Stigmata: God Affixed His Seal On The Franciscan Rule

The Lord was pleased to endorse and to confirm the teaching and Rule of St. Francis, not only by miraculous signs, but also by the marks of his own stigmata, so that no true believer could possibly question them on external or internal evidence. And in his goodness God was pleased to affix his own seal to the Rule and teaching of St. Francis, who would never have presumed to teach or write anything other than what he received from the Lord. As he himself testifies, it was God who revealed to him the entire Rule.

St. Bonaventure
Sermon of October 4th, 1255

Prisoners Of The Devil

All who do not live in penance and do not receive the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and who are caught up in vices and sins and go the way of evil concupiscence and the evil desires of your flesh, and who do not observe those things you have poromised the Lord, and who serve the world with your body, becoming slaves to the instincts of the flesh and the cares and preoccupations of this world, you are prisoners of the devil whose children you are and whose works you do.

St. Francis
Letter to All the Faithful
First Version

How St. Francis Venerated The Eucharist

With every fiber of his being, Francis burned with love for the Sacrament of the Body of the Lord. It left him overcome with wonder for so great a condescension and merciful love. He was said to be disconsolate if, even once, he could not hear daily Mass, even if it was impossible to do so. He received communion often and with such devotion as to make others experience a like devotion. He rendered every reverence to so venerable a sacrament, offering the sacrifice of his whole self; and when he received the Immolated Lamb of God, he immolated his own spirit in that fire which was always burning on the altar of his heart.

Celano
Second Life - 201

Receive The Body And Blood

Receive the Body and the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ with great humility and with veneration, remembering the words of the Lord: "Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life" (John 6:54); and, "Do this in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19).

Rule of 1221
Chapter XX

We Are Wed To Jesus Christ

We are his spouces when our faithful souls are wed to Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. We are his brothers and sisters when we do the will of his Father who is in heaven.

St. Francis
Letter to All the Faithful
Second Version

Only A Small Piece Of Bread...

O wonderful ascent, O stupendous descent! O sublime humility! O humble sublimity, that the Lord of the Universe, God and Son of God, should so humbly hide himself, for our salvation, in what seems to be only a small piece of bread! Look, then, upon the humility of God! And pour out your hearts before him. Humble yourselves that he might exhalt you. Hold back nothing of yourselves, that he may receive your all who gave his all to you.

St. Francis
Letter to the Whole Order

Let Humanity Kneel In Fear

Let humanity kneel in fear, let the whole universe tremble, and let heaven rejoice when Christ the Son of the Living God is on the altar in the hands of the priest.

St. Francis
Letter to the Whole Order

The Bread And Wine

Now as Jesus Christ appeared to his holy Apostles in true flesh, so now he shows himself to us in consecrated bread; and as with their physical sight they saw only his flesh, but contemplating him with the eyes of faith, believed that he was God, so too, now, though we see bread and wine with the eyes of our body, we should see and firmly believe that it is his Most Holy Body and Blood, livng and true.

Admonition 1

Patience And Humility

"Blessed are the peacemakers; they shall be recognized as children of God" (Matt 5:9).

Servant of God, you do not know how much patience and humility you really have as long as everything goes along according to your own satisfaction. But when the time comes that instead of receiving your due, you get just the opposite, as much patience and humility as you have then is what you really have, and no more.

Admonition 13

TheRule of Hermitages

Those brothers who wish to live a religious life in a hermitage are not to permit anyone to enter the cloister where they reside. And they are not to eat there. And those brothers who are the mothers must strive to keep people away and, in obedience to their minister, let them keep their sons from everyone so that no once can speak to them.

And the sons are to speak to no one, except their mothers and their minister and their custos, when he wishes to visit them with the blessing of the Lord God.

And whenever they agree it is time to do so, the sons are to exchange roles with the mothers. And let them seek to observe all the above with careful attention.

The Rule of Hermitages

To Contemplate Is To Be United To God Alone

Eight days after the first two companions, Brother Bernard and Brother Peter, were received into the Order, Brother Giles was received by Francis at the Portiuncula. He was a fellow Assisian, a man full of faith and devotion to whom the Lord had given a singular grace. On his knees, and with great devotion and reverence, he begged Francis to receive him into their family. And the saint, pleased with what he saw and the words he heard, received him gladly. Then these first four brothers experienced an extraordinary spiritual joy.

Years later St. Francis said of Brother Giles that he more than any other person had arrived at the perfection of contemplative prayer. And Brother Giles himself used to say, "The contamplative life is to leave behind all earthly things for the love of God, to seek only the things of heaven, to pray without tiring, to read often and with concentration, to praise God continually with hymns and canticles. To contemplate is to be separated from all and to be united to God alone."

The Mirror of Perfection - 85

St. Francis Was Given The Promise Heaven

One night when the many and severe pains of his sickness had exhausted him more than ususal, Francis began to feel sorry for himself in the very depths of his heart. But he refused to yield to self-pity for even an hour and therefore kept praying to Christ to keep the shield of his patience unshattered. And as he continued to pray in agony, the Lord gave him the promise of eternal life in this comparison: "If the whole substance of the earth and the whole universe were priceless and precious gold, and it were given to you in exchange for these severe sufferings you are enduring, would you not be happy and willingly bear what you are suffering now?"

"Yes, I would be happy," St. Francis said. "I would rejoice beyond measure."

"Rejoice, therefore," the Lord said to him, "your sickness is an assurance of my kingdom. Wait for it as your inheritance. Be steadfast and assured of this reward for your patience."

