Admonition XIX

The happy and unhappy religious

Blessed the religious who refers all the good he has to the Lord and God. He who attributes anything to himself hides his master's money (Matthew 25:18) in himself, and even what he thinks he has shall be taken away. (Luke 8:18).

Saint Francis of Assisi
The Admonitions

Admonition XVIII

Compassion for one's neighbor

Blessed the man who is patient with his neighbor's shortcomings as he would like him to be if he were in a similar position himself.

Admonition XII

How to know the spirit of God

We can be sure that a man is a true religious and has the spirit of God if his lower nature does not give way to pride when God accomplishes some good through him, and if he seems all the more worthless and inferior to others in his own eyes. Our lower nature is opposed to every good.

Saint Francis of Assisi
The Admonitions

Parresia: A Quality Of A Monk To Perform Miracles

Athanasius Comments: "For Anthony did not heal by issuing commands, but by praying and calling upon the name of Christ, so that it was evident to everyone that it was not he who did this, but the Lord manifesting His compassion to men and, through Anthony, was healing those who suffered."

Vita Antonii 83-84

Imitate Christ

Christ gave to the world a summary of Christian perfection in his Sermon on the Mount. Francis studied this sermon and made it, in a sense, the core of his rule of life for his brothers, as expressed in the final rule of 1223. 

...But Francis sought not only to follow the words of Christ, he wished also to imitate the life of Christ as perfectly as he could, and he willed that his friars too should "follow the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

Saint Francis of Assisi

Sacrum Commercium Sancti Francesci cum Domina Pauperate

INTRODUCTION

by Placid Hermann, O.F.M.

The Passion Of The Lord!

One day, just a few years after his conversion, he was following the road that passes near St. Mary of the Portiuncula and, as he was walking by himself, he was lamenting and weeping out loud. A spiritual man, whom we know well and who reported it to us, met him at that time. This man had been very kind to the saint and had consoled him before he even had one brother and continued to do so. He said to him, "What is the matter, brother?" He thought that he was suffering from some infirmity. Blessed Francis answered: "I ought to travel through the whole world, crying and moaning without any false shame over the passion of my Lord!" The man began to cry with him and wept bitterly.

A Piece Of Wood Or A Stone As A Pillow

Francis would not allow his resting place to be laid over with covers or garments when he received hospitality, but the bare ground received his bare limbs, with only a tunic between. When at times he refreshed his body with sleep, he very often slept sitting up, and in no other position, using a piece of wood or a stone as a pillow.

Saint Francis of Assisi
Celano, First Life - 52

"The Love Of God"

Among other words used in ordinary conversation, he (Francis) could never hear "the love of God" without a kind of transformation within himself. For immediately upon hearing "the love of God," he would become exited, stirred, and inflamed, as though an inner chord of his heart had been plucked by the plectrum of the outward voice of the speaker.

Saint Francis of Assisi
Celano, Second Life
CHAPTER CXLVIII : 196

Our Holiness Should Be Known Only To God

...Those whom they think they edified or converted to penance by their discourse were actually edified or converted by God through the prayers of the holy brothers who were completely ignorant of it; God wishes it this way for fear it should be grounds for pride for them. Behold my Knights of the Round Table: the brothers who hide in abandoned and secluded places to devote themselves with more fervor to prayer and meditation, to weep over their sins and those of others. Their holiness is known to God, but most often unknown to the brothers and to men.

Saint Francis of Assisi
Legend of Perugia
ELOQUENCE AND PRAYER : 71

What A Man Is Before God, That He Is And No More

As Christ's true disciple, he was careful to preserve a low opinion of himself and appear worthless in the eyes of others, keeping in mind the words of the supreme Teacher, "What is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in God's sight" (Luke 16,15). He often used to remark, "What a man is before God, that he is and no more."

The Miracle Of Pentecost Renewed

At one time that wonderful vessel of the Holy Spirit, St. Anthony of Padua, one of the chosen followers and companions of St. Francis, whom St. Francis used to call his bishop, was preaching before the Pope and Cardinals in a consistory where there were men from different countries - Greeks and Latins, French and Germans, Slavs and English - and men of many other different languages and idioms. And being inflamed by the Holy Spirit, subtly, clearly, and understandably that all who were assembled at that consistory - although they spoke different languages, clearly and distinctly heard and understood every one of his words as if he had soken in each of their languages. Therefore they were all astounded and filled with devotion, for it seemed to them that the former miracle of the Apostles at the time of Pentecost had been renewed, when by the power of the Holy Spirit they spoke in different languages.

Saint Francis of Assisi
Little Flowers of St. Francis - 39

His Words Were Like A Burning Fire

Francis began to preach penance to all with great fervor of spirit and joy of mind, edifying his hearers with his simple words and his greatness of heart. His words were like a burning fire, penetrating the inmost reaches of the heart, and it filled the minds of all the hearers with admiration.

