he drew closer to death, he refused to do even this, for the sake of constant meditation on God. He would say to anyone offering it: “Don’t distract me.” In order to die more freely, peacefully, and quietly, he deprived himself of care for his body, putting himself in the hands of one of the brothers who was a doctor and who was taking care of him.
– We find in life exactly what we put into it.
26 – “I do not wish to be concerned about eating or drinking,” he would say, “but I entrust myself to you. If you give me something, I’ll take it. If you don’t, then I won’t.” When he any thought entered his mind for which his conscience reproached him, he immediately confessed it and then said his penance.
– Kindness is the oil that takes the friction out of life.
27 – After his death, his flesh became white and soft and he seemed to be smiling, so that he appeared more handsome after death than before. Whoever gazed on him experienced more delight in seeing him this way than when he was alive, because he looked like a saint who was smiling began to grow weaker, he wanted to have a priest brother with him at all times, until the hour of his death.
– Humor is to life what shock-absorbers are to automobiles.
[13] [BEFORE DYING HE SENDS A LETTER TO LADY CLARE, PROMISING THAT SHE WILL SEE HIM AGAIN]
28 – During the week in which blessed Francis died, Lady Clare was seriously ill. She was the first plant of the Order of Sisters, the abbess of the Poor Sisters of the monastery of San Damiano in Assisi, who emulated Saint Francis in observing always the poverty of the Son of God She feared that she would die before blessed Francis. She wept in bitterness of spirit and could not be comforted, because she would not be able before her death to see her only father after God, that is, blessed Francis, her comforter both internally and externally, and her first founder in God’s grace.
– To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.
29 – She sent word of this to blessed Francis through one of the brothers. Blessed Francis heard this and was moved to piety, since he loved her and her sisters with fatherly affection because of their holy manner of living, and especially because, a few years after he began to have brothers, she was converted to the Lord through his advice, working with the Lord. Her conversion not only greatly edified the religion of the brothers, but also the entire Church of God.
– Jesus can turn water into wine, but He cannot turn your whining into anything.
30 – Blessed Francis considered that what she desired, that is, to see him, could not be done then since they were both seriously ill. To console her, he wrote his blessing in a letter and also absolved her from any failings, if she had any, regarding his commands and wishes or the commands and wishes of the Son of God. Moreover, so that she would put aside all her grief and be consoled in the Lord, he, or rather the Spirit of God speaking through him, spoke to the brother she had sent. “Go and take this letter to Lady Clare, and tell her to put aside all her grief and sorrow over not being able to see me now. Let her be assured that before her death, both she and her sisters will see me and will receive the greatest consolation from me.”
– People are like tea-bags. You have to put them in hot water before you know how strong they are.
Posted By Teresa Redder, on November 3rd, 2024 St. Katherine 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
November 2024
Wherever we are, in every place, at every hour, at every time of the day,
every day and continually,
let all of us truly and humbly believe, hold in our heart and love, honor, adore, serve,
praise and bless, glorify and exalt, magnify and give thanks
to the Most High and Supreme Eternal God, Trinity and Unity,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
Creator of all, Savior of all who believe and hope in Him, and love Him, Who,
without beginning and end, is unchangeable, invisible, indescribable, ineffable,
incomprehensible, unfathomable, blessed, praiseworthy, glorious, exalted,
sublime, most high, gentle, lovable, delightful,
and totally desirable above all else for ever.
Amen.
(Prayer of Saint Francis taken from the Earlier Rule, chapter 23)
The daily excerpts from The Assisi Compilation
1 – FRANCIS DOES NOT WANT COMMANDS UNDER OBEDIENCE TO BE GIVEN LIGHTLY
1 – His opinion was that only rarely should something be commanded under obedience, for the weapon of last resort should not be the first one used. As he said, “The hand should not reach quickly for the sword.”
– The things that count most in life are the things that cannot be counted.
2 – He who does not hurry to obey what is commanded under obedience neither fears God nor respects man. Nothing could be truer. For what is command in a rash leader, but a sword in the hands of a madman? And what could be more hopeless than a religious who despises obedience?
– The intellect of the wise is like glass. It admits the light of heaven and reflects it.
2 – HE FORETELLS THE FUTURE OF THE ORDER
3 – Saint Francis also said: “A time will come when the religion loved by God will have such a bad reputation because of bad examples that it will be embarrassing to go out in public. Whoever comes to enter the Order at that time will be led only by the working of the Holy Spirit; flesh and blood will put no blot on them; they will be truly blessed by the Lord.
– I am more afraid of my good deeds that please me, than of my bad deeds that repel me.
4 – Although they will not do works of merit, for the love that makes saints work fervently will have grown cold, still they will undergo temptations; and whoever passes the tests of that time will be better than those who came before.
– Is anything too hard for the Lord?
5 – But woe to them who congratulate themselves over the appearance of a religious way of living, those numbed by idleness, those who do not firmly resist the temptations which are permitted to test the chosen! Only those who are tested will receive the crown of life, those who in the meantime are disturbed by the malice of the wicked.”
– To err is human, but when the eraser wears out ahead of the pencil then you are overdoing it.
3 – THE LORD SHOWS HIM WHEN HE IS BEING A TRUE SERVANT OF GOD
6 – “Brothers,” he would also say, “I prayed to the Lord that he might deign to show me when I am his servant and when I am not, for I want to be nothing except his servant. And now the gracious Lord himself in his mercy is giving me this answer: ‘Know that you are in truth my servant when you think, speak, and do things that are holy.’ And so I have called you brothers because I want to be shamed in front of you if ever I am not doing any of those three”. – No one is more confusing than the one who gives good advice while setting a bad example.
4 – A BROTHER TELLS HIM THAT HIS BODY WILL BE HONORED AFTER HIS DEATH
7 – One day when blessed Francis lay sick in the palace of the bishop of Assisi, one of the brothers, a spiritual and holy man, smiling and playfully, said to him: “You will sell all your sackcloth to the Lord for a good price! Many canopies and silk coverings will hang over this body of yours now clothed in sackcloth.” At the time Saint Francis, on account of his illness, wore a fur cap covered with sackcloth as well as a tunic of sackcloth. With great fervor of spirit and joy blessed Francis—not himself, but the Holy Spirit through him—answered: “You’re right because that’s how it will be.”
– If you bear the cross gladly, it will bear you.
5 – HE BLESSES ASSISI AS HE IS BEING CARRIED TO SAINT MARY OF THE PORTIUNCULA
8 – While he was staying in that palace, blessed Francis, realizing that he was getting sicker by the day, had himself carried on a litter to the church of Saint Mary of the Portiuncula, since he could not ride horseback because of his severe illness. When those who were carrying him passed by the hospital along the road, he asked them to place the litter on the ground. Since he could hardly see because of the serious and prolonged eye-disease, he had the litter turned so that he would face the city of Assisi.
– If I have no love, no matter what fabulous things I may be able to do, I am nothing.
9 – Raising himself up slightly on the litter, he blessed the city of Assisi. “Lord,” he said, “just as I believe that at an earlier time this city was the abode of wicked and evil men, with a bad reputation throughout all this region; so now I realize that, because of Your abundant mercy and in Your own time, You have shown an abundance of mercies to it. – It is impossible for the Church to remain on its feet if it doesn’t get on its knees.
10 – Now it has become the abode of those who acknowledge You, give glory to Your name, offer the fragrance of good life, doctrine, and good reputation to the whole Christian people. I ask you, therefore, Lord Jesus Christ, Father of mercies, not to consider our ingratitude.
– The more the world is at its worst, the more we need the Church at its best.
11 – May it always be mindful of the abundant mercies which You have shown to it, that it always be an abode for those who acknowledge You, and glorify Your name blessed and glorious throughout the ages. Amen.” After saying these things, he was carried to Saint Mary of the Portiuncula.
– The family was before the Church or rather the first form of the Church was the family.
6 – AT THE NEWS OF HIS COMING DEATH HE HAS THE BROTHERS SING THE CANTICLE OF BROTHER SUN, WITH A WITH A NEW VERSE FOR SISTER DEATH
12 – From the time of his conversion till the day of his death, blessed Francis, whether healthy or sick, was always concerned to know and follow the will of the Lord.
– We see things not as they are but as we are.
7 – PRAISE BE YOU, MY LORD, THROUGH OUR SISTER BODILY DEATH
13 – One day a brother said to blessed Francis: “Father, your life and manner of living were and are a light and a mirror not only for your brothers but also for the entire Church of God, and your death will be the same. Although for the brothers and many others your death will mean great grief and sorrow, for you it will rather be a great consolation and infinite joy.
– We are not completely born until we are dead.
14 – You will pass from great toil to the greatest rest, from many sorrows and temptations to infinite happiness, from your great poverty, which you always loved and carried from the beginning of your conversion till the day of your death, to the greatest, true, and infinite riches, from death in time to life in eternity. There you will forever behold face to face the Lord your God whom you have contemplated in this world with so much desire and love.”
– In the end it will not matter with what we fought. It will matter on what side we fought.
15 – After saying these things he said to him openly: “Father, you should know the truth: unless the Lord sends his own remedy from heaven to your body, your sickness is incurable and, as the doctors already said, you do not have long to live.
– Children, especially, set their watches by our clock.
16 – I told you this to comfort your spirit, that you may always rejoice in the Lord, inside and out; especially so that your brothers and others who come to visit you may find you rejoicing in the Lord, since they know and believe that you will die soon. Thus, as they see this and, after your death, others hear about it, your death, like your life and manner of living, may be held in remembrance by all.”
– Never let anything so fill you with sorrow that you forget the joy of the Risen Christ.
17 – Although racked with sickness, blessed Francis praised God with great fervor of spirit and joy of body and soul, and told him: “If I am to die soon, call Brother Angelo and Brother Leo that they may sing to me about Sister Death.”
– Prayer is talking something over with God, rather than trying to talk God out of something.
18 – Those brothers came to him and, with many tears, sang the Canticle of Brother Sun and the other creatures of the Lord, which the Saint himself had composed in his illness for the praise of the Lord and the consolation of his own soul and that of others.
– The more we depend on God, the more dependable God becomes.
19 – Before the last stanza he added one about Sister Death: “Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death, from whom no one living can escape. Woe to those who die in mortal sin. Blessed are those whom death will find in Your most holy will, for the second death shall do them no harm.”
– When you give to the poor, it is like lending to the Lord.
8 – LADY JACOBA, INSPIRED IN PRAYER, COMES FROM ROME TO PROVIDE FOR HIS BURIAL
20 – One day blessed Francis called his companions to himself: “You know how faithful and devoted Lady Jacoba dei Settesoli was and is to me and to our religion. Therefore, I believe she would consider it a great favor and consolation if you notified her about my condition.
– We must constantly guard against forming our belief to our behavior rather than our behavior to our belief.
21 – Above all, tell her to send you some cloth for a tunic of religious cloth the color of ashes, like the cloth made by Cistercian monks in the region beyond the Alps. Have her also send some of that confection which she often made for me when I was in the City. This confection, made of almonds, sugar or honey, and other things, the Romans call mostacciolo.
That spiritual woman was a holy widow, devoted to God. She belonged to one of the more noble and wealthy families of the entire City.
– An empty meaningless faith may be worse than none.
22 – Through the merits and words of blessed Francis she had obtained such grace from God that she seemed like another Magdalene, always full of tears and devotion for love of God. After the letter was written, as dictated by the holy father, while one brother was looking for another one to deliver the letter, there was a knock at the door. When one of the brothers opened the gate, he saw Lady Jacoba who had hurried from the City to visit blessed Francis. With great joy the brother immediately went to tell blessed Francis that Lady Jacoba had come to visit him with her son and many other people.
– People find their way to heaven more by a path of footprints than by a pack of road maps.
23 – “What shall we do, Father,” he said, “shall we allow her to enter and come in here?” He said this because blessed Francis a long time ago had ordered that in that place no women should enter that cloister out of respect and devotion for that place. Blessed Francis answered him: “This command need not be observed in the case of this lady whose faith and devotion made her come here from so far away.”And in this way, she came in to see blessed Francis, crying many tears in his presence. It was amazing: she brought with her shroud-cloth, that is, gray-colored cloth, for a tunic, and all the other things that were written in the letter. This made the brothers greatly marvel at the holiness of blessed Francis.
– A mistake doesn’t make an error until I refuse to correct it.
24 – “While I was praying,” Lady Jacoba told the brothers, “a voice within me said ‘Go, visit your father, blessed Francis, without delay, and hurry, because if you delay long you will not find him alive. Moreover, take such and such cloth for his tunic, as well as the ingredients for making that particular confection. Take with you also a great quantity of wax and incense.’”
– Every bigot was once a child free of prejudice.
25 – Blessed Francis did not have incense written in the letter, but the Lord Himself willed to inspire that lady as a reward and consolation for her soul. In this way we would more easily recognize the great holiness of that saint, that poor man, whom the heavenly Father wished to honor so greatly in the days he was dying.
– Money is a terrible master but an excellent servant.
26 – He inspired the Kings to travel with gifts to honor the child, His beloved Son, in the days of His birth and His poverty.
So too He willed to inspire this noble lady in a faraway region to travel with gifts to honor and venerate the glorious and holy body of His servant the saint, who loved and followed the poverty of His beloved Son with so much fervor and love in life and in death. One day that lady made that confection the holy father wanted to eat.
– Going to Church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile.
27 – He ate only a little of it, however, since he was near death, and daily his body was becoming weaker on account of his illness. She also had many candles made which would burn around his holy body after his death. From the cloth she had brought for his tunic, the brothers made him the tunic in which he was buried. He himself ordered the brothers to sew pieces of sackcloth on the outside of it as a sign and example of most holy humility and poverty. It happened, as it pleased God, that during the same week that Lady Jacoba arrived, blessed Francis passed to the Lord.
