The Canticle of Brother Sun

Altissimu, omnipontente, bonsignore,
tue sono le laude
la gloria elhonore
et omne benedictione.

Ad te solo, Altissimo, se Kofano
et nullu homo enne dignu
te mentovare.

A Translation:

Most high, all powerful, all good, Lord!
All praise is yours, all glory, all honor
And all blessing.

To you alone, Most High, do they belong.
No mortal lips are worthy
To pronounce your name.

The Sin Of Possessiveness

When we think of possessions, we usually have material things in mind, but St. Francis used to remind his brothers that possessions are both material and spiritual, anything we appropriate to ourselves. For him, it is not possessions which are sinful, but possessiveness, appropriating to ourselves what is not ours.

A Fool For God

The Lord has called me into a way of simplicity and humility, and he has indeed made this way known through me and through all who choose to believe me and follow me... He told me I am a new kind of fool in this world.

Obedient Swallows

It happened once when St. Francis was preaching in Alviano that he could not be heard because of the chattering of a flock of swallows building their nests there. So St. Francis said to the birds:

"My Sister Swallows, you have had your say. It is now my turn to speak. Be quiet now and listen to the word of the Lord."

Then to the astonishment of the people standing about, the little birds fell silent and did not move until St. Francis finished preaching.

When Bells Are Rung

You are to announce and preach to all the people his glory, so that every hour and whenever the bells are rung, all the people on earth may give praise and thanks to Almighty God.

Meditation

Where there is quiet and meditation, there is neither preoccupation nor dissipation.

What You Are Before God

Blessed are you, servant of God, if you do not consider yourself any better when you are honored and extolled by others than when you are considered low and simple and despised; for what you are before God, that is what you are, and no more.

Flattering Ourselves and Boasting

We shouldn't flatter ourselves and boast about doing what sinners can do. A sinner can fast, pray, weep, mortify the flesh. But this a sinner cannot do: Remain faithful to the Lord. Therefore this is what we should glory in: Rendering glory to our Lord, serving him faithfully, and acknowledging as his whatever he gives us.

Would I Might Wake Saint Francis in You All

VACHEL LINDSEY

Would I might wake Saint Francis in you all,
Brother of birds and trees,
God's Troubadour,
Blinded with weeping for the sad and the poor:
Our wealth undone, all strict Franciscan men,
Come, let us chant the canticle again
Of mother earth and the enduring sun.
God make each soul
The lowly leper's slave:
God make us saints and brave.

Peace and Reconciliation Through Jesus Christ

Kissing your feet with the love I'm capable of, I beg you to render, as far as you can, all reverence and total adoration to the Most Holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom all things in heaven and on earth are made peaceful and are reconciled to God the Almighty.

Letter to the Whole Order

Upon Seeing A Poor Person

When you see a poor person, you are looking at a mirror of the Lord and his poor mother. So, too, in the sick you are contemplating the kind of infirmities he took upon himself for us.

Do The Impossible

Start by doing what's necessary, then what's possible and suddenly you are doing the impossible.

Preaching

It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.

Cheerfulness

It is not fitting, when one is in God's service, to have a gloomy face or chilling look.

Praying the Divine Office

With all earnestness, I ask my lord minister general to see to it that the clerics pray the Divine Office with devotion before God, not focusing on melody of voice but on harmony of mind, so that their voices be attuned to their thoughts, and their thoughts on God. Thus they will please God by the purity of their minds, and not charm people's ears with the preciousness of their singing voices.

Letter to the Whole Order

Perfect Joy

Of perfect joy-that the most precious gift which we can receive from the Holy Ghost is strength to conquer self, and to bear reproaches patiently for the love of God.

Taking God Lightly

If St. Francis heard people use lightly the words, "love of God," he didn't like it and would often rebuke them for it. He would say, "The love of God is so exalted that it should be mentioned rarely, in extreme need, and then with great reverence."

Spiritual Joy

St. Francis was sure that spiritual joy is the safest remedy against the thousand snares and wiles of the enemy. He used to say, "The devil is most happy when he can snatch from a servant of God true joy of spirit. He carries dust with him to throw into the smallest chinks of conscience and thus soil one's mental candor and purity of life. But if joy of spirit fills the heart, the serpent shoots his deadly venom in vain."

God's Special Grace In Prayer

When you are visited by the Lord in prayer, you should say, "Lord, you have sent me this comfort from heaven, even though I am a sinner and unworthy, and I entrust it to your keeping because I feel like a thief of your treasures." And when you leave your prayer, you should seem to be only a poor little sinner, and not someone especially graced by God.

We Seem To Think

by PETER MAURIN

Saint Francis thought
that to choose the poor
is just as good
as if one should marry
the most beautiful girl in the world.
We seem to think
that poor people
are social nuisances
and not the Ambassadors of God.
We seem to think
that Lady Poverty
is an ugly girl
and not the beautiful girl
that Saint Francis of Assisi
says she is.
And because we think so,
we refuse to feed the poor
with our superflous goods
and let the politicians
feed the poor
by going around
like pickpockets,
robbing Peter
to pay Paul,
and feeding the poor
by soaking the rich.

Fear Of The Lord

Where there is the fear of the Lord to guard the house, there the enemy cannot find a way to enter.

"The Early Days" As Told By St. Francis

This is how our brothers lived in the early days at the Portiuncula, the Church of Our Lady of the Angels. Although it was already a holy place, they made it even more holy by constant prayer and silence. If anyone spoke after the time set aside for silence, it was to speak devoutly and discreetly of things pertaining to the praise of God and the salvation of souls.

They curbed their desires of the flesh, not only by fasting, but also by frequent vigils, by enduring the cold in light clothing, and by working with their hands. In order to avoid idleness, they would often go and help poor farmers work in their fields, and sometimes after work the farmers would share their bread with them for the love of God. They sanctified themselves and the place by these and other virtuous acts.

Honor God's Spoken Words

I admonish you and encourage you in Christ to show all possible reverence for the written words of God wherever you may find them; and if you come upon God's words, and see that they are not being cared for or are piled up sloppily or are scattered about, gather them up and care for them, for in honoring the words, you honor the Lord who spoke them.

How many things are sanctified by means of God's words! By the power of Christ's words, in fact, the Sacrament of the Altar is celebrated.

Excuses, Excuses...

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

Blessed Is That Servant...

Blessed is that servant who bears descipline, accusations, and reprehensions from others as patiently as from himself. Blessed is that servant who mildly yields to reproof, obeys with modesty, humbly confesses his fault, and willingly makes satisfaction. Blessed is that servant who is not quick to excusing himself and who humbly bears the shame and reprehension for sin when he has committed no fault.

Goodness

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

This Is My Body! This Is My Blood!

...All those who behold the Sacrament, which is sanctified by the Word of God upon the altar in the hands of the priest, under the appearances of bread and wine, but who do not see and believe according to the Spirit and the divinity that it is really the most holy body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, are condemned. He, the Most High, has declared it, when he said, "This is my body, and the blood of the New Testament"; and "They who eat my flesh and drink my blood shall have eternal life."