Celano
Second Life: 213

Humble Beginnings Of The Franciscan Order

And after the Lord gave me some brothers, no one showed me what to do; but the Most High revealed to me that I was to live according to the manner of the Holy Gospel. And I had it written down in brief, simple words, and the Lord Pope confirmed it for me.

And those who came to receive this life gave everything they had to the poor; and they were happy with one tunic patched inside and out, and with a cord and breeches.

And we had no desire for anything else.

The Testament of St. Francis

Easily Conciliate Bishops And Prelates

"If the prelates of the church see you truly humble and entirely free of avarice, and that you exhort the people to pay what is due to their own churches, they will beg of you to labor for the salvation of their flocks and to hear the confessions of all, although I do not desire you to burdon yourselves much with this ministry; for those who are converted to God, and deplore their sins, will find many priests to hear their confessions. In this way you will easily conciliate bishops and prelates."

St. Francis

Leading Holy Lives

You must first by holy humility and the reverence the people have for you, gain over the bishops, that they may see and love your holy lives and be satisfied with the respect you show to them. Then they will themselves ask you to preach to their people and will command all to be present at your sermons. Humility will obtain more for you than privileges.

St. Francis

Seek Profound Humility Above All Else

"My brethren, you will convert all by your words, if you humble yourselves before all by your actions. Those who cruelly persecute you will be converted to Christ by the example of your patience, and will desire to kiss the very ground on which you walk. I ought not so much wish for liberty under pretense of salvation of others, as I should wish to have that profound humility which becomes my state, and by which I shall both advance in virtue myself, and shall strengthen others in virtue."

St. Francis

We Are To Overcome The World By The Most Profound Subjection And Humility

After the general Chapter of Assisi, at which more than five thousand brethren were assembled from every province, the holy father sent them two and two to preach the Word of God in all countries. Many of them returned to him complaining sorrowfully that some bishops were opposed to them and would not allow them to preach in their dioceses. "Father," said they, "we went to the places thou didst assign to us; we obeyed thy commands, but we could not fulfill our desires, nor those of the people; for many bishops expelled us from their dioceses, and, as often happens to the poor, being unknown and suspected, we had to endure many insults. We beg you, therefore, father, to obtain for us from the sovereign pontiff, permission and privilege to preach all over the world, without the consent of the bishops." At which the blessed father, filled with holy indignation, exclaimed, "O my brethren, you know not the will of God, and you seek by your foolishness to rob me of the conquest of the world. For our Lord Jesus Christ wishes that I should overcome the world by the most profound subjection and humility, and that I should perform the great work of drawing souls to him by the example of lowliness..."

God's Rewards Are More Generous Than Man's

St. Francis's brother was constantly mocking at his poverty and misery, and once, in a time of great cold, he sent a companion to ask if he would sell some of his sweat. "No," answered the servant of God, "I shall sell my sweat at a much higher price to God."

Catholic Cardinal: Global Warming a 'New Religion'

Catholic Cardinal: Global Warming Hysteria a ‘New Religion’

A cardinal in the Catholic Church says the hysteria over man-made climate change is akin to a “new religion” and a symptom of “pagan emptiness.”

Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, Australia, has been the target of criticism in his country for expressing doubts about the validity of man-made global warming.

In an interview that appeared in The Catholic World Report, he said: “Right now, the mass media, politicians, many church figures, and the public generally seem to have embraced even the wilder claims about man-made climate change as if they constituted a new religion.

“These days, for any public figure to question the basis of what amounts to green fundamentalist faith is tantamount to heresy.”

Cardinal Pell called long-term weather forecasting “notoriously imprecise,” and pointed to predictions in the 1970s that the planet was about to enter a new ice age because of global cooling.

He said some of the more “hysterical and extreme” claims about impending climate change “appear symptomatic of a pagan emptiness, of a Western fear when confronted by the immense and basically uncontrollable forces of nature…

“It’s almost as though people without religion, who don’t belong to any of the great religious traditions, have got to be frightened of something. Perhaps they’re looking for a cause that is almost a substitute for religion.”

As for Al Gore’s message of doom about climate change, Cardinal Pell noted that there are “significant errors” in his film “An Inconvenient Truth,” and added: “Few of us have the scientific knowledge to question the wild claims Gore has made — other than some grains of common sense.”

The Sweetness Of The Creator

Let every creature become more despicable to the heart, that the Creator may become more sweet.

St. Francis

The Holy Name Of Mary

As wax melts before the heat of the fire and dust is scattered by the wind, so the whole army of the evil spirits is dispersed by the invocation of the holy name of Mary.

St. Francis

"Hail Mary"

When I say "Hail Mary," the heavens smile, the angels rejoice, the world exults, hell trembles, the devils fly.

St. Francis

Luxury Enervates Men

Rich clothing and sumptuous dwellings, eating, drinking, sleeping, and idleness, enervate men and foster luxury.

St. Francis

The Love Of God

The love of God is never idle.

St. Francis

Love

Love makes all heavy things light, and all bitter things sweet.

St. Francis

Temptation

Temptation, when it is not consented to, is a matter for the exercise of virtue.

St. Francis

Being Good Among The Wicked

He is not perfectly good who cannot be good among the wicked.

St. Francis

Confession

If you excuse yourself, God will accuse you; and if you accuse yourself, God will excuse you.

St. Francis

Contemplation

Fly, keep silence, and be quiet!

St. Francis

Purity Does Not Delight In The World

Fly from the world, if thou wilt be pure. If thou art pure, the world does not delight thee.

St. Francis