– No Christian escapes a taste of wilderness on the way to the Promised Land.
9 – HE WANTS HIS BROTHERS TO SERVE LEPERS AS A SIGN OF HUMILITY AND POVERTY
28 – From the beginning of his conversion blessed Francis, with God’s help, like a wise man, established himself and his house, that is, the religion, upon a firm rock, the greatest humility and poverty of the Son of God, calling it the religion of “Lesser Brothers.”
– All that is not eternal is eternally out of date.
29 – On the greatest humility: thus at the beginning of the religion, after the brothers grew in number, he wanted the brothers to stay in hospitals of lepers to serve them. At that time whenever nobles and commoners came to the religion, they were told, among other things, that they had to serve the lepers and stay in their houses.
– Christianity is feet on the ground going God’s way.
30 – On the greatest poverty: as stated in the Rule, let the brothers remain as strangers and pilgrims in the houses in which they stay. Let them not seek to have anything under heaven, except holy poverty, by which, in this world, they are nourished by the Lord with bodily food and virtue, and, in the next, will attain a heavenly inheritance. He established himself on the greatest poverty and humility, because, although he was a great prelate in the church of God, he wanted and chose to be lowly not only in the church of God, but also among his brothers.
– Have courage and patience through the sorrows of life. Go to sleep in peace. God is awake.
Thank God ahead of time when praying
For the past we learned from,
For the present we live based on what we learned
For the future in God’s all-providing love and providence
Laudato Si’ my Lord God for being You!
Posted By Teresa Redder, on October 9th, 2024 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
October 2024
During the centenary of the Canticle of the Creatures it could be a brief meditative opportunity for us to recite the Canticle some time each day as an act of Thanksgiving and Praise for the Gift of Life.
Canticle of Brother Sun and Sister Moon of St. Francis of Assisi
Most High, all-powerful, all-good Lord,
All praise is Yours, all glory, all honor and all blessings.
To you alone, Most High, do they belong,
and no mortal lips are worthy to pronounce Your Name.
Praised be You my Lord with all Your creatures,
especially Sir Brother Sun,
Who is the day through whom You give us light.
And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendor,
Of You Most High, he bears the likeness.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars,
In the heavens you have made them bright, precious and fair.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air,
And fair and stormy, all weather’s moods,
by which You cherish all that You have made.
Praised be You my Lord through Sister Water,
So useful, humble, precious and pure.
Praised be You my Lord through Brother Fire,
through whom You light the night and he is beautiful and playful and robust and strong.
Praised be You my Lord through our Sister,
Mother Earth
who sustains and governs us,
producing varied fruits with colored flowers and herbs.
Praise be You my Lord through those who grant pardon for love of You
and bear sickness and trial.
Blessed are those who endure in peace, By You Most High, they will be crowned.
Praised be You, my Lord through Sister Death,
from whom no-one living can escape.
Woe to those who die in mortal sin!
Blessed are they She finds doing Your Will.
No second death can do them harm.
Praise and bless my Lord and give Him thanks,
And serve Him with great humility.
(excerpts taken from the Three Companions and the sayings from various sources)
HOW HE DID NOT WANT TO EXTINGUISH A FIRE, OR ALLOW IT TO BE EXTINGUISHED, THAT WAS BURNING HIS BREECHES
1 – Among all the lesser and inanimate creatures, he loved fire with singular affection because of its beauty and usefulness. That is why he never wanted to impede its function. – Time never takes time off.
2 – Once when he was sitting close to a fire, without being aware of it, his linen pants or breeches next to the knee caught fire. – Time is the deposit each one has in the bank of God and no one knows the balance.
3 – Although he felt the heat of the fire, he did not want to extinguish it. His companion, however, seeing that the fire was burning his pants, ran to him, wanting to put out the fire. – It is magnificent to grow old, if one keeps young.
4 – Blessed Francis prohibited him saying: “No, dearest brother, do not hurt Brother Fire.” And thus, in no way did he want him to extinguish it. – We live in deeds not years.
5 – So the brother quickly ran to the brother who was his guardian, and brought him to blessed Francis. At once, contrary to the will of blessed Francis, he began to extinguish the fire.
– We live in thoughts not breaths.
6 – Because of this, however urgent the need, he never wanted to extinguish a fire, a lamp, or a candle, moved as he was with such piety for it.
– God wants the heart.
7 – He also did not want a brother to throw fire or smoldering wood from one place to another, as is usually done, but wanted him simply to place it on the ground, out of reverence for Him who created it.
– A person of integrity, sincerity, and good nature can never be concealed.
HOW HE DID NOT WANT TO USE A PELT BECAUSE HE DID NOT ALLOW IT TO BE BURNED BY FIRE
8 – While he was keeping a lent on Mount La Verna, his companion built a fire at mealtime one day in the cell where he ate.
– My worth to God in public is what I am in private.
9 – Once the fire was lit, he went for blessed Francis to another cell where he usually prayed, carrying with him a missal in order to read to him the Gospel of the day.
– Nothing is of any worth is it causes one to break one’s word or lose their self-respect.
10 – Whenever he was unable to hear Mass, he always wanted to hear the Gospel that was read on that day, before he would eat.
– The measure of one’s true character is what they would do if they were never found out.
11 – When blessed Francis came to eat in the cell where the fire was lit, the flames had already reached the roof of the cell and were burning it.
– The freedom to communicate for a Christian requires integrity and love.
12 – His companion tried his best to extinguish the fire but could not do it by himself. But blessed Francis did not want to help him: he took the hide that he used to cover himself at night, and went into the forest with it.
– Power is never good unless the person who has it is good.
13 – The brothers of the place, who stayed some distance from this cell, seeing that the cell was burning, immediately came and extinguished the fire.
– A good name is better than wealth.
14 – Afterwards, blessed Francis returned to eat. After the meal, he said to his companion: “From now on, I don’t want this hide over me since, because of my avarice, I did not want Brother Fire to consume it.”
– Patience can attain all things.
THE EXCEPTIONAL LOVE HE HAD FOR WATER, STONES, WOOD AND FLOWERS
15 – Next to fire he had a singular love for water through which holy penance and tribulation is symbolized and by which the filth of the soul is washed clean and because of which the first cleansing of the soul takes place through the waters of Baptism.
– By perseverance the snail reached the ark.
16 – Because of this, when he washed his hands, he chose a place where the water that fell to the ground would not be trampled underfoot.
– Never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.
17 – Whenever he had to walk over rocks, he would walk with great fear and reverence out of love for Him who is called “the rock.” Whenever he recited the verse of the psalm, “You have set me high upon the rock,” he would say, out of great reverence and devotion: “You have set me high at the foot of the rock.”
– Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.
18 – He also told the brother who cut and prepared the wood for the fire never to cut down the whole tree, but to cut the tree in such a way that one part always remained intact out of love for Him Who willed to accomplish our salvation on the wood of the cross.
– The Word of God became man that you also may learn from a man how a man can become a God.
19 – In the same way he used to tell the brother who took care of the garden not to cultivate all the ground in the garden for vegetables, but to leave a piece of ground that would produce wild plants.
– Real unselfishness consists in sharing the interests of others.
20 – Thus, in their season, they would produce “Brother Flowers” out of love of Him Who is called “the flower of the field” and “the lily of the valley.”
– They that deny themselves for Christ shall enjoy themselves in Christ.
21 – Moreover, he used to tell the brother gardener that he should always make a beautiful flower bed in some part of the garden, planting and cultivating every variety of fragrant plants and those producing beautiful flowers.
– The most satisfying thing in life is to have been able to give a large part of oneself to others.
22 – Thus, in their time they would invite all who saw those herbs and those flowers to the praise of God.
– You give little when you give of your possessions.
23 – For every creature says and exclaims: “God made me for you, O mortal!” We who were with him saw him rejoice so much, inwardly and outwardly, in all creatures, that touching and looking at them, his spirit seemed no longer on earth but in heaven.
– You truly give when you give of yourself.
24 – And because of the many consolations he had and continued to have in creatures, shortly before his death, he composed the Praises of the Lord in His creatures to move the hearts of his listeners to the praise of God, and so that in His creatures the Lord might be praised by everyone.
– The first creature of God was the light of sense, the last was the light of reason.
HOW HE PRAISED THE SUN AND FIRE OVER OTHER CREATURES
25 – More than all creatures lacking reason, he most affectionately loved the sun and fire.
– When you walk towards the light, the shadow of your burden falls behind you.
26 – For he used to say: “At dawn, when the sun rises, everyone should praise God, who created it for our use, because through it our eyes are lighted by day.
– People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy.
27 – And in the evening, when it becomes night, everyone should praise God for another creature, Brother Fire through whom the eyes are lighted at night.
– If we behaved like true Christians, there would be no pagans.
28 – For we are all almost blind, and the Lord lights up our eyes through these two brothers of ours. And, therefore, we should always give special praise to the glorious Creator for these and for His other creatures which we use every day.”
– God did not make us perfect but pilgrims searching after perfection.
29 – He always did this until the day of his death. Indeed, when his illness grew more serious, he himself began to sing the Praises of the Lord that he had composed about creatures, and afterwards had his companions sing it, so that in reflecting on the praise of the Lord, he could forget the sharpness of his pains and illnesses.
– To possess all, desire to possess nothing.
30 – And because he considered and said that the sun is more beautiful than other creatures, and could more easily be compared to God, especially since, in Scripture, the Lord Himself is called the sun of justice;
– Read the Bible to know what people ought to do and the newspaper to know what they are doing.
31 – he therefore called those Praises he composed for creatures when the Lord had assured him of His kingdom the “Canticle of Brother Sun.”
– Almost all our faults are more pardonable than the methods we think up to hide them.
Posted By Teresa Redder, on June 7th, 2024 St. Katherine 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
June 2024
O loving one
bear in mind your poor children for whom, without you, their one and only consolation,
there is little comfort… they still .. tearfully cry out to you:
O father,
place before Jesus Christ, son of the Most High Father, His sacred stigmata;
and show Him the signs of the cross on your hands, feet, and side,
that He may mercifully bare His own wounds to the Father,
and because of this the Father will ever show us in our anguish His tenderness.
Amen.
Prayer to St. Francis from the End of the Second Book of the Life of St. Francis by Bl.Thomas of Celano
Random quotes from various sources
OF THE FIFTH AND LAST CONSIDERATION OF THE MOST HOLY STIGMATA
(taken from the Little Flowers of St. Francis)
1 – The fifth and last consideration regards certain visions and revelations and miracles God made known after the death of St. Francis, in confirmation of his most holy Stigmata, and for a declaration of the day and the hour when Christ gave them unto him. Concerning this, in the year of our Lord 1282 on the . . . day of the month of October, Friar Philip, Minister of Tuscany, at the commandment of Friar John Buonagrazia, Minister-General, in the name of holy obedience, asked Friar Matthew of Castiglione Aretino, a man of great devotion and sanctity, to tell what he knew concerning the day and the hour when the most holy Stigmata were imprinted by Christ on the body of St. Francis; because he heard that he had had a revelation about this matter. – Faithfulness in little things is a big thing.
2 – Whereupon Friar Matthew, compelled by holy obedience, answered him saying: “While I was in the community of Alvernia, last year in the month of May, I went one day to prayer in my cell, which is on the spot where it is believed that that seraphic vision took place. In my prayer I asked God most devoutly that He would reveal to some person the day and the hour and the place that the most holy Stigmata were imprinted upon the body of St. Francis; and, when I had continued in prayer the first watch, St. Francis appeared to me with very great radiance, and said unto me: ‘Son, for what are you praying to God?’ – There is nothing small in the service of God.
3 – And I said unto him: ‘Father, I pray for such and such a thing’. And he said unto me: ‘I am your Father Francis. Do you know me well?’ ‘Father,’ I said, ‘yes.’ Then he showed me the most holy Stigmata in his hands and feet and side, and said: ‘The time has come when God wills that that, which for a time the friars have not been curious to know, shall be made known for His glory. – Accomplish the great task by a series of small acts.
4 – Know that He Who appeared unto me was not an angel, but was Jesus Christ, in the form of a Seraph, who, with his own hands, imprinted on my body these wounds, even as He received them in His body on the Cross. – Hope is the first thing to take some sort of action.
5 – And this is how it happened: On the day before the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, an angel came to me, and, in God’s name, told me to be ready and patient and to receive what God might will to send me. And I answered that I was ready to receive and to endure everything that in God’s good pleasure He desired to send me. Thereafter, on the following morning, the morning of [the festival of the] Holy Cross, which that year fell on a Friday; at daybreak I came forth from my cell, in very great fervor of spirit, and went to pray in this place where thou now are and where I often prayed, and, as I prayed, through the air, there came down from heaven, with great swiftness, a young man crucified, in the form of a Seraph with six wings; at which marvelous sight I humbly kneeled down and began to contemplate devoutly the boundless love of Jesus Christ crucified, and the boundless pain of His passion. – Hope ever urges us on and tells us tomorrow will be better.
6 – The sight of Him engendered in me such pity that I verily seemed to feel His passion in my own body; and, at His presence, all this mountain shone as the sun; and, so descending, He approached me. And, standing before me, He said certain secret words to me, which I have not yet revealed to anyone; but the time approaches when they shall be revealed. Then, after a while, Christ departed, and returned to heaven, and I found myself thus marked with these wounds. – Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.
7 – Go then,’ said St. Francis, ‘and tell these things to your minister doubting nothing; for this is the operation not of man but of God.’ And, when he had said these words, St. Francis blessed me and went back to heaven with a great multitude of youths, exceeding bright.” All these things Friar Matthew said he had seen and heard, not sleeping but awake. And he swore that he had truthfully told these things to the said minister in his cell at Florence, when he inquired of him concerning the same for obedience’ sake. – To be a sinner is our distress but to know it is our hope.
