Mirabai Starr - Saint Francis of Assisi: Brother of Creation

One day, Brother Masseo approached Brother Francis and said to him with complete sincerity, Why after you? Why after you? Why does the whole world come running after you, Francis? We are still asking that question eight centuries later. Francis is what some call a prime attractorone who moves history and humanity forward just by being who he is.

Francis of Assisi has a longer bibliography in the Library of Congress than any person throughout historyat least that is what a librarian there told me. He is taken seriously by all world religions and when I tell people I am a Franciscan Friar myself, it almost always opens the door and the conversation: much more than telling people I am a Catholic, a priest, or an American, I am afraid. In fact, I am told that only two groups carry very little negative baggage inside of Christianity: Franciscans and Quakers. So, although surely unworthy, we are most happy to ride on his very long coattails. And sometimes actually to imitate him.

I am so honored to write a very few words here in strong encouragement for and introduction to Mirabai Starrs beautiful and prayerful book. We both live in beautiful New Mexico where the first Franciscan entered in 1598, leaving a long and checkered history here. I am afraid the order had lost much of Franciss luster by then, because like the church itself, we had aligned ourselves with power, war, and empire for protectionwhich is precisely what Francis refused to do in order to keep his structural, Gospel, and personal freedom. But at least we still accompanied the poor and the immigrants, and had not lost Franciss sense of adventure into ever new worlds. And now you are about to do the same!

If you have not yet been introduced to the magic and freedom of this man, you are about to be attracted and maybe even seduced into a much larger world where sun, moon, animals, plants, and elements are all shown reverence and even personal subjectivity as brother and sister. He is the only obvious candidate when we look for a patron for both ecology and peacemakingone who understood that the entire circle of life had a Great Lover at the center.

Now let Mirabais true words seduce you into that one circle of life with the only Christian man ever known to attempt three trips to dialogue with the enemy during the tragic Crusades against Muslims in the Holy Land. There is no similar precedent for such behavior before or in the centuries that followed. He is truly a universal man, addressing issues that are still urgent and important in our own time. You will be deepened, broadened, and delighted if you allow yourself to be seduced here. It is a seduction into the good, the true, and the always beautiful.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM

Center for Action and Contemplation

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Summer Solstice, 2013

Praise to you,

Saint Francis of Assisi,

brother to the sun and the moon,

to birds and worms, fire and wind.

Your unconditional love of creation

excludes no one.

When you embraced the leper,

anything left between you and your God

melted away.

In our habitual grasping,

we have lost the joy of letting go.

Whisper in our ear, Francis.

Let us live your simple wisdom,

and seek not so much to be understood

as to understand,

to be loved as to love.

Thank you.

Amen.

Embracing the Wound

HISTORY LIKES TO portray Francis of Assisi as a perfect being, unmoved by the trials that bring the rest of us to our knees. A placid sage who held out his holy hands to the gentle forest creatures while they scurried and swooped and glided to greet him. An innocent child-man who easily slips into the kingdom of heaven while the rest of us grapple outside the gates with our thousand grown-up concerns and responsibilities, failing again and again to meet our lives gracefully.

It is comforting to discover that Francis of Assisi suffered and lamented, lost his temper and forfeited his dignity, rebelled against the rebels and lashed out at the meek. That, like us, he fell again and again. And that he continued to stand up, brush himself off, and recommit his life to God. It is precisely in his humanness that his true sanctity lies; it is in that same essential humanity that we can find a role model for a deeply spiritual life.

When I was a teenager, I was madly in love with God. There wasnt a lot of support for this passion in my agnostic family, so I sought spiritual community. I found it in ashrams and Zen centers, in Sufi circles and Jewish Renewal, in the poetry of the Christian mystics and the earth-based ceremonies of my Native neighbors. In each of these arenas, I was always the youngest membermature for my age, yet clearly raw. Being small and soft-spoken only added to my image of vulnerability, and my older companions displayed this irksome inclination to take care of me, guide me, and teach me. I preferred to be accepted as wise and awake, as the strong and competent being I felt myself to be.

When I was around thirty, I was taking a walk with my friend Arielle by the Rio Grande River near my childhood home. I confided my inner struggle to her, lamenting that it had been fifteen years since I had dedicated my life to spiritual work and I was still not being taken seriously by our community. Everyone still treated me like a child.

Oh, Mirabai! Arielle took my hands and locked my gaze with her own. Dont you know that your childlike nature is what is most beautiful about you, that it is a gift to us all?

No, I did not know that. The very thought was painful to absorb. And then Arielle told me a story.

Saint Francis was riding his horse through the hills of Umbria when he came upon a leper, she began. There was nothing that repulsed him more than leprosy, and he would have done anything to avoid contact with the disease. But in that moment, something compelled him to dismount and take the suffering man into his arms. He hugged him tenderly, rocked him, soothed him with words of unconditional love.

I took this in, listening carefully.

This is what were supposed to do with ourselves, Arielle went on. We need to get down from our horse and take ourselves into our own arms. We need to embrace what most repels us, and offer it our total acceptance. After that day, Saint Francis was never again afraid of lepers. In fact, he spent the rest of his lifelike Jesustending the poor and the sick with joy.

Its funny how the burden on your heart can lift in a single moment. Arielles story penetrated the bubble of pain I had been carrying, and it dissolved. I no longer view my smallness and gentleness as a problem, but rather as a gift I have been given and am meant to share. It was Saint Francis, through Arielle, who taught me to love myself, and then to get on with being of service in this wounded world. May you, also, discover the wisdom of Saint Francis as a guide on your own journey to wholeness.

This volume is more than a compilation of writings to feed your mind; it is an object of beauty to nourish your heart. Try picking it up at random moments and opening it to whatever page presents itself. Read the passage there, gaze at the imagery, and then close your eyes for a moment and breathe it in. Whether the message comes in the form of a poem, a story, a prayer, or a remembrance, let Saint Francis show up in your world and bless you with some sweet surprise. You dont have to analyze it or grapple with it. Simply be with it, and see what gift might emerge in the encounter.

I have gathered favorite bits of wisdompoems and prayers both by and about Saint Francisand offer them to you here. In the spirit of Saint Francis, who welcomed everyone to the table, it is my intention not to exclude anyone from this feast. To this end, I have minimized specific Roman Catholic references and emphasized the universal nature of these teachings so that anyone from any tradition (or none) might be able to use this book as a contemplative tool.