Pride And Vainglory

Beware of all pride and vainglory. Keep yourselves from the wisdom of this world and the prudence of the flesh. For the spirit of the flesh is desirous and very eager for words but does little to carry them out. And it does not seek the interior spirit of religion and holiness but desires of religion and holiness only what is outwardly apparent to people. It is of these that the Lord says, "In truth I tell you, they have had their reward" (Matthew 6:2).

Saint Francis of Assisi
Rule 1221, Chapter XVII

Worldly Busyness And Worry

We need to be especially alert to the evil subtlety of Satan. His one desire is to keep people from having a mind and heart disposed to their Lord and God.

He circles, lusting to snatch away the human heart by the ruse of some gain or assistance and to stifle remembrance of the word and precepts of the Lord.

He wants to extinguish the light of the human heart, and so he moves in by means of worldly busyness and worry.

Saint Francis of Assisi
Rule of 1221, Chapter XXII

They Have Not Rejected You, But Me

"And the word of the Lord came to me, saying" "Return, O Sulamitess: return that we may behold thee. These children provoke me to anger and they will not hearken to you, because they will not hearken to me. The heart of this people is become hard of belief and provoking; for they have not rejected you, but me."

Saint Francis of Assisi
Sacrum Commercium
CHAPTER IV - 52

Richmond Catholic Community Charismatic Prayer Group Meeting July 20th

The Richmond Catholic Community Charismatic Renewal Prayer Group will be meeting this Sunday, July 20th, from 7:00-9:00 P.M. in the basement of Seton East.

Everyone is invited to attend!

Franciscan Associates Meeting July 19th

The monthly meeting of the Richmond Catholic Community Franciscan Associates will be this Saturday, July 19th at 11:30 in the basement of Seton West.

Everyone is invited to attend!

A Rapture Of Contemplation

St. Francis would never let any call of the Spirit go unanswered; when he experienced it, he would make the most of it and enjoy the consolation afforded him in this way for as long as God permitted it. If he was on a journey, and felt the near approach of God's Spirit, he would stop and let his companions go on, while he drank in the joy of this new inspiration; he refused to offer God's grace an ineffectual welcome( 2 Dorinthians 6:1). He was often taken out of himself in a rapture of contemplation, so that he was lost in ecstacy and had no idea what was going on about him, while he experienced things which were beyond human understanding.

Saint Francis of Assisi
Bonaventure, Major Life
CHAPTER X : 2

Congressman Mike Pence Awarded 2008 Distinguished Christian Statesman Award

2008 Distinguished Christian Statesman Award




D. James Kennedy Center for Christian Statesmanship honors Indiana
Congressman

June 28, 2008 -- The D. James Kennedy Center for Christian Statesmanship (CCS) honored Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana on Wednesday evening at a dinner in the Cannon Caucus Room on Capitol Hill. Dr. George Roller, Executive Director of the Center, along with the Rev. John Sorensen, President of Evangelism Explosion International, and Anne Kennedy, widow
of the late D. James Kennedy, presented the Distinguished Christian Statesman award to Pence, thanking him for his exemplary conduct in public office.

A Christian Statesman is one whose commitment to Christ and love of country compel him or her to stand for truth and righteousness in government. Pence is the thirteenth recipient of this award. Previous awardees include Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, Rep. Mike McIntyre, Sen. Dan
Coates, Judge Roy Moore, Director of U.S. Office of Personnel, Kay Coles James, Sen. Sam Brownback and Rep. Todd Akin.

In accepting the award, Mike Pence said he had been greatly influenced by the ministry of D. James Kennedy. "The Center for Christian Statesmanship is a model of faith in action - action which has been and continues to be a blessing to scores of Congressional staff as well as
Members of Congress," said Pence. "I am deeply humbled to be chosen as the 'Distinguished Christian Statesman of 2008.' To join the company of those statesmen who have been chosen in the past is a great honor."

The Center for Christian Statesmanship is a part of the international outreach of Evangelism Explosion International, the first Christian ministry to reach into every nation on earth. Sorensen said that, "the work on Capitol Hill fits perfectly into the vision of Evangelism
Explosion, which is fulfilling the Great Commission and spreading the gospel to all people in this generation."

Admonition VII

Good works must follow knowledge.

A man has been killed by the letter when he wants to know quotations only so that people will think he is very learned and he can make money to give to his relatives and friends.

Saint Francis of Assisi

The Admonitions

Admonition VI

The Imitation of Christ

We ought to be ashamed of ourselves; the saints endured all that (trials and persecutions, in ignominy, hunger, and thirst, in humiliations and temptations), but we who are servants of God try to win honour and glory by recounting and making known what they have done. 

Saint Francis of Assisi

The Admonitions

Admonition V

No one should give way to pride but boast in the cross of the Lord.