HOW A HOLY FRIAR, READING THE LEGEND OF ST. FRANCIS IN THE CHAPTER OF THE MOST HOLY STIGMATA, PRAYED SO MUCH TO GOD CONCERNING THE SECRET WORDS, WHICH THE SERAPH SPOKE TO ST. FRANCIS. WHEN HE APPEARED TO HIM, THAT ST. FRANCIS REVEALED THEM UNTO THE SAID FRIAR
8 – At another time, a devout and holy friar, while reading the legend of St. Francis in the chapter of the most holy Stigmata, began with great trouble of spirit to consider what those so secret words could have been, which St. Francis said that he would not reveal to any one while he lived, which the Seraph had spoken to him when He appeared to him. And this friar said within himself: “St. Francis willed not to speak those words to any one during his lifetime; but now, after his bodily death, perchance he would tell them, if he were prayed devoutly so to do”.- Every child comes into the world with a message that God does not yet despair of man.
9 – And from then on, the devout friar began to pray God and St. Francis that they would vouchsafe to reveal those words. This friar continued eight years praying thus. In the eighth year he merited to be heard. One day, after eating, thanks having been given in the church, he was in prayer in a certain part of the church, and was praying to God and St. Francis concerning this matter, more devoutly than he usual wont, and with many tears; when he was called by another friar, who commanded him in the name of the Guardian to accompany him to the town for the good of the Place. Not doubting that obedience is more meritorious than prayer, as soon as he had heard the commandment of his superior, he humbly left off praying and went with the friar that called him. – Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement, but nothing can be done without hope.
10 – And, as God willed it, he, by this act of ready obedience, merited what he had not merited by his long praying. No sooner than they had gone from the gate of the Place, they met two strange friars, who appeared to have come from a far country; and one of them seemed a young man and the other old and lean; and, by reason of the bad weather, they were all muddy and wet. Wherefore that obedient friar had great compassion for them, and said unto the companion, with whom he was going: “Mt dear brother, if the business we are going on may wait a little, since these strange friars have great need to be charitably received, I ask you to permit me first to go and wash their feet, and especially those of this aged friar, who has the greater need, and you will be able to wash those of this younger one, after we will go about the business of the convent”. – All human wisdom is summed up in two words: wait and hope.
11 – Then this friar consenting to the charitable desire of his companion, went back and received those strange friars very charitably, and took them into the kitchen to the fire to warm and dry themselves. At the fire eight other friars of the Place were warming themselves. And, after they had been a little while at the fire, they took (the two friars) aside to wash their feet, as they had agreed to do. – Love means to love that which is unlovable.
12 – And while that obedient and devout friar was washing the feet of the older friar, and removing the mud the feet, for they were very muddy, he looked and saw that his feet were marked with the most holy Stigmata and for joy and wonder he embraced them closely, and began to cry aloud: “Either thou art Christ, or thou art St. Francis”. – Forgiving means to pardon the unpardonable.
13 – At that cry and at those words, the friars at the fire, arose and approached with great fear and reverence to see those glorious stigmata. And then, at their prayer, this ancient friar permitted them clearly to see and touch and kiss them. And, while they marveled yet more for joy, he said to them: “Doubt not and fear not, dearest friars and sons; I am your father Friar Francis, who, according to the will of God, founded three Orders. And seeing that, for eight years, I have been entreated by this friar, who is washing my feet, and to-day more fervently than ever before, that I would reveal unto him those secret words which the Seraph spoke to me when He gave me the stigmata, the words I resolved never to reveal in my lifetime, to-day, by the commandment of God, by reason of his perseverance and the ready obedience with which he left the sweetness of contemplation, I am sent by God to reveal to him, before you all, that which he asks.” – Faith means believing the unbelievable.
14 – And then, turning to that friar, St. Francis spaid: “Know, dearest friar, that, when I was upon the mountain of Alvernia, wholly absorbed in the remembrance of the passion of Christ in that seraphic apparition, I was by Christ thus marked on my body with the Stigmata, and then Christ said to me: ‘Do you know what I have done to you? I have given you the tokens of My passion, so that thou may be My standard-bearer. – If it were not for hope the heart would break.
15 – And even as I, on the day of My death, descended into Limbo, and, in virtue of these My Stigmata, drew out from there all the souls I found there, and took them to Paradise; so to you do I grant even from this hour, to the end that thou may be conformed to Me in death as thou hast been in life, that, after thou shall have passed from this life, every year on the day of your death, thou shall go to Purgatory, and, in virtue of your Stigmata which I have given youe, shall draw out from there all the souls of your three Orders, minors, sisters and continents, and, beyond this, those others whom thou shall find there, who were devoted to you, and shall lead them to Paradise.’ – Thought and feeling do not matter. We shall be judged only by our will.
16 – And these words I never spoke while I lived in the world.” And, when he had said these words, St. Francis and his companion suddenly vanished away. Many friars afterwards heard this from those eight friars who were present at this vision and at these words of St. Francis. – Don’t wait for the Last Judgment. It takes place every day.
HOW ST. FRANCIS, AFTER HIS DEATH, APPEARED TO FRIAR JOHN OF ALVERNIA, WHILE HE WAS PRAYING
17 – Once, on the mountain of Alvernia, St. Francis appeared to Friar John of Alvernia, a man of great sanctity, while he was praying, and stayed and spole with him for a very long time; and, at the last, desiring to depart, he said: “Ask of me what you wish”. Said Friar John: “Father, I pray you tell me what I have long desired to know: What were you doing, where were you, when the Seraph appeared to you”. – Human beings judge one another by their external actions. God judges them by their moral choice.
18 – St. Francis answered: “I was praying in that place where the chapel of Count Simon da Battifolle now is, and I was requesting two graces of my Lord Jesus Christ. The first was that He would grant me to feel, in this life, in my soul and in my body, as far as might be possible, all that pain which He Himself felt at the time of His most bitter passion. The second grace which I asked of Him was likewise that I might feel in my heart that intense love He was enkindled to bear so great passion for us sinners. – Every moment of resistance to temptation is a victory.
19 – And then God put it in my heart that He would grant I feel both one and the other, as much as was possible for a mere creature, and this was abundantly fulfilled in me at the imprinting of the Stigmata.” – No one is truly alive in the art of living till they have been well tempted.
20 – Then Friar John asked him whether those secret words which the Seraph had spoken to him had been even such as were rehearsed by that holy friar aforesaid, who declared that he had heard them from St. Francis in the presence of eight friars. St. Francis replied that the truth was even as that friar had said. – You cannot run away from a weakness. You must sometime fight it or perish.
21 – Thereupon, Friar John, encouraged by the liberality of the granter, took heart to ask yet more, and said: “O father, I beseech thee most earnestly that thou grant me to behold and to kiss your most holy and glorious Stigmata; not because I doubt in any way, but only for my consolation; for this have I always yearned”.- God is faithful and He will not let you be tempted beyond your strength.
22 – And, St. Francis freely showing them and offering them to him, Friar John clearly saw and touched and kissed them. And, at the last, he asked him: “Father, how great consolation had your soul, beholding Christ the Blessed coming to you to give you the marks of His most holy Passion? Now would to God that I might feel a little of that sweetness!” – Happiness in this life consists in the mastery of our passions.
23 – Then St. Francis made answer: “See these nails?” Said Friar John: “Father, yes”. “Touch again,” said St. Francis, “this nail which is in my hand.” Then Friar John, with great reverence and fear, touched that nail, and immediately, as he touched it, so great a perfume issued from it, as though it were a thin spiral of smoke, like of incense, and, entering through the nose of Friar John, filled his soul and body with so much sweetness, that he was rapt in God in ecstasy, and became insensible; and he remained rapt from that hour, which was the hour of Terce, even until Vespers. – A possibility is a hint from God.
24 – And of this vision and familiar conversation with St. Francis Friar John never spoke to any man, save only to his confessor, until he was about to die; but, being near his death, he revealed it to many friars. – God’s will is not an itinerary but an attitude.
OF A HOLY FRIAR WHO SAW A WONDERFUL VISION
OF ONE OF HIS COMPANIONS WHO WAS DEAD
25 – In the Province of Rome, a very devout and holy friar saw this marvelous vision. A certain friar, a very dear companion of his, having died one night, was buried, in the morning, before the entrance of the chapter-house; and, on the same day, after dinner, that friar went to a corner of the chapter-house to pray God and St. Francis devoutly for the soul of that dead friar his companion. And, as he persevered in prayer with supplications and tears, at noon, when all the others were gone away to sleep, he heard a great noise as of one being dragged through the cloister; whereat immediately with great fear he turned his eyes toward the grave of his companion, and saw St. Francis standing there at the entrance of the chapter-house, and behind him a great multitude of friars round about the said grave. – Prayer is no other but the revelation of the will or mind of God.
26 – He looked beyond, and saw in the midst of the cloister a very great flaming fire, and in the flames was the soul of his companion who was dead. He looked round the cloister and he saw Jesus Christ walking round the cloister with a great company of angels and of saints. And, while he gazed upon these things and marveled much, he saw that, when Christ passed before the chapter-house, St. Francis kneeled down with all those friars and spoke thus: “I beseech You, my dearest Father and Lord, that, through the inestimable charity which You showed Yourself to the human race in Your Incarnation, – What is most often asked of God is not His Will or Way but His approval of our way.
27 – Thou wilt have mercy on the soul of this my friar, who is burning in that flame”; and Christ answered him never a word but passed on. And, when He returned, the second time, and passed before the chapter-house, St. Francis again kneeled down with his friars, as the first time, and begged Him: “I pray You, merciful Father and Lord, through the boundless charity which You showed the human race when You died upon the wood of the cross, that Thou will have mercy on the soul of this my friar”. – Do not live in the past nor be anxious about the future, but quietly live the present in the hands of God.
28 – And Christ passed on as before and did not answer him. And going round the cloister He returned the third time and passed before the chapter-house, and then St. Francis, kneeling down as before, showed Him his hands and his feet and his side and said: “I beseech You, merciful Father and Lord, by that great pain and great consolation which I endured when You set these Stigmata in my flesh, that You have pity on the soul of this my friar who is in that fire of purgatory”. – If you want to disobey God, look for a place where He cannot see you.
29 – O wonderful thing! No sooner was Christ prayed that third time by St. Francis in the name of his Stigmata, than He forthwith stayed His steps and, looking upon the stigmata, gave ear to his prayer and said: “To you, Francis, I grant the soul of your friar”. And in this, of a surety, He willed to honor and confirm the glorious Stigmata of St. Francis, and openly to signify that the souls of his friars, who go to Purgatory, can in no way be more easily delivered from their pains and brought to the glory of Paradise, than by virtue of his Stigmata, according to the words which Christ spoke to St. Francis when He imprinted them upon him. – I cannot receive now what God will offer me tomorrow.
30 – Wherefore, as soon as these words had been spoken, that fire in the cloister vanished, and the dead friar came to St. Francis: and, together with him and with Christ, all that blessed company went up into heaven with their glorious King. For the which cause, this friar his companion, who had prayed for him, was exceeding glad when he saw him delivered from his pains and taken to paradise; and thereafter he told all that vision in order to the other friars, and together with them gave praise and thanks to God. – Nothing is small or great in God’s sight, whatever He wills becomes great to us.
Posted By Teresa Redder, on June 7th, 2024 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
May 2024
Though reflecting each month of the Jubilee Year celebrating the 800th anniversary of the reception of the Stigmata of the Christ by St. Francis of Assisi, the following prayer, composed by St. Francis, mat be recited is each day of this month to the Mother and Queen of our Seraphic Family.
Hail, O Lady,
Holy Queen,
Mary, holy Mother of God,
Who are the Virgin made Church,
Chosen by the most Holy Father in heaven
Whom he consecrated with His most holy beloved Son
And with the Holy Spirit and Paraclete,
In whom there was and is
All fullness of grace and every good.
Hail His Palace!
Hail His Tabernacle!
Hail His Dwelling!
Hail His Robe!
Hail His Servant!
Hail His Mother!
Daily excerpts from the Little Flowers of St. Francis, Fourth Consideration of the Stigmata.
Daily quotes from various spiritual writers.
Of the Fourth Consideration of the Sacred, Holy Stigmata
1 – As for the fourth consideration, it is worth knowing that, after the true love of Christ perfectly transformed Saint Francis into God and the true image of Christ crucified, the forty-day Lent in honor of Saint Michael the Archangel in the saint Mount Alverna, after the solemnity of Saint Michael, the angelic man Francis came down from the mountain with Brother Leo and a devout farmer, on whose donkey he was riding, since, because of the nails in his feet, he could not walk, but with great difficulty. – Do not have Jesus on your lips and the world in your heart.
2 – Having, therefore, descended from Mount Alverna, the fame of his holiness had already spread throughout the region and the shepherds had spread the fact of having seen Mount Alverna in flames, which was a sign that God had performed some miracle. To Saint Francis, all the people of the country, upon hearing that he was passing, came to see him. Men and women, small and large, all strove to touch him and kiss his hand with great devotion. – Carry the cross patiently and in the end it will carry.
3 – Not being able to escape the devotion of the people, although he had his palms bandaged, however, to better hide the sores, he still wrapped them and covered them with his sleeves, and only allowed the exposed fingers to be kissed. But, no matter how much he tried to hide and conceal the secret of the glorious wounds to flee from every occasion of worldly glory. – Kindness is loving people more than they deserve.
4 – It pleased God to manifest his glory with many miracles performed by the virtue of said wounds. Above all, on this journey from Mount Alverna to Santa María degli Ángeli, and later, with many others in different parts of the world, both during his life and after his death, so that his hidden and wonderful virtue and the measureless charity and mercy of Christ towards him through clear and evident wonders, of which we enumerate some here. – Which are you: a stumbling block or a stepping stone?
