Lovingly Contemplate Poverty And Weakness

Appalachian Poverty

The Portiuncula Hermitage is located in Jerusalem, Ohio, 

in the foothills of Appalachia

(experiencing the country's highest unemployment rate)

Once Blessed Francis  had gone to the hermitage of the brothers near Roccabrizia. A poor, miserable and sick man came in search of him. Francis said to the brothers, "When you see a poor man, you must consider the one in whose name he comes, namely, Christ, who took upon himself our poverty and weakness. The poverty and sickness of mankind are, therefore, a mirror in which we ought to contemplate lovingly the poverty and weakness which our Lord Jesus Christ suffered in his body for the human race."

Saint Francis of Assisi

Legend of Perugia - 89

T