If you were the most handsome and the richest man in the world, and could work wonders and drive out devils, all that would be something extrinsic to you; it would not belong to you and you could not boast of it. But there is one thing of which we can all boast; we can boast of our humiliations (2 Corinthians 12:15) and in taking up daily the holy cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Saint Francis of Assisi

The Admonitions

Admonition IV

No one should claim the office of superior as his own.

Those who are put in charge of others should be no prouder of their office than if they had been appointed to wash the feet of their confreres. They should be no more upset at the loss of their authority than they would be if they were deprived of the task of washing feet. The more they are upset, the greater risk they incur to their souls.

Saint Francis of Assisi

The Admonitions

Admonition III

Perfect and Imperfect Obedience

There are many religious who under the pretext of doing something more perfect than what their superior commands look behind and go back to their own will that they have given up (Proverbs 26:11). People like that are murderers, and by their bad example they cause the loss of many souls.

Saint Francis of Assisi

The Admonitions

Admonition II

The Evil of Self Will

A man eats of the tree that brings knowledge of good when he claims that his good will comes from himself alone and prides himself on the Good that God says and does in him.

Saint Francis of Assisi

The Admonitions

Admonition I of Saint Francis of Assisi

I. The Blessed Sacrament

Our Lord Jesus told his disciples, I am the way, and the truth, and the life

That is why all those were condemned who saw the Lord Jesus Christ in his humanity but did not see or believe in spirit in his divinity, that he was the true Son of God. In the same way now, all those are damned who who see the sacrament of the Body of Christ which is consecrated on the altar in the form of bread and wine by the words of our Lord in the hands of the priest, and do not see or believe in spirit and in God that it is really the most holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the Most High himself who told us, "This is my Body and Blood of the new covenant" (Mark 14:22-24), and "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has everlasting life" (John 6:55).

Saint Francis of Assisi

The Admonitions

Note: The Admonitions are found in the Assisi MS. 338, the Orgissanti MS., the thirteenth-century MS. in the Laurentian library at Florence, and in some twenty-one other manuscripts. Since the manuscripts are unanimous in attributing them to St. Francis, there can be no question as to their authenticity.

The Portiuncula Is To Be An Example

Blessed Francis caused it to be written down in his Testament that all the houses of the brothers were to be made of clay and wood as a sign of holy poverty and humility and that the churches built for them were to be small. On this specific point of building with wood and mud, it was his wish that St. Mary of the Portiuncula the first friary where the Lord began to multiply the brothers, be taken as an example. He wanted this friary always to be a model and a reminder to the present and future brothers.

Saint Francis of Assisi

Legend of Perugia - 77

Poverty Is The Special Way To Salvation

When the friars asked him privately what virtue made one dearest to Christ, he replied as if revealing his closest secret, "Believe me, my brothers, poverty is the special way of salvation. It is the source of humility and the root of all perfection and its fruit is manifold, although unseen. This is the treasure hidden in the field in the Gospel to by which we must sell all - and anything that cannot be sold should be abandoned for love of it."

Saint Francis of Assisi
Bonaventure - Major Life
CHAPTER VII : 2

Love Money As Much As Dung

Francis, the true friend and imitator of Christ, utterly despised all things belonging to this world, and hated money above all else. He always urged his brethren both by word and example to avoid it as they would the devil. And he told the friars to have as little love and use for money as for dung.

Saint Francis of Assisi

Mirror of Perfection - 14

Richmond Catholic Community Charismatic Prayer Group Meeting July 20th

The monthly meeting of the Richmond Catholic Community Charismatic Prayer Group will meet on July 20, 2008 in the basement of St. Mary Church 710 North A Street Richmond, IN 47374.

"I have no hesitation in saying that all pastoral initiatives must be set in relation to holiness....Stressing holiness remains more than ever an urgent pastoral task....

"Our Christian communities must become genuine 'schools' of prayer, where the meeting with Christ is expressed no just in imploring help, but also in thanksgiving, praise, adoration, contemplation, listening, and ardent devotion until the heart truly 'falls in love.' Intense prayer, yes, but it does not distract us from our commitment to history: by opening our heart to the love of God it also opens it to the love of our brothers and sisters, and makes us capable of shaping history according to God's plan."

Pope John Paul II

NMI 30,33

For additional information, please Email Chris Dickson at: dicksoncorp@parallax.ws

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.

Wrongfully Criticizing The Poor

When blessed Francis had gone to preach at a house of the friars near Rocca Brizzi, it happened that on the day he was due to preach, a poor, sick man came to him. Full of compassion for him, he began to speak about the man's poverty and sickness to his companion. And his companion said to him, 'Brother, it is true that this man seems poor enough, but it ma be that no one in the whole Province has a greater desire for riches.' He was at once severely rebuked by blessed Francis, and confessed his fault. Then the Father said to him, 'Are you ready to perform your penance that I give you?' 'I will do it willingly,' he replied. And he said to him, 'Go and remove your habit, and throw yourself naked at the