5 – It happened that, as Saint Francis approached a village on the edge of the Arezzo region, a woman stood before him, crying bitterly and carrying in her arms her eight-year-old son, who had been suffering from dropsy for four years; His belly was so disproportionately inflated that, standing upright, his feet could not be seen. The woman put the son in front of her, begging St. Francis to ask God for him. Saint Francis put himself first in prayer; Once this was finished, he placed his hands on the child’s belly. Immediately all the swelling disappeared and he was perfectly healthy, and he returned him to his mother, who received him with great joy and took him home, giving thanks to God and his saint. And she very gladly showed the cured son to the entire neighborhood who came to her house to see him. – Life can be understood backward but it must be lived forward.
6 – That same day Saint Francis passed through Borgo San Sepolcro. Before he reached the town, a crowd of people from the city and neighboring villages came out to meet him; Many of them went before him with olive branches in their hands and shouting loudly: — Here comes the saint, here comes the saint! – Trust in the Lord with all your heart.
7 – And people crowded and pressed on him in their desire to touch him out of devotion. But he went with his mind so elevated and absorbed in God through contemplation, that, no matter how much they touched him, pulled him, and squeezed him, as if he were insensitive, he did not feel anything that happened or was said around him, and He didn’t even realize that he was passing through the city or the region. – To repent is to take God’s point of view rather than my own.
8 – In fact, when they had passed Borgo and the crowd had returned to their homes, upon reaching a leprosarium a mile beyond Borgo, he came to himself from the celestial contemplation, and, as if coming from the other world, asked his companion: — When do we get to Borgo? – We see things not as they are but as we are.
9 – In truth, his spirit, fixed and absorbed in the contemplation of heavenly things, had not realized the things of earth, nor the diversity of places and times, nor the people he met. This also happened to him other times, as his companions could clearly verify. – How else but through a broken heart can the Lord Christ enter in?
10 – That night Saint Francis arrived at the hermitage that the brothers had in Monte Casale, where there was a brother so pitifully ill and horribly tormented by a disease, that his illness seemed more like tribulation or torment from the devil than a natural illness. He sometimes threw himself on the ground with great convulsions and foaming at the mouth; other times all the members of his body would contract, or they would distend or retract and twist until they touched the back of his neck with his heels; or else he would throw himself up and then fall on his back. – The effect of our sharing in the Body and Blood of Christ is to change us into what we receive.
11 – While Saint Francis was at table with his people, he heard them talk about this brother, a hopeless victim of such a pitiful illness, and he had compassion for him; He took a slice of bread that he was eating, made the sign of the cross on it with his holy stigmatized hands and sent it to the sick brother. As soon as he had eaten it, the patient was perfectly cured and never felt that illness again. – Knowing the truth and not doing it is as foolish as writing a love letter and not sending it.
12 – The next morning, Saint Francis sent two of the brothers who were in that hermitage to live in Alverna, and with them he sent along the farmer who had come with him, so that he could return to his home. The brothers went along with the farmer, and when they reached the territory of Arezzo, some of the inhabitants saw them from afar and were filled with joy thinking that Saint Francis was coming, who had passed through there two days before. – Our lives belong not to us alone but to all who need us.
13 – Now, the wife of one of them had been in childbirth pain for three days and she was about to die. They hoped that she would recover her health if they managed to get Saint Francis to place his holy hands on her. But, as the brothers approached, they were saddened that Saint Francis was not among them. But although the Saint was not physically present, his power was not lacking, because the faith of those men was not lacking. Admirable thing! The woman was dying and she already had all the signs of death. They asked the brothers if they had anything that had been touched by the most holy hands of Saint Francis. – Prayer is an expression that we are living incompleteness.
14 – The brothers searched with interest, and found nothing else that Saint Francis had touched but what he was seated on while riding the donkey. They took it with great reverence and devotion and placed it on the body of the pregnant woman, devoutly invoking the name of Saint Francis and entrusting her to him with faith. As soon as the object touched the woman, she immediately felt out of danger and gave birth easily with joy and health. – When you betray somebody else, you betray yourself.
15 – After a stay of several days in the hermitage, he left there and headed to Città di Castello. Here the inhabitants presented him with a woman who had been possessed by the devil for some time, and humbly begged him to free her from the devil, because she had the entire region in an uproar with her screams, her ferocious screams, and her dog’s barking. Saint Francis, after praying, drew the sign of the cross on her and ordered the demon to come out of her. He left immediately, leaving her body and spirit healthy.- The fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the rose.
16 – When this miracle spread throughout the town, another woman with great faith brought her little boy, seriously ill with a malignant sore, to him and devoutly begged him to make the sign of the cross over the boy. Saint Francis, agreeing to his devotion, took the little boy, removed the bandage from the wound, blessed him by making the sign of the cross over him three times, and then bandaged him again with his hands and gave him to his mother. Since it was late, she simply put him to sleep in bed. In the morning she went to get the child out of bed, and found him without the bandage. He was completely cured, as if he had never had any illness. At the site of the sore the flesh had formed like a red rose, as if to bear witness to the miracle rather than as a scar from the sore. That rose, in fact, having remained with him throughout his life, often incited him to devotion to Saint Francis, who had cured him. – Courage is doing what you are afraid to do. There is no courage without being scared.
17 – Saint Francis stayed in that city for a month, acceding to the devout prayers of the inhabitants, and during that time he performed many other miracles. Afterwards he resumed the journey to Santa María degli Ángeli with Brother Leo and with a good man who lent him his little horse so that Saint Francis could ride on it. And it happened that, because of the bad roads and the extreme cold, having walked all day, they could not reach any place where they could stay. They were forced by night and bad weather to take shelter in a cave, to protect themselves from the snow and the night. – God often visits us, but most of the time we are not at home.
18 – Finding himself out in the open and poorly sheltered, the good man who owned the donkey, unable to sleep because of the cold and without the possibility of making a fire, began to lament and grumble within himself and cry, and almost murmured about Saint Francis, who had led him to that place. Then, Saint Francis, noticing him, had compassion for him, and with fervor of spirit he stretched out his hand over him and touched him. Admirable thing! As soon as he had touched him with his hand, scorched and pierced by the fire of the seraph, the cold completely disappeared, and he felt filled with so much heat inside and out, that it seemed to him that he was standing at the mouth of a burning furnace. – The age old struggle: the roar of the crowd on one side and the voice of conscience on the other.
19 – Thus, comforted in soul and body, the man surrendered to sleep, and, according to him, he slept that night among stones and snow until dawn more softly than he had ever slept in his own bed. The next day they continued their journey to Santa María degli Ángeli. When they were close, Brother Leo raised his eyes and looked towards the hermitage of Saint Mary. Then he saw a most beautiful cross, with the image of the Crucified, which was walking in front of Saint Francis, who was walking in front of him. – Knowing God is a question of opening one’s heart and loving God.
20 – That cross went in such a way before the face of Saint Francis that, when he stopped, it also stopped, and, when he walked, it walked; and its brilliance was such that it not only shone on the face of Saint Francis, but also illuminated the entire environment around it, and it remained until Saint Francis entered the hermitage of Saint Mary. – Religion is not a list of things to do but a person to be followed.
21 – Upon arriving at the hermitage, Saint Francis and Brother Leo were received by the brothers with great joy and charity. From then on, Saint Francis lived most of the time in the place of Saint Maris degli Angeli until his death. From day to day the fame of his holiness and his miracles spread more and more throughout the Order and the world, even though he, due to his profound humility, hid as much as he could the gifts and graces of God and proclaimed himself to be very great sinner. – What comes from the heart touches the heart.
22 – Brother Leo was surprised by this, and he began to think about his simplicity: This man calls himself a very great sinner in public. He entered the Order as an adult. God distinguishes him with so many favors. Nevertheless, in secret he never confesses to carnal sin. Could he be a virgin? And a vehement desire came to him to know the truth about it, but he did not dare to ask Saint Francis; So he turned to God, begging him to assure him of what he wanted to know, and he deserved to be heard for his insistent prayer, and he received certainty that Saint Francis was truly a virgin in the body through the following vision: he saw Saint Francis sitting on a elevated and exalted place, to which no one could go or approach, and it was revealed to him that that lofty and singular place meant the height of virginal chastity in Saint Francis, as was appropriate for a flesh destined to be adorned with the sacred wounds of Christ. – All that we send into the lives of others, comes back into our own.
23 – Saint Francis seeing that, because of his wounds, his physical strength was gradually failing and that he could no longer continue to take care of the government of the Order, hastened the convocation of the general chapter. When he had gathered in full, he humbly apologized to the brothers for the impossibility in which he found himself of continuing to care for the Order as general minister, although he did not renounce the office of generalship. This, in fact, he could not do, because he had been appointed general by the pope, for which reason he could neither leave the office nor establish a successor without express permission from the pope. But he appointed brother Peter Cattani as his vicar. – God is much more anxious to communicate with us than we are to listen.
24 – Once this was done, Saint Francis, comforted in spirit, raised his eyes and hands to heaven and said: To you, Lord and my God, I recommend this your family, which you have entrusted to me until now, and of which I can no longer continue taking care of myself due to my illnesses that you well know, my sweet Lord. I also recommend it to the provincial ministers. They will be obliged to report to you on the day of judgment if, due to their negligence, or their bad example, or their rigor in correcting, any brother is lost. – God dwells wherever we let Him in.
25 – God wanted all the brothers to realize that with those words he was referring to the wounds when excusing himself because of illness; and none could contain themselves without crying out of devotion. From then on he left all the care and government of the Order in the hands of his vicar and the provincial ministers; and he said: Now, having left the care of the Order because of my illnesses, I pray to God for our Order that I may give a good example to the brothers. And I know very well that, if weakness allowed me, the best service I could do to the Order would be to continually pray for it to God, so that He may govern, defend and preserve it. – The same fence that shuts others out, shuts us in.
26 – Even though, as has been said, Saint Francis tried, as far as he could, to hide the most sacred wounds and always walked, from the moment he received them, with his hands bandaged and his feet shod, he could not prevent many brothers from seeing them. They could see and touch them in different ways, especially the wound on his side, which he tried to hide with greater care. Thus, a brother who assisted him once induced him, with a pious trick, to take off his habit to shake off the dust; and, as he took it off in front of him, the brother clearly saw the wound on his side, and, quickly passing his hand over his chest, he touched it with three fingers, being able to measure its greatness and dimensions. – Hope is putting faith in work, when doubting would be easier.
27 – His vicar also looked at that time. But Brother Rufino verified it even more clearly, who was a man of great contemplation. Saint Francis even said about him that there was no one in the world holier than him. Because of his great holiness, he professed an intimate love for him and pleased him with everything he desired. – Where the human spirit fails, the Holy Spirit fills.
28 – This brother Rufino was able to verify and assure others in three ways about the truth of the wounds, and especially the one on the side. The first was that, having to wash his pants, which Saint Francis wore so big that he could stretch them at the top until covering the sore on the right side, Brother Rufino looked at them and observed them attentively, and always found them bloody on the right side, with which he realized with certainty that it was blood flowing from that wound. – If God loves us as much as we love God, where would we all be?
29 – Therefore, when Saint Francis saw that he spread his pants to observe that footprint, he reprimanded him. The second occasion was once when Brother Rufino was rubbing the back of Saint Francis. He intentionally took his hand and put his fingers on the sore on his side. Saint Francis then gave a cry of pain and said: God forgive you, brother Rufino. Why did you do that? – Without love and compassion for others , our own apparent love for Christ is fiction.
30 – The third occasion was the time when he asked Saint Francis, with great insistence and as a particular grace, to give him his habit and keep his out of love of charity. Condescending, although not willingly, to such a request, the charitable Father took off his habit, gave it to him, and put on his. With that taking off and putting on, brother Rufino clearly saw the wound. Likewise, brother Leo and many other brothers saw the wounds of Saint Francis while he lived. And although these brothers, due to their holiness, were men worthy of giving faith and credit to their word, yet, to remove all doubt in their hearts, they swore on the holy book that they had seen them clearly. – Faithfulness in little things is a big thing.
31 – Some cardinals who treated him with great familiarity also saw them, and, in veneration of the wounds of Saint Francis, they composed beautiful and devout hymns, antiphons and prose. The Supreme Pontiff, Pope Alexander, preaching to the people before all the cardinals, among whom was the holy brother Bonaventure, who was a cardinal, said and affirmed that he had seen with his own eyes the sacred wounds of Saint Francis when he still lived. – Nothing here below is profane for those who know how to see. On the contrary, everything is sacred.
Posted By Teresa Redder, on March 3rd, 2024 Saint Katharine Drexel Regional Fraternity 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
Alleluia! He is Risen! He is Truly Risen! Alleluia!
March 2024
Wherever we are, in every place, at every hour,
at every time of the day, every day and continually,
let all of us truly and humbly believe, hold in our heart and love, honor, adore, serve,
praise and bless, glorify and exalt, magnify and give thanks
to the Most High and Supreme Eternal God, Trinity and Unity,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
Creator of all, Savior of all who believe and hope in Him, and love Him, Who,
without beginning and end, is unchangeable, invisible, indescribable, ineffable,
incomprehensible, unfathomable, blessed, praiseworthy, glorious, exalted,
sublime, most high, gentle, lovable, delightful,
and totally desirable above all else forever.
Amen.