Saint Francis of Assisi

Celano, First Life

CHAPTER X:23

A Heart Stricken And Wounded With Melting Love And Compassion

From that hour (before the cross at San Damiano) his heart was stricken and wounded with melting love and compassion for the passion of Christ; and for the rest of his life he carried in it the wounds of the Lord Jesus. This was clearly proved later when the stigmata of those same wounds were miraculously impressed upon his own holy body for all to see. 

Saint Francis of Assisi

Legend of the Three Companions

CHAPTER V:14

By Anointing You, The Holy Spirit Teaches You All Things

To these words of the brothers Lady Poverty replied with joyful heart, pleasant countenance, and kind words, saying, "I confess to you, my Brothers and my dearest friends, that from the time you began to speak, I have been filled with happiness; and I overflow with joy, seeing your fervor and knowing your proposal. Your words have become for me more precious than gold, than a heap of purest gold, sweeter than syrup or honey from the comb. For it is not you who are speaking, but the Holy Spirit who speaks through you, and his anointing teaches you concerning all things that you speak concerning the most high King, who by his grace alone took me to be his beloved, thus taking away from the earth my reproach, and made me glorious among the princes of heaven.

Saint Francis of Assisi

Sacrum Commercium

CHAPTER III:23

Richmond Catholic Community Charismatic Renewal

Beginning June 15, 2008 the Richmond Catholic Community Charismatic Prayer Group will meet every 3rd Sunday of the month from 7:00-9:00 P.M. in the basement of Saint Mary's school building.

Everyone is invited to come and join us in Prayer, Praise and Worship.

For additional information, please e-mail me at: dicksoncorp@parallax.ws

Let The Fire Fall!

Saint Clare ate a meal with Saint Francis and his followers in Assisi:

And when it was time to eat, St. Francis and St. Clare sat down together, and one of his companions with St. Clare's companion, and all his other companions were grouped around that humble table. But at the first course St. Francis began to speak about God in such a sweet and holy and profound and divine and marvelous way that he himself and St. Clare and her companion and all the others who were at that poor little table were rapt in God by the overabundance of divine grace that descended upon them.

And while they were sitting there, in a rapture, with their eyes and hands raised to Heaven, it seemed to them men of Assisi and Bettona and the entire district that the Church of St. Mary of the Angels and the whole Place and the forest which was at the time around the Place were all aflame and that an immense fire was burning over all of them. Consequently, the men of Assisi ran down there in great haste to save the Place and put out the fire, as they firmly believed that everything was burning up.

But when they reached the Place, they saw that nothing was on fire. Entering the Place, they found St. Francis with St. Clare and all the companions sitting around that very humble table, rapt in God by contemplation and invested with power from on high,

Saint Francis of Assisi

Little Flowers of St. Francis 

CHAPTER 15

Wear Nothing But The Habit Next To Your Skin

For the first friars, and those who followed them for a long while, afflicted their bodies beyond measure by abstinence from food and drink, by vigils, by cold, by coarse clothing, and by manual labour. They wore iron bands and breast-plates, and the roughest of hair shirts. So the holy Father, considering that the friars might fall ill as a result of this - as had already happened in a short time - gave orders in Chapter that no friar should wear anything but the habit next to his skin.

Saint Francis of Assisi

Mirror of Perfection - 27

This Is What My Whole Heart Desires (cont'd)

He (Francis) learned these words by heart, meditating on what he had heard; and joyfully he started to put them into practice. He discarded his second garment, and from that day onwards he used no staff, shoes, or haversack; he kept one miserable tunic, and instead of the strap toook a length of cord as a belt. He set his whole heart and mind on how he could best carry out the words of grace that he had heard, and, divinely inspired, he began to speak in public very simply of penitence and the life of evangelical perfection. 

Saint Francis of Assisi

Legend of the Three Companions

CHAPTER VIII:25

This Is What My Whole Heart Desires

Until the work of restoring the church at Saint Damian was completed, blessed Francis still wore the garments of a hermit with a strap to serve as a belt, and he carried a staff and had sandals on his feet. Then, one day during the celebration of Mass he heard the words in which Christ bade his disciples go out and preach, carrying neither gold nor silver, nor haversack for the journey, without staff, bread or shoes, and having no second garment. After listening to the priest's explanation of these words of the Gospel, full of unspeakable joy, he exclaimed: "This is what my whole heart desires to accomplish."

Saint Francis of Assisi

Legend of the Three Companions

CHAPTER VIII:25

Do Not Become A Burden To Others

"I wish all my brethren to work and to occupy themselves humbly in good works, so that we do not become a burden to other men, or allow our hearts and tongues to wander in idleness..."

Saint Francis of Assisi

Mirror of Perfection  75