We Need A Modern Day St. Francis To Save Our Church From Ruin

 

Pope Innocent recalled a certain vision he had had a few days before, which, he affirmed, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, would be fulfilled in Francis. He had seen in his sleep the Lateran basilica about to fall to ruin, when a certain religious, small and despised, propped it up by putting his own back under it lest it fall. "Surely," he said, "this is that man who, by his works and by teaching of Christ, will give support to the Church."

Saint Francis of Assisi
Celano, Second Life
CHAPTER XI

T

Beware Of Accepting Lavish Churches And Houses

 

Photo of the Portiuncula Franciscan Chapel 

located adjacent to the Immaculate Conception Cemetery in Ozark, Ohio 

in the Diocese of Steubenville

As a sign of holy poverty and humility, blessed Francis decreed that the churches of the friars were to be small and their houses to be built with only wood and clay. For he wanted the friary of St. Mary of the Portiuncula to be a pattern especially for buildings constructed of wood and clay, so that it might be a permanent memorial for all friars, present and to come, since it was the first and chief house of the whole Order. But some of the friars opposed him in this matter, saying that in some Provinces timber was more costly than stone, so that it did not seem sensible that their houses should be built of wood and clay.

But blessed Francis refused to argue with them, especially since he was nearing death and seriously ill. So he had it to be written in his Testament: "Friars are to beware of accepting churches, houses, and all other places built for them unless they conform to holy poverty; and they are always to lodge in them as pilgrims and strangers."

Saint Francis of Assisi
Mirror of Perfection - 11

T

Prone To Evil

 

Tomb of the Unborn Child on the campus of 

the Franciscan University of Steubenville

Take care lest, when the dung of worthlessness has been placed at your roots, you be found sterile, for then there will remain nothing but that the axe be put to you. Do not trust entirely the spirit that is in now in you, for man's senses are more prone to evil than to good, even though it may have been considerably separated from it.

Saint Francis of Assisi
Sacrum Commercium - 54

T