(Prayer of Saint Francis taken from the Earlier Rule, chapter 23)
Daily excerpts from Franciscan Sources and brief daily sayings from various spiritual writers
From Little Flowers of St. Francis
OF THE SECOND CONSIDERATION OF THE MOST HOLY STIGMATA
1 – The second consideration is touching the conversation of St. Francis with his companions upon the said mountain of Alvernia. And as to this it is to be known; that, when Messer Orlando had heard that St. Francis with three companions had gone up into the mountain of Alvernia to dwell there, he had very great joy thereof; and, on the following day, he set out with many of his retainers and came to visit St. Francis, bearing bread and wine and other victuals for him and for his companions; and, coming to the place where they were, he found them in prayer; and drawing nigh unto them he saluted them.
– Carry the Cross patiently and in the end it will carry you.
2 – Then St. Francis rose up and with very great charity and joy welcomed Messer Orlando and his company; and, when he had thus done, he entered into conversation with him; and, after they had talked together and St. Francis had thanked him for the holy mountain which he had given him and for his coming there, he asked him that he would cause a poor little cell to be made at the foot of a very beautiful beech-tree, which was distant a stone’s throw from the Place of the friars, because that spot seemed to him most apt and to dedicate to prayer.
– Kindness is loving people more than they deserve.
3 – And straightway Messer Orlando caused it to be built; and, when it was finished, because the evening drew nigh and it was time for them to depart, St. Francis, before they went, preached unto them a little: and, after he had preached and given them his blessing, Messer Orlando, since he could no longer stay, called St. Francis and his companions aside.
– Life can be understood backward, but it must be lived forward.
4 – (Messer Orlando) said unto them: “My most dear friars, I do not want you, in this savage mountain, to suffer any bodily want, that might hinder you from spiritual things; and therefore I desire (and this I tell you once for all) that you do not hesitate to send to my house for all that you need; and, if you do not do so, I shall take it very ill of you”. And, having thus spoken, he departed with his company and returned to his castle.
– To repent is to alter one’s way of looking at life.
5 – Then St. Francis made his companions sit down and instructed them concerning the manner of life which they, and whoever desires to live religiously in hermitages, must lead. And, among other things, he especially laid upon them the observance of holy poverty, saying: “Do not consider over the charitable offer of Messer Orlando too much, that in may not offend our lady and mistress, holy Poverty.
– To repent is to take God’s point of view instead of my own.
6 – Be sure that the more we shun Poverty the more the world will shun us; but, if we shall closely embrace holy Poverty, the world will follow after us and will abundantly supply all our needs. God hath called us to this holy religion for the salvation of the world, and hath made this covenant between us and the world; that we should give to the world a good example and the world should provide for us in our necessities. Let us continue, therefore, in holy poverty, because that is the way of perfection and the pledge and earnest of eternal riches.
– Feed your Faith and your doubts will starve to death.
7 – And, after many beautiful and devout words and admonishments touching this matter, he concluded, saying: “This is the manner of life which I lay upon myself and upon you; for I perceive that I draw nigh unto my death, and I am minded to be solitary, and to turn all my thoughts to God and to bewail my sins before Him; and Friar Leo, when it shall seem good to him, shall bring me a little bread and a little water; and in no way are you to permit any layman to come to me; but you speak to them for me”.
– We become that which we think.
8 – And when he had said these words he gave them his blessing, and went to the cell beneath the beech-tree; and his companions abode in the Place, firmly resolved to observe the commandments of St. Francis. A few days later, as St. Francis was standing beside the said cell, considering the conformation of the mountain, and marveling at the huge chasms and clefts in those tremendous rocks, he betook himself to prayer; and then was it revealed to him of God that those wondrous fissures had been made miraculously in the hour of Christ’s Passion, when, even as the evangelist says, “the rocks were rent”.
– Character may be manifest in great moments but it is made in small ones.
9 – And this, as God willed it, was singularly manifested in that mountain of Alvernia because it was pre-ordained that, in that place, St. Francis must renew the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, in his soul through love and pity, and in his body through the imprinting of the most holy stigmata.
– The more we depend on God, the more dependable we find God is.
10 – Now, when he had received this revelation, St. Francis straightway shut himself up in his cell, and, closing his mind to all earthly things, disposed himself to await the mystery of this revelation. And from then on, because he continued always in prayer, St. Francis began, more often than befpre, to taste the sweetness of Divine contemplation; whereby he was often so rapt in God that he was seen by his companions uplifted from the ground and rapt from out himself.
– Strong beliefs win strong people and make them stronger.
11 – In these raptures of contemplation, not only were things present and future revealed to him by God, but also the secret thoughts and desires of the friars, even as Friar Leo, his companion, on that day, proved in his own person. For the said Friar Leo being bothered by the devil with a very grievous temptation, not carnal but spiritual, there came upon him a great desire to have some holy thing written by the hand of St. Francis; for he thought that, if he had it, that temptation would leave him, either altogether or in part; nevertheless, albeit he had this desire, for shame and reverence he lacked the courage to speak thereof to St. Francis; but what Friar Leo did not tell him, was revealed to him by the Holy Ghost.
– You can’t lead anyone further than you have gone yourself.
12 – Wherefore St. Francis called him unto him and made him bring inkhorn and pen and paper, and with his own hand wrote a laud of Christ, according to the desire of the friar, and at the end thereof made the sign of the Tau, and gave it to him saying: “Take this paper, dearest friar, and keep it diligently until your death. God bless you and preserve you from every temptation. Be not dismayed that you have temptations, for then do I hold you more my friend and a truer servant of God; and I love you the more the more you have fought against thy temptations. Truly I say to you that no man may call himself a perfect friend of God until he has passed through many temptations and tribulations.”
– Love is the only force that can make things one without destroying them.
13 – And when Friar Leo had received this writing with very great devotion and faith, every temptation left him; and, returning to the Place, he related to his companions, with great joy, what grace God had done him as he received that writing from St. Francis; and he put it in a safe place and preserved it diligently; and therewith, in after-time, the friars wrought many miracles.
– Not to decide is to decide.
14 – And from that hour the said Friar Leo commenced to scrutinize and to consider the life of St. Francis, with great purity and goodwill; and, by reason of his purity, he merited to behold how many times and often St. Francis was rapt in God and uplifted from the ground, sometimes for the space of three cubits, sometimes of four, and sometimes even to the height of the beech-tree; and sometimes he beheld him raised so high in the air, and surrounded by such radiance, that scarcely could he see him.
– When character is lost, all is lost.
15 – And what did this simple friar do when St. Francis was so little raised above the ground that he could reach him? He went softly and embraced his feet and kissed them with tears, saying: “My God, have mercy upon me a sinner; and, for the merits of this holy man, grant me to find Thy grace.”
– Let us be paths to be used and forgotten.
16 – And, one time among the rest, while he stood beneath the feet of St. Francis, when he was so far uplifted from the ground, that he could not touch him, he beheld a scroll inscribed with letters of gold descend from heaven and rest above the head of St. Francis, and upon this scroll these words were written: “QVI È LA GRAZIA DI DIO—Here is the grace of God“; and, after that he had read it, he saw it return again to heaven.
– It is never a question of faith or no faith, the question always is:
In what or whom do I put my faith?
17 – By reason of this grace of God which was in him, not only was St. Francis rapt in God through ecstatic contemplation, but also he was sometimes comforted by angelic visitations. Thus, one day, while St. Francis was thinking of his death and of the state of his Religion after his life should be ended, and was saying: “Lord God, what after my death shall become of Your mendicant family, which through Your goodness You have entrusted to me a sinner? Who shall console them? Who shall correct them? Who shall pray to You for them?”
– When you consider anyone or situation hopeless,
you are slamming the door in the face of God.
18 – While he spoke these and such-like words, there appeared unto him the angel sent by God, who comforted him, saying: “I tell you in God’s name that the profession of your Order shall not fail until the Day of Judgment; and there shall be no sinner so great that, if he shall love your Order from his heart, he shall not find mercy with God; and no one who persecutes your Order maliciously shall live long. Moreover no one, in your Order, who is very wicked and who does not amend his life will be able to remain long in the Order.
– An honest person is the noblest work of God.
19 – Therefore do not grieve if you see in your Religion certain friars who are not good, and who do not observe the Rule as they ought to do; neither think that for this reason your Religion will decline; for there will always be very many in the Order who will perfectly follow the life of the gospel of Christ and the purity of the Rule; and such as these, as soon as ever their earthly life is done, will go to the life eternal, without passing through purgatory at all; some will follow it, but not perfectly; and these, before they go to paradise, will be in purgatory: but the time of their purgation will be remitted to you by God.
– We must learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together like fools.
20 – But for those who do not observe the Rule at all, do not be concerned, says God, because He does care about them.” And when the angel had spoken these words he departed, leaving St. Francis consoled and comforted. Thereafter, when the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady drew nigh, St. Francis sought to find a fitting spot, more secret and remote, wherein in greater solitude he might keep the forty days’ fast of St. Michael the Archangel, which commences on the said feast of the Assumption. Wherefore he called Friar Leo and spoke to him saying: “Go and stand at the doorway of the oratory of the Place of the friars; and, when I shall call you, do return to me”.
- Walk one step toward God and God will run ten steps to you.
21 – Friar Leo went and stood in the said doorway; and St. Francis called loudly. Friar Leo, hearing him call, returned to him; and St. Francis said: “Son, let us search for another more secret spot where you shall not be able to hear me when I shall call you”; and, as they searched, they saw, on the southern side of the mountain, a lonely place exceedingly well suited for his purpose; but it was impossible to reach it, because there was in front of it a rocky chasm, horrible and fearful, and very great. Wherefore, with much labor they laid a tree across the same, after the fashion of a bridge, and passed over to the other side.
– A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.
22 – Then St. Francis sent for the other friars and told them how he purposed to keep the forty days’ fast of St. Michael in that solitary place; and therefore he asked them to make him a little cell there, so that they would not hear him crying out; and, when the little cell of St. Francis was finished, he said to them: “Go to your own Place and leave me here alone; for, with the help of God, I mean to keep this fast in this place without any trouble or disturbance of mind; and therefore let none of you come here to me, nor allow any layman to come to me. But you, Friar Leo, alone shall come to me, once a day, with a little bread and water, and at night once again, at the hour of matins; and then shall you come to me in silence; and, when you are at the head of the bridge, you shall say to me: Domine, labia mea aperies; and, if I answer you, pass over and come to the cell and we will say matins but if I do not answer you, leave immediately.”
– Lord, help me never to do the right thing for the wrong reason.
23 – And this St. Francis said because he was sometimes so rapt in God that he heard not nor perceived anything with the bodily senses; and, when he had thus spoken, St. Francis gave them his blessing; and they returned to the Place. Now, the feast of the Assumption was approaching. St. Francis began the holy fast with very great abstinence and severity, mortifying his body and comforting his spirit with fervent prayers, vigils and flagellations; and in these prayers, ever growing from virtue to virtue, he prepared his mind to receive the Divine mysteries and the Divine splendors, and his body to endure the cruel assaults of the fiends, with whom often he fought bodily.
– Life is a voyage that’s homeward bound.
24 – And among the other times was one when, on a day, as St. Francis came forth from his cell in fervor of spirit, and went to a place difficult to reach, to pray in the cavity of a hollow rock, where from down to the ground there is a very great height, and a horrible and fearful precipice; suddenly the devil came in terrible shape, with tempest and with very great uproar, and smote him to cast him down from there.
– If your faith cannot move mountains, it ought to at least climb them.
25 – Wherefore, St. Francis, not having any place to flee to, and being unable to endure the passing cruel aspect of the demon, forthwith turned himself round, with his hands and face and with all his body against the rock, commending himself to God, and groping with his hands if, perhaps, he might find something to lay hold of. But, as it pleased God, who never allows His servants to be tempted beyond that which they can bear, suddenly the rock to which he clung miraculously hollowed itself to the form of his body and so received him into itself; and even as if he had put his hands and face into liquid wax, so was the shape of the face and hands of St. Francis imprinted upon the said rock; and, in this way, being helped of God, he escaped from the devil.
– What great thing would you attempt if you knew you would not fail?
26 – But that which the devil could not then do to St. Francis, namely to cast him down from there, he did a good while after, when St. Francis was dead, to a dear and devout friar of his, who, in that same place, was adjusting certain pieces of wood to the end that it might be possible to go there without peril, for devotion toward St. Francis and toward the miracle which was wrought there; and one day the devil pushed him, when he had a great log on his head which he wished to set there, and caused him to fall down from there with that log on his head; but God, who had saved and preserved St. Francis from falling, through his merits saved and preserved that devout friar of his from the peril of the fall; for, as the friar fell, he commended himself with very great devotion and with a loud voice to St. Francis, who straightway appeared to him and took him and set him on the rocks below, without permitting him to suffer any shock or hurt.
– We see things not as they are but as we are.
27 – Then, the friars, having heard his cry as he fell, and believing that he was dead and dashed to pieces, by reason of the great height from which he had fallen upon the sharp rocks, with great sorrow and weeping took the bier and went from the other side of the mountain to search for the fragments of his body and to bury them. Now, when they had already come down from the mountain, the friar who had fallen met them, with the log wherewith he had fallen upon his head; and he was singing the Te Deum laudamus, in a loud voice.
– An empty meaningless faith may be worse than none.
28 – And, because the friars marveled greatly, he related unto them in order all the manner of his falling, and how St. Francis had rescued him from every peril. Then all the friars accompanied him to the place, singing most devoutly the psalm, Te Deum laudamus, and praising and thanking God together with St. Francis for the miracle which he had wrought in his friar.
– They stand best who kneel most.
29 – St. Francis, then, continuing (as has been said) the fast, although he sustained many assaults of the devil, nevertheless he received many consolations from God, not only through angelic visitations but also through the birds of the air; for, during all the time of that fast, a hawk, which was building its nest hard by his cell, awakened him every night a little before matins, with its cry, and by beating itself against his cell, and departed not until he rose up to say matins; and, when St. Francis was more weary than usual, or weak or sick, this hawk, after the manner of a discreet and compassionate person, into uttered its cry later than it was wont to do. And so St. Francis took great joy of this clock, because the great diligence of the hawk drove away from him all sloth, and urged him to prayer: and besides this, sometimes, in the daytime, it would familiarly sit with him.
