Edited by Rima Devereaux - A Month with St Francis

A Month with

St Francis

Edited by Rima Devereaux

Introduction

St Francis of Assisi (11811216), the founder of the Franciscan Order, was the son of a wealthy cloth merchant. He rode off to fight in the Fourth Crusade but turned back when he had a dream in which God told him to return home. A defining moment in his conversion happened in the church of San Damiano in Assisi when he heard God say, Repair my church. At first he took this literally as meaning the fabric of the building, but he came to understand it as wider, involving the corruption of the institutional Church. He and his companions went out to preach in rags, and he was known for his love of the natural world. He never became a priest, nor did he intend to found a religious order.

All of these extracts are taken from The Little Flowers of Saint Francis . This was a fourteenth-century collection of famous stories about Francis and his followers. These appealing and charming tales contain such episodes as his preaching to the birds, his taming of the wolf of Gubbio and his reception of the stigmata.

In Franciss life there was both gaiety and austerity:

You will not be able rationally to read the story of a man presented as a Mirror of Christ without understanding his final phase as a Man of Sorrows, and at least artistically appreciating the appropriateness of his receiving, in a cloud of mystery and isolation, inflicted by no human hand, the unhealed everlasting wounds that heal the world.

Ultimately, there is a Francis that lies beyond all the stories: If you invited the real Francis to tea, he would likely insist on first standing out by the road to beg for his biscuits from passers-by, before joining you inside. The real Francis offers a fresh spirituality shot through with his characteristic sense of fellowship with nature.

A Month with

St Francis

Morning

It is first to be considered that the glorious St Francis, in all the acts of his life, was conformed to Christ the Blessed. And that even as Christ, at the beginning of his mission, chose twelve apostles who were to despise all worldly things and follow him in poverty and in the other virtues, so St Francis in the beginning chose for the foundation of his order twelve companions who were possessed of nothing but direst poverty... And even as those holy apostles were, above all, wondrous in their holiness and humility, and filled with the Holy Spirit, so those most holy companions of St Francis were men of... saintliness.

Evening

Now Bernard, when he beheld these most devout acts of St Francis... was moved and inspired by the Holy Spirit to change his manner of life... The priest... took the book and, having made the sign of the holy cross, opened it three times in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ... If you wish to be perfect, go and sell all that you have and give to the poor and follow me.... Then St Francis said to Bernard, Behold the advice that Christ gives us. Go, therefore, do faithfully what you have heard, and blessed be the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has deigned to reveal to us the gospel life.

Morning

St Francis said, Now tell me what you would have me do, for I have promised you holy obedience. Then said Friar Bernard, I command you by holy obedience that every time we are together you rebuke and correct me harshly for all my faults. Whereupon St Francis marvelled greatly, for Friar Bernard was of such exceeding sanctity that he held him in great reverence and in no wise worthy of reproof. From that moment, St Francis was careful to avoid being with Bernard much, because of the said obedience, in case it caused him to utter one word of reproof against him, for he knew him to be of such great holiness.

Evening

As they journeyed together, he found a poor sick man in a village by the way... St Francis and the other companions went their way to St Jamess. When they arrived there, they passed the night in prayer in the church of St James, where it was revealed to St Francis that he was to establish many friaries throughout the world, for his order was to spread and grow into a great multitude of friars. Whereupon, in accordance with this revelation, St Francis began to establish friaries in those lands. And as St Francis was returning by the way he came, he found Friar Bernard, and the sick man with whom he had left him healed perfectly.

Morning

Because St Francis and his companions were called and chosen by God to bear the cross of Christ in their hearts and in their works, and to preach it with their tongues, they seemed, and truly were, men crucified, in regard to their dress, the austerity of their lives, their acts and their deeds. Therefore they desired to endure shame and reproach for love of Christ rather than worldly honour or reverence or human praise. Indeed, they rejoiced in insults and were afflicted by honour; they went about the world as pilgrims and strangers, bearing nothing with them except Christ crucified.

Evening

St Francis... said to Friar Bernard, God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ bless you with all spiritual and celestial blessings. You are the firstborn, chosen in this holy order to give evangelical example, and to follow Christ in gospel poverty, for not only did you give your own possessions and distribute them wholly and freely to the poor for love of Christ, but you offered also yourself to God in his order, a sacrifice of sweetness. You are blessed therefore by our Lord Jesus Christ and by me, poor little one, his servant, with blessings everlasting, walking and standing, watching and sleeping, living and dying.

Morning

St Francis was once lodging on carnival day in the house of one of his devout followers on the shores of the lake of Perugia, and was inspired by God to go and pass that Lent on an island in the lake. Thus St Francis, on the night of Ash Wednesday, asked his disciple to carry him in his little boat to an island on which no one lived... St Francis took with him nothing except two small loaves... and so the friend departed and St Francis remained alone... And there he stayed for the whole of Lent, eating and drinking nothing but half of one of those small loaves.

Evening

Friar Leo asked [St Francis]... Father, please in Gods name tell me where is perfect joy to be found? And St Francis answered him like this: When we are come to St Mary of the Angels, wet through with rain, frozen with cold... and, when we knock at the door, the doorkeeper comes in a rage and says, Who are you? and we say, We are two of your friars, and he answers, Youre not telling the truth; you are rather two knaves... begone! and he doesnt open the door to us... then, if we endure patiently such cruelty... and believe humbly... that that doorkeeper truly knows us... O Friar Leo, write there is perfect joy.