– Do not have Jesus Christ on your lips and the world in your heart.
30 – Finally, touching this second consideration, St. Francis, being much weakened in body, both by reason of his great abstinence, and of the assaults of the devil, and desiring to comfort his body with the spiritual food of the soul, began to meditate on the immeasurable glory and joy of the blessed in the life eternal, and therewith he began -to pray God that He would grant him to taste a little of that joy.
– There’s a hole in every heart that only God can fill.
31 – And, as he continued in this thought, an angel appeared to him there, with very great splendor, bearing a viol in his left hand and in his right a bow; and, while yet St. Francis was all amazed at the sight of him, the angel drew his bow once across the viol; and straightway St. Francis heard so sweet a melody that it filled all his soul with rapture and rendered it insensible to every bodily feeling; insomuch that, according to that which he afterward told his companions, he doubted whether, if the angel had drawn the bow back again across the viol, his soul must not have departed out of his body by reason of the intolerable sweetness. And this suffices for the second consideration.
– Christ changed the dark door of death into the shinning gate of life.
Alleluia! He is Risen! He is Truly Risen! Alleluia!
We are an ‘Alleluia’ People.
Live His Resurrection – it is ours – Live In-With-For – The Risen Lord Jesus
Through The Cross To The Light
Posted By Teresa Redder, on February 1st, 2024 Saint Katharine Drexel Regional Fraternity 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 2024
Let every creature in heaven, on earth, in the sea and in the depths,
Give praise, glory, honor and blessing to Him Who suffered so much,
Who has given and will give in the future every good, for He is our power and strength,
Who alone is good, Who alone is almighty,
Who alone is omnipotent, wonderful, glorious and Who alone is holy,
worthy of praise and blessing through endless ages.
Amen.
(Prayer of Saint Francis in the Second Version of the Letter to the Faithful)
In the year we celebrate the 800th anniversary of Francis receiving the Stigmata, our daily excerpts from Franciscan Sources will be taken from those concerning the Stigmata of St. Francis of Assisi. The daily excerpts for the next five months will be taken from the five considerations concerning the Stigmata of St. Francis as found in the Little Flower of St. Francis.
OF THE FIRST CONSIDERATION OF THE MOST HOLY STIGMATA
1 – As to the first consideration, it must be known that, in 1224, St. Francis, being then forty-three years old, was inspired by God to depart from the Val di Spoleto and to go into Romagna, with Friar Leo his companion. As he went, he passed at the foot of the Castello di Montefeltro; where a great banquet and festival was then being held for the knighting of one of those Counts of Montefeltro; and St. Francis, hearing of this festival, and that many gentlefolk were gathered there from divers lands, said to Friar Leo: “Let us go up to this feast, since by God’s help we shall gather some good spiritual fruit” – When we try to make an impression, that’s the impression we make.
2 – Now among the other gentlemen, who had come there from that district to that ceremonial, was a great and rich gentleman of Tuscany, by name Messer Orlando of Chiusi in Casentino. By reason of the marvelous things he had heard concerning the sanctity and miracles of St. Francis, with great devotion and very great desire he went to the festival to see him and to hear him preach.- The great thing in this world is not so much where we are but in what direction we are moving.
3 – St. Francis having arrived at this town, entered in and went to the piazza, where were assembled a multitude of those gentlemen; and, in fervor of spirit, he climbed upon a little wall and began to preach, taking as the text of his sermon these words in the vulgar tongue: So great the bliss I hope to see, That every pain delights me.– The manner of giving is worth more than the gift.
4 – And from this text, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, he preached so devoutly and so profoundly, proving the truth of the saying by divers sufferings and torments of holy apostles and of holy martyrs, by the severe penances of holy confessors, and by the many tribulations and temptations of holy virgins and of other saints, that every man stood with eyes and mind fixed upon him, and listened to him as if it were an angel of God that spoke. Among these men, the said Messer Orlando, being touched in the heart by God, through the marvelous preaching of St. Francis, was minded to consult and speak with him after the sermon concerning the affairs of his soul. – Hatred does more damage to the one in whom it is stored than the one on whom it is poured.
5 – Wherefore, when the preaching was done, he drew St. Francis aside and said unto him: “O father, I would take counsel with thee touching the salvation of my soul”. St. Francis made answer: “Well content am I; but go this morning and do honor your friends who have invited you to this festival, and dine with them. After you have dined, we will talk together as long as you please”. Messer Orlando, therefore, went to dinner. After dinner, he returned to St. Francis and laid before him fully all the affairs of his soul and took counsel with him concerning the same. – God’s grace within me and God’s strength behind me can overcaome any hurdle ahead of me.
6 – And finally this Messer Orlando said to St. Francis: “I have in Tuscany a mountain most apt for devotion, which is called the mountain of Alvernia, exceeding solitary, and passing well fitted for any who wish to do penance in a place remote from people, and desire a life of solitude. If it pleases you, gladly would I give it to you and to your companions for the salvation of my soul.” – If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
7 – St. Francis, hearing so liberal an offer of a thing which he desired so much, was very happy. Praising and thanking first God, and then Messer Orlando, he spoke to him saying: “Messer Orlando, when you return to your home, I will send you some of my companions, and you shall show them that mountain. If it seems to them fitted for prayer and for the doing of penance, even from this moment do I accept your charitable offer”. – A simple judge of my character is how I treat a person who can do absolutely nothing for me.
8 – And, when he had thus spoken, St. Francis departed; and after he had finished his journey he returned to Santa Maria degli Angeli. Messer Orlando likewise, when the festivities for the making of that knight ended, returned to his castle, which was called Chiusi, and which was distant a mile from Alvernia. – Reason led me to the mountain’s base and faith lifted me to the mountain’s top.
9 – St. Francis, then, having returned to Santa Maria degli Angeli, sent two of his companions to the said Messer Orlando, who, when they arrived, were welcomed with very great joy and charity: and, desiring to show them the mountain of Alvernia, he sent with them fifty armed men, to defend them from the wild beasts. Thus accompanied, those friars went up into the mountain and explored it diligently. At last they came unto a part of the mountain well suited for devotion and for contemplation. There was also some level ground. It was there they chose for their habitation and for that of St. Francis. With the aid of those armed men who accompanied and defended them on the journey, they made a little cell with the boughs of trees, and, in the name of God, they accepted and took possession of the mountain of Alvernia and of the Place of the friars in that mountain, and departed and returned to St. Francis. – Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
10 – When they arrived, they told him how and in what manner they had taken the Place on the mountain of Alverna, well fitted for prayer and contemplation. Now, when St. Francis heard this news, he rejoiced greatly, and, giving praise and thanks to God, spoke to those friars with a joyful face, and said: – Feed your faith, and your doubts will starve to death.
11 – “My sons, we are drawing close to our forty days’ fast of St. Michael the Archangel; and I firmly believe that it is the will of God that we keep this fast in the mountain of Alverna, which by Divine dispensation hath been made ready for us, so that we may, through penance, merit from Christ the consolation of consecrating that blessed mountain to the honor and glory of God and of His glorious mother, the Virgin Mary, and of the holy angels”.- We become what we think.
12 – And then, having said these words, St. Francis took with him Friar Masseo da Marignano of Assisi, who was a man of great wisdom and eloquence, and Friar Angelo Tancredi da Rieti, who was a man of very noble birth, and who in the world had been a knight, and Friar Leo, who was a man of very great simplicity and purity; for the which St. Francis loved him very much. And with these three friars St. Francis betook himself to prayer, and commended himself and his companions just mentioned to the prayers of the friars who remained behind, and he set out with those three in the name of Jesus Christ the Crucified, to go to the mountain of Alvernia; – Who stops being better stops being good.
13 – and, as he went, St. Francis called one of those three companions, Friar Masseo, and said to him thus: “You, Friar Masseo, shall be our Guardian and Superior on this journey. While we are going and abiding together, and we will observe our custom: that either we will say the office, or we will speak of God, or we will keep silence; and we will take no thought beforehand, neither of eating, nor of drinking, nor of sleeping; – One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of te shore.
14 – but when the time to rest for the night arrives, we will beg a little bread, and will lodge and repose ourselves in that place which God shall make ready for us.” Then those three companions bowed their heads, and, signing themselves with the sign of the cross, went forward; and the first evening they came to a Place of friars, and there they lodged. – What we usually pray to God is not that his will be done, but that he approve ours.
15 – The second evening, by reason of the bad weather and because they were weary, they were not able to reach any Place of friars, or any walled town, nor any hamlet; and when night and the bad weather overtook them, they sought shelter in an abandoned and disused church, and there they laid down to rest, and, while his companions slept, St. Francis gave himself to prayer; – Jesus Christ will be Lord of all, or he will not be Lord at all.
16 – and lo! in the first watch of the night, there came a great multitude of most ferocious demons with very great noise and tumult, and began vehemently to give him battle and annoyance; for one plucked him on this side and another on that; one pulled him down and another up; one menaced him with one thing and another accused him of another; and thus in divers manners did they seek to disturb him in his prayer; but they were not able, because God was with him. – People who falI love with themselves do not need to fear rivals.
17 – Wherefore, when St. Francis had borne these assaults of the demons for some time, he began to cry with a loud voice: “O damned spirits, you can do nothing save that which the hand of God permits you to do; and therefore, in the name of God Omnipotent I tell you that you may do to my body whatever is permitted to you by God, and I will bear it willingly; for I have no greater enemy than this body of mine. Wherefore, if you take vengeance for me upon mine enemy, you do me a very great service.” Thereupon the demons, with very great impetus and fury, laid hold of him and began to hale him about the church and to do him much greater injury and annoyance than at first.- Humanity must put an end to war or war will put an end to humanity.
18 – And then St. Francis commenced to cry aloud and said: “My Lord Jesus Christ, I thank Thee for the great honor and charity which Thou show me; for it is a token of much love when the Lord thoroughly punishes His servant for all his faults in this world, to the end that he may not be punished in the next. – Only when we learn to see the invisible will we learn to do the impossible.
19 – And I am ready to endure joyfully every pain and every adversity which Thou, my God, may desire to send me for my sins.” Then the demons, being put to confusion and conquered by his constancy and patience, left him, – Be careful how you live, you may be the only Bible some persons ever read.
20 – and St. Francis, in fervor of spirit, went forth from the church into a wood which was nearby, and there he gave himself to prayer; and, with supplications and tears and beatings of his breast, sought to find Jesus Christ, the Spouse and delight of his soul. And when, at last, he found Him in the secret places of his soul, he now spoke reverently to Him as his Lord; now answered Him as his Judge; now sought Him as his Father; and now talked with Him as to a Friend. – Faith is like love, it cannot be forced.
21 – On that night and in that wood, his companions, after they were awakened and had come there to hear and consider what he was doing, they saw and heard him, with tears and cries, devoutly beseeching the Divine mercy for sinners. Then too he was heard and seen to bewail the Passion of Christ with a loud voice as if he saw the same with his bodily eyes. On that same night they saw him praying, with his arms held in the form of a cross, uplifted for a great space and raised from the ground, surrounded by a resplendent cloud. – Evangelization is one beggar telling another beggar where he found bread.
22 – And on this wise, in these holy exercises, he passed the whole of that night without sleeping; and thereafter, in the morning, because they knew that, by reason of the fatigues of the night which he had passed without sleep, St. Francis was very weak in body and could ill have travelled on foot, his companions went to a poor laborer of that district, and besought him for the love of God to lend his little ass to St. Francis, their father, who could not go on foot. – One of the greatest necessities is to discover creative solitude.
23 – Now, when this man heard them make mention of Friar Francis, he asked them: “Are you some of the friars of that friar of Assisi about whom so much good is spoken?” The friars answered: “Yes”; and that it was in truth for him that they asked the beast of burden. Then that good man made ready the little ass, with great devotion and diligence, and led it to St. Francis with great reverence and made him mount it; and they continued their journey; and he with them, behind his little ass. – People who live solely for themselves are eventually corrupted by their own company.
24 – And, when they had gone some distance, that villain said to St. Francis: “Tell me, are you Friar Francis of Assisi?” And St. Francis answered him, “Yes.” “Strive, then (said the villain), to be as good as all folk hold you to be, for there are many which have great faith in you; and therefore I admonish you, that thou fall not short of that which men hope to find you.” – God doesn’t want our deeds; God wants the love that prompts them.
25 – Hearing these words, St. Francis did not disdain to be admonished by a villain, and said: “What beast is this that admonishes me?” as many many proud fellows who wear the friar’s habit would say to-day; but immediately St. Francis cast himself to earth from off the ass, and kneeled down before that villain and kissed his feet, and thanked him humbly, because he had deigned to admonish him so charitably. Then the villain, together with the companions of St. Francis, raised him up from off the ground with great devotion, and set him upon the ass again, and continued their journey. – Life must be dedicated to a destiny in oder to have a meaning.
26 – And when they had gone perhaps half way up the mountain; because the heat was very great and the ascent difficult, this villain became exceeding thirsty, so that he began to cry aloud behind St. Francis, saying: “Alas! I am dying of thirst; if I have nothing to drink I shall presently faint.” Because of this St. Francis dismounted from his ass and betook himself to prayer; and he remained upon his knees with his hands raised to heaven until he knew by revelation that God had heard him. – Tell me whom you love and I will tell you who you are.
27 – And then St. Francis said to the villain: “Run, go quickly to that rock, and there thou shall find living water, which Jesus Christ, in this hour, has of His mercy made to issue from that rock”. So he went to the place which St. Francis had shown him, and found there a fair spring which had come forth from the hard rock at the prayer of St. Francis, and he drank copiously thereof, and was comforted. And it was clearly seen that that fountain was miraculously produced by God through the prayers of St. Francis, because neither before nor after was there ever found, in that place, a spring of water, nor any living water near that place for a great distance round about. – The value of persistent prayer is not that God will hear us but that we will finally hear God.
28 – St. Francis, with his companions and with the villain, gave thanks to God for the miracle and continued their journey. When they drew near to the foot of the peak of Alvernia itself, it pleased St. Francis to rest himself a little beneath an oak which was in that place and which is there yet; and, as he sat beneath it, St. Francis began to consider the situation of the place and of the country thereabout; and, while he was thus considering, lo! a great multitude of birds came there from divers parts, with singing and beating of wings, all showed very great joy and gladness; and they surrounded St. Francis so that some alighted upon his head, and some upon his shoulders, and some upon his arms, and some in his bosom, and some about his feet. – Saints are persons who make it easier for others to believe in God.
29 – Now when his companions and the villain saw this they marveled greatly; whereupon St. Francis, all joyful in spirit, spoke to them saying: “I believe, most dear brothers, that it is the will of our Lord Jesus Christ that we dwell in this solitary mountain, because our sisters and brothers the birds show such joy of our coming”. And when he had said these words, they rose up and continued their journey; and finally came unto the place which his companions had chosen at the first. And this suffices for the first consideration, on how St. Francis came to the holy mountain of Alverna. – God does not ask for our ability or our inability, but our availability.
Have a Fruitful and Happy Lent
February 2024-Monthly Spiritual Asst Reflection
Posted By Teresa Redder, on November 1st, 2023 Saint Katharine Drexel Regional Fraternity 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
Happy Thanksgiving
Be grateful God is God and that there is no Other
and for God’s abundant Blessings.
November 2023
Most High, all-powerful, good Lord,
Yours are the praises, the glory, and the honor, and all blessing,
To you alone, Most High, do they belong,
and no human is worthy to mention Your name.
Praised be You, my Lord, with all Your creatures,
especially Sir Brother Sun, … Sister Moon and the stars, …Brother Wind, …
Sister Water, … Brother Fire, … our Sister Mother Earth, …
Praised be You, my Lord, through those who give pardon for Your love, …
Praised be you, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death,
from whom no one living can escape.
Woe to those who die in mortal sin.
Blessed are those whom death will find in Your most holy will,
for the second death shall do them no harm.
Praise and bless my Lord and give Him thanks and serve Him with great humility.
Amen.
(Canticle of the Creatures [abbreviated] by Saint Francis of Assisi)
The Book of The Tribulations ends with the daily passages for this month taken from the last chapter The Testament. The daily sayings are taken from various sources.
[The Testament]
1 – But so that he might remove every scruple of doubt from the hearts of all the brothers, Blessed Francis toward the end of his life clearly declared in his Testament the truth of his intention, as he had it in the Rule, just as he had received it from Christ. He strictly commanded all his cleric and lay brothers, through obedience, not to place any gloss upon the Rule or the Testament: – Afflictions are but the shadows of God’s wings.
2 – “They should be understood in this way,” but as the Lord gave him to write the Rule and Testament purely and simply, they should understand them purely and simply and observe them purely and simply until the end, blessing all who observe them in this way and firmly blocking the way toward asking letters or privileges from the Roman Curia, either personally or through an intermediary, against the pure and literal observance of the Rule handed over to him by Christ. – Sorrow is a fruit: God does not make it grow on limbs too weak to bear it.
3 – The commands and words of the saint himself, therefore, make it clear that he received the Rule and Testament by revelation from Christ, and that the correct, true, pure, faithful, and spiritual understanding and observance of the Rule is the literal observance. The other “declarations” are pious concessions made by pious doctors for those who are ill, useful and necessary dispensations for the salvation of souls of those who are unable or unwilling to be obliged to that difficult and perfect observance of the Rule which the founder taught and fulfilled and received from Christ directly. – Light griefs can speak, but deeper ones are dumb.
4 – But a reform of the Rule revealed to Saint Francis, to be carried out after the mystery marked by his cross, will be the pure, simple, and literal observance of the Rule and Testament, as the Holy Spirit fills those whom He chooses and calls to preach the life of Christ in word and deed like seraphim, cherubim, and thrones. Like the seraphim, confident that He dwells in them, they will carry Christ in body and soul in the form of the cross. – Those who have known grief seldom seem sad.
5 – As a sign of this, Francis appeared as nailed, first in soul and afterwards in the flesh, prefiguring an opposing reality in adversities. Like the cherubim, because the uncreated intelligence, begotten of the Father from eternity, he will penetrate, enlighten, and confirm the understanding of the humble lesser brothers through feeling and virtue. He will make them wise in the light, communicating to them like another Elijah appeared to six brothers in a fiery chariot, and their consciences were laid bare, one to the other. – There are times when sorrow seems to be the only truth.
6 – Like the thrones, the strength of the all-powerful Father, the brightness of the faith and its living action will help them mightily. Their prayers will be answered, their vows fulfilled, their threats and curses feared, and their blessings will be loved and revered. – One who has grieved can feel the beauty of music.
7 – Without Christ Jesus dwelling in them like the seraphim, enlightening them like cherubim, and resting and sitting in them like the thrones, the chosen ones would not be strong enough to sustain the burden of the last tribulation. In it the power of the dragon, set loose in the man of perdition, will be lifted up and extolled to such an extent that seated in the temple of God, he will display himself, above all that is called “God” or is worshipped as such. – Often it is required to leave God for God.
8 – For just as the life of Christ, His preaching, passion, death, wounds, burial, resurrection, ascension, and all the rest of His deeds and teachings, present, past, and future, singly and all together, humanly and divinely, begin and complete, grant and announce, seal and open, so too the dignity and majesty of His grace and glory are revealed and appear in the saints, and the secrets of His counsel are communicated in an orderly plan, so that all things which are of Christ may shine forth in each of Christ’s members and each may glow more gloriously in all by effect and virtue. – Often we are invited to leave God’s sweetness to serve Him in sorrows and travails.
9 – Christ Jesus is the truth—Eternal Wisdom, uncreated, begotten and creating all things, containing all things, and completing all things—and communicates himself wholly in many and varied ways, human and divine, to each one and to all as He wills according to the capacity of each, for the completion of His mystical body, renewing signs and working wonders through His Spirit for His glorification. – Only life which deliberately picks up and starts again is victorious.
10 – He wished to give to all in Francis a unique memorial of Himself and His wonders: therefore, after He had given through Francis the Rule and teaching of His life, He clothed him with the sign of His flesh and cross, so that the newest members would realize that they ought to be conformed to their head. – Sorrow makes us all children again.
11 – And just as the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God and His inscrutable judgments, which are sealed, are closed and openly revealed by the Father through the Holy Spirit in Christ, so now in this last hour Christ placed the sign of the Cross in the heaven of the Church, and willed it to appear in Francis, so that those who look at him put on Christ and follow him and flee in front of the plundering sword of the hellish man, and are not caught in the trap of his errors, nor cling to falsehood through the work of lies, and thus fall away from the truth. – Prejudice is the reasoning of the stupid.
12 – Finally, as someone says, how was it far from Francis to glory except in the cross of the Lord? Who can express it? Who can understand? It was given to him alone to experience it. For this reason perhaps it had to appear in the flesh, since it could not be explained in words. This alone intimates to human ears what is not yet entirely clear: why that sacrament appeared in the saint, as what is revealed by him to him, and draws understanding from the future: at the end it will be true and worthy of faith, to which nature, law, and grace will be witnesses; for the sign cries out the signified; let silence speak where words fall short. – Christianity is asceticism without rigorism, and love without sentimentality.
13 – For now that all these things have happened, there is the beginning of clarity about those secrets, revealed through the seraph to Francis himself, and closed within the signs of the wounds. Christ Jesus, true God and man, the beginning and the end of created nature, law, grace, and glory, circumscribed and enclosed in the cross the immensity of His omnipotence, the infinity of His wisdom, the bounty of His mercy, and the ineffable goodness of His charity. He destroyed death by death and enlightened life and incorruptibility through the Gospel; and Francis, professing it, was made, in word and action, its herald in the Church by Christ. – Nothing is more depressing and more illogical than aggressive Christianity.
14 – Christ crucified, rising from the dead, and giving the apostles the Holy Spirit, from the death of the letter poured forth the Spirit of life. Rising from the dead, Christ gave this revelation, received from the Father through death, to His servants the apostles. – The world around us will recognize us as disciples of Jesus when they see our prayers are being answered.
15 – And they knew that they had received, through the death of the flesh, the life of the life-giving Christ; and being made saints among the saints by the power of sanctification through His Spirit, they preached life-giving faith against deadly and death-dealing unbelief. – The main business of a Christian is to go through the world turning its water into wine.
16 – And their tongue was made the key of heaven, opening the ways of life to God’s worthy and faithful ones, demonstrating by signs, words, and deeds the destruction of the world and the demise and eternal perdition of those who love it. They separated the precious from the vile, truth from lies, goodness from malice, and they were made the mouth of God and the chariot of His omnipotence against the world and the prince of the world. – If we were willing to learn the meaning of true discipleship and actually to become disciples, the Church in the west would become transformed and the impact on society would be staggering.
17 – They preached the Gospel to the crucifiers of Christ, those who despised His humility. The apostles tried, through the love of heavenly things and the acknowledgment and imitation of Christ, to draw them away from infidelity and disobedience to God, which they incurred through the sin of envy against Christ, and from the enmity of God, which they incurred under the pretext of preserving divine worship … but God broke them and dispersed them and made His name great among the nations. – It takes two to make peace.
18 – Those who were his brothers in name only denied and opposed by their words and deeds the evangelical life and perfection, which was solemnly introduced and renewed by Christ in the Church through Francis in opposition to the cunning of demons and the errors and fallacies of the precursors of Antichrist. Then the sign of his wounds will cry out and proclaim the malice of the persecutors signified in the wounds and silence, and speaking, will declare that innocence and perfection truly exists in those who will endure persecution. – Peace is not made at the council tables or by treaties, but in the hearts of men.
19 – For faith, as it is sure knowledge of God, not having demonstrable first principles, since it is one of those things above the mind and understanding, is an existing substance, and works beyond nature in those who are truly faithful. Those dependent upon the reasonings of human philosophy will attempt, with the devil agitating them, to overturn and revoke those who are grounded, rooted in it, demonstrating by sophistry that they live contrary to Scripture and the example and teachings of the early fathers; and that they act foolishly, rashly and irrationally, presuming to live and observe things impossible for human nature, out of harmony with common custom and tradition of the early fathers, derived from the saints and by the saints up to the present time. Accordingly, Christians will consider that they are doing a service to God when they kill those Christians striving for true perfection with all their might. – Yes, we love peace, yet we are not willing to take wounds for it, as we are for war.
20 – For this reason, the one who wrote the first legend says that it will be true and worthy of faith, to which nature, law, and grace will be witnesses, since the innocence of Abel, the meekness and humility of Moses, and the kindness and charity of Christ will bear witness for these latest poor men, humble in mind and heart. They are truly blessed, much like the saints before them, who once served the Lord under the law of nature, the law of Moses, and the law of the grace, and they will suffer in the end of the time of the Church of the nations. – My religion is based on truth and non-violence.
21 – At last the ancient serpent, who by his own pride was cast down from his high state, seduced the first man, attacked Moses, tempted Christ, and had Him crucified, at the beginning of the fullness of the end will be let loose to tempt the Church of the nations. In his release wickedness will overflow, or abound, and charity will grow cold, so that the humility, faith, poverty, purity, and charity of Christ will be considered pride, perfidy, heresy, sterility, and foolishness. – A bad peace is better than a good war.
22 – For Brother Pacificus, who in ecstasy of mind saw and heard that the seat of Lucifer was reserved for the humble Francis. And Brother Salvo saw that Francis was chosen by God from all the saints to have a particular battle with Lucifer. And another brother saw that Lucifer had entered into the religion of the Lesser Brothers, and assumed the habit, so that he could vanquish Francis more easily. – Who is narrow of vision cannot be big of heart.
23 – Brothers in appearance and name will attack and persecute the Brothers who are Lesser in fact and deed, and will hate them in a fanatical and insane way, and boldly follow a leader of foolishness, error, and disbelief, the enemy of Francis, the most humble and poorest man, namely, Lucifer, and, having drawn the sons of his flesh away from him, in irreverence, incredulity, and disobedience they will have provoked and exasperated him as long as he lived. – Compassion is the root of religion; pride the root of sin.
24 – This was, therefore, the first conflict of incredulity and irreverence and disobedience against Francis, the founder under Christ, and his true and heartfelt followers, against which Christ, in Francis and his companions, stood and went out conquering, so that he might vanquish through true poverty and humility, and rule triumphantly in peace and charity. So be it. Amen – God does not wish us to remember what He is willing to forget.
25 – Near the time of the passing of the humble, poor servant of God, Francis, he had all the brothers of the place called to him, and spoke consoling words to them about his death. With fatherly affection and powerful words he exhorted them to observance of the life and Rule they had promised, to divine mutual love, and to reverence and obedience to the holy mother Roman Church and all clerics. With the most powerful and reliable words he inflamed them to possess poverty, humility, peace, and mutual love, leaving and bequeathing these as inheritance rights; and to ardent following of the footprints of Jesus Christ and contempt and hatred of the world. – Unless you are deliberately kind to every creature, you will often be cruel to many.
26 – As they were sitting around him he ordered a brief testament written, in which he wrote down all the truth of his first and last intention, revealed to him by Christ, purely and clearly, both for those present as well as for those absent and those to come to the religion until the end of the age. And he ordered with all possible strictness that it be faithfully and reverently observed and preserved under the protection of the Most High heavenly Father and His blessed Son Jesus Christ and His blessing. – Compassion will cure more sins that condemnation.
27 – He blessed all the brothers, present and absent in the power and name of Jesus Christ Crucified, his arms crossed, extending over them in the form of a cross, his hands marked with the wounds of Jesus Christ. He also had Brother Bernard of Quintavalle, the first brother, called to him. Placing his right hand on the head of this brother in front of all the brothers, he blessed him with particular, heartfelt affection. – Justice seeks out the merits of the case, but pity only regards the needs.
28 – After the blessing, Blessed Francis ordered one of his companions: “Write what I tell you: the first brother the Lord gave me was Brother Bernard, and he first began and perfectly fulfilled the perfection of the Holy Gospel, distributing all he had to the poor. Because of this, and many other prerogatives given to him by God, I am held to love him more than any other brother of the whole religion. Therefore, it is my will and my command, as much as I am able, that the general minister of the religion, whoever he may be, should love him and honor him as myself, and also all the Provincial ministers and the brothers of the whole religion should hold him in my place.” – Friendship-one soul in two bodies.
29 – And Saint Francis also prophesied about Brother Bernard that toward the end of his life he would be supplied with many graces and gifts from Christ Jesus, and would pass from this life to Christ, in assurance and filled with the anointing of the Holy Spirit in admirable peace and rest of body and soul, as clearly appeared later to all the brothers who were present at his passing. Then, as the brothers observed his confidence in Christ at death, and his overwhelming devotion to his last breath, they could not restrain themselves from crying, but out of gladness and wonder said: “This man was truly an unrecognized saint!” – A man may have authority over others, but he can never have their heart but by giving his own.
30 – After his death they looked upon him as a saint of God, spreading gladness and joy with a marvelous fragrance and singular beauty which he did not have before when he was living. And they were delighted by his appearance, because a certain power came forth from him, cheering those standing by and looking at him, and it filled them with both sweetness and spiritual consolation. – I do not want merely to possess a faith; I want a faith that possesses me.
Peace and Blessings,
Fr. Francis A. Sariego, O.F.M. Cap.
Regional Spiritual Assistant
November 2023-Monthly Spiritual Asst Reflection
Posted By Teresa Redder, on October 3rd, 2023 St. Katherine 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
October 2023
Let me cry out therefore:
“O what a glorious saint he is!
His disciple saw his soul ascending into heaven:
beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun,
glowing brilliantly as it ascended upon a white cloud!
O true lamp of the world, shining more brilliantly than the sun in the Church of Christ!
Now, you have withdrawn the rays of your light, as you withdraw into that luminous homeland
You have exchanged our poor company for that of the angels and saints!
In your glorious goodness and great renown, do not put aside care for your sons,
though you have put aside flesh like theirs.
You know, you truly know, the danger in which you have left them;
for it was your blessed presence alone
that always mercifully relieved their countless labors and frequent troubles!
O truly merciful and most holy father,
you were always kind and ready to show mercy and forgive your sinful sons!
We bless you therefore, worthy father, as you have been blessed by the Most High,
Who is God over all things blessed forever. Amen.”
(First Life, bk.2, chpt 9 of Bl. Thomas of Celano)
Almighty, eternal, just, and merciful God,
grant to us wretches, by your will, to do what we know you wish,
and ever to wish what pleases you,
in order that, purified in soul, lighted up within,
and inflamed by the fire of the Holy Spirit,
we may follow the footsteps of your Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ,
and reach you, Most High, by your grace alone.
For you live and reign and are glorified.
Daily excerpts from the Tribulations, Franciscan Sources
1 – Knowing the future through the Holy Spirit, he would say: “With the pretext of preaching and edifying others, the brothers shall abandon their vocation, that is, pure and holy simplicity, prayer, humility, and our Lady Poverty. It will happen that, because they believe themselves inflamed with the devotion and love of God, they will remain cold, empty of charity. – God does not pay weekly, He pays at the end.
2 – And so, they will be unable to return to their vocation, as they have wasted the time for living according to their calling; and it is to be feared that what they seemed to have will be taken away from them and they will find their hands empty on the day of tribulation. The people they think they converted to the Lord through their preaching were actually converted to the Lord by the prayers of the holy brothers in deserted places who weep over their own sins and those of others. – The Beatitudes are a call to us to see ourselves.
3 – It has been given by Christ to true Lesser Brothers to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to the rest to know only in parables. There are so many who willingly climb up toward knowledge that anyone who renders himself sterile of it for the love of God will be blessed.” – Perhaps with charity one should not think.
4 – Some brothers came from France and reported to him that the brothers had recently received an important man, a master of sacred theology in Paris. Both the people and the clergy were greatly edified by this. Blessed Francis listened, then sighed and responded: “I am afraid, my sons, that in the end such masters will destroy my plant. – Every person is their own chief enemy
5 – The true masters are those who show their way of life to their neighbors through good works with gentle wisdom. A person has only as much learning as his actions show; and is wise only as much as he loves God and neighbor; and a religious is only as good a preacher as much as he humbly and faithfully does the good that he understands.” – Charity like love should be blind.
6 – A holy brother, a master of theology, came from Germany at that time to see Saint Francis, to be sure about his understanding and intention regarding the Rule. As he learned and listened to his intention about life according to the Rule, his spirit became as tranquil and consoled as if Christ Jesus Himself, not a man, had spoken. – None but myself ever did me any harm.
7 – After the interview the brother knelt humbly before Saint Francis and said: “I now promise again, into your hands, to observe, faithfully and purely, this evangelical life and Rule according to the pure and faithful intention which the Holy Spirit has spoken clearly through your mouth, until the end of my life, as much as Christ’s grace will allow me. – There is more to be feared from unspoken and concealed, than from open and declared hostility.
8 – But one favor I ask of you. If in my lifetime it happens that the brothers fall away from the pure observance of the Rule as you foretell through the Spirit, so much that, because of their opposition, I cannot observe it freely among them, I ask by your obedience that I may withdraw to observe the Rule perfectly, alone or with some brothers who also wish to observe it purely.” – An open foe may prove a curse, but a pretended friend is worse.
9 – Hearing these things, Blessed Francis was overjoyed, and blessed him, placing his right hand on his head, saying: “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedek. Know that what you asked is granted, by Christ and by me.” – Doing an injury puts you below your enemy.
10 – He showed in this way that all the promises made to him by Christ about his religion would, in the end, be fulfilled in those who would strive to observe the Rule simply, to the letter, and without glosses. – Revenge makes you even with your foe but forgiveness sets you above him.
11 – Those who bear the easy yoke of Christ’s life and Rule with bitterness are sons of the flesh, always twisting the holy and pious understanding of the Rule toward their own fleshly way of thinking. They are like Ishmael, born according to the flesh, who was hostile to Isaac who was born according to the promise of the Holy Spirit and lived a spiritual and holy life. – I owe much to my friends, but owe even more to my enemies.
12 – So it will be in this life and religion: the sons of the flesh will persecute the sons of the spirit. But God, who divided the sons of Israel from the Egyptians with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, will separate the true sons of the Rule from the sons of the prudence of the flesh. He will abandon the latter in the shadows of error and the coldness of greed and self-love. – There is so much good in the worst of us.
13 – The former He will lead into the light of divine brilliance and the cross-like perfection of seraphic charity, and make them conformed to the body of His brilliance by the power with which He subjects all things to himself. – There is so much bad even in the best of us.
[The Beginning of Division]
14 – There was in the time of Saint Francis apparent unity outwardly among the brothers regarding the habit, living together, and obedience. But there was a hidden schism and great diversity in regard to the purity of the Rule, observing and loving it, and obedience and sincere following of the intention of the founder. – Love makes all hard hearts gentle.
15 – Lacking among them were the following: to be of one mind; to have the same charity; to have the same mind among all; to do nothing out of rivalry or for empty glory, each considering others superior; not seeking their own interest but, with the founder, those of Christ, for the consolation of others, what is useful to them, and serves mutual edification. – From a slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never recover.
16 – Brother Elias, having given himself to the subtleties of philosophy, secretly drew after himself a gang of rebels in a spirit of greed and vanity. He opened up and dug a pit for himself and, deceived, he fell into it and died. – One may often regret their speech, but never their silence.
17 – He failed to recognize the stratagems, tricks, and inventions of Satan, and so, unaware, he prepared the ways for them, improved the route, and made their paths straight, opposing, in the founder, Christ Himself. – If you desire people to speak well of you, hold your tongue.
18 – Christ Himself kindly revealed this to a holy and venerable priest, the rector of a parish in Massa Trabaria, named Don Bartolo, whom Saint Francis designated to act in his place in all things and for all things because of his outstanding holiness. – Slander kills three: the slandered, the slanderer, and the one who listens to the slander.
19 – He was a very discerning man, a consoler of the sorrowful, full of mercy, piety, and charity. The brothers approached him confidently as the kindest of fathers and the instructor of their souls. – Conversation is telling people a little less than what they want to know
20 – He used to receive brothers into the religion and reconciled those who had been expelled and had left. With divine and clear reasoning and living example he demonstrated to them that the counsels of human wisdom that disagree with the way of perfection and the intention of the founder were more than useless: they were infected with deadly poison. – If only people would only stop talking where they stopped knowing, have the evils in the world would come to an end.
21 – This man, pleasing to God, at Christ’s command, in ecstasy of mind while praying, was led to the lower reaches of hell. There he saw Lucifer in his place of punishments, surrounded by the chief spirits of the lower regions. The prince of darkness posed an angry question to them as he asked for advice. – The best conversation is that in which the heart has a greater share than the head.
22 – “We have received unpleasant and troubling news from the desert of the world, through men we hold in our power. Some men have appeared unexpectedly in the world. They despise and trample underfoot the world with the flesh and its vices. They threaten the rights and the places of our domain. – The genius in conversation is in the art of being totally honest and totally kind at the same time.
23 – Unless we offer them some resistance, they will inflict damage and great loss on us. So think carefully what we should do to oppose them. You can hear more fully about their circumstances from those who have just come from there.” – We seldom repent talking too little, but very often talking too much.
24 – At Lucifer’s command they began to report, describing the life and perfection of these men. One huge demon stood up. He and some of the evil spirits under him were engaged in an extraordinary struggle with Saint Francis and his religion. He said: “Even though, as our prince said, many are rising against us recently in various ways, there is one man in particular, a man of lowly condition, unschooled and simple, who has a small society of others like himself. – Whoever gossips to you will gossip of you.
25 – He is the one who has risen up against us in such strength of spirit, that it seems not a man but Jesus of Nazareth in person battling against us in him. No trick of ours, however subtle, no deception, however strong, can deceive or overthrow him or his followers. No matter how many traps we lay, left and right, we cannot capture or overcome him. – The tongue has no bones, but it can break your back.
26 – What is even more painful, any of our faithful followers who go near become our adversaries and deadly enemies. There was a period of silence among them. Then the individual captains began to propose wicked plans as to how victory over their adversaries might be won quickly. – God gave us two ears and one mouth. Why don’t we listen twice as much as we talk?
27 – The details I omit for the sake of brevity. They discussed various vices in many different ways, and proposed examples of how they gained unexpected victories over very great and—as they thought—unassailable saints. Then another demon, Lucifer’s second in command, spoke after all the rest: “You have described numerous sly and workable plans; yet no one, believe me, has thought of the one way to win an overwhelming victory over them.” 286All the demons were interested in hearing his plan and proposal, so he went on: – Where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God.
28 – “We cannot defeat these men unless we turn all our commitment, effort, cunning and activity, to the following. We must inspire those who are proud, boasting, curious, deceitful and dishonest, greedy, envious, presumptuous and false, whom we know are ours. By every means we must suggest to them and foster in them the desire to do penance and join them to serve the Lord. Once we have our faction among them, we will seek to increase it every day. By it we will upset them, infect their religion; we will undermine their vows, their words, habits and works. We will make their reputation rot so badly that they, because of the deadly stench, all who approach them will smell the odor of death, and will not smell the enlivening fragrance that leads to life.” – Afflictions are but the shadows of God’s wings.
29 – That plan of subversion pleased Lucifer and all his princes. From then on their policy was to pursue that last proposal with all their strength. God permitted, by His secret and hidden judgment, that the demons move men in tune with their aims and in sympathy with their spite to enter that religion, whose basic principles they hated as most opposed to theirs. 298At the beginning when Francis alone received the brothers, the demons were unable to carry out their evil plans for trickery, because he, enlightened like the cherubim by the Holy Spirit, had eyes front and back, inside and out. – Sorrow is a fruit. God does not make it grow on limbs too weak to bear it.
30 – But then the number of ministers increased throughout the world, who lacked even a modicum of the spiritual perfection essential to forestall the hidden plots of the demons. And the spirit of every one of the ministers was carried away by the desire to increase the number of brothers, under the pretext of the salvation of souls and the expansion of the religion. They multiplied the people but not capture even one of their members.” These arrogant ministers, relying on their own prudence, wanted to rule, not to be ruled; to make a rule, for themselves and others, based on their own opinion and will, rather than observe the Rule humbly, mortifying their own will. – God does not wish us to remember what He is willing to forget.
[Reunification of Office]
31 – Consequently, for the founder, and for the brothers who walked in simplicity, labor, sorrow, and affliction of spirit increased. For the tepid, danger grew; for the dissatisfied, glee; and for the malicious, confidence in evil-doing. These evils grew so much even before the death of Saint Francis that he, who was the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, was unable to remedy them by his words, his example, or signs and miracles of healing. Instead he chose, after praying, as the better role for himself, to spend time with God and renounce his office among the brothers. – I believe in Christianity as I believe in the sun, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
October 2023-Monthly Spiritual Asst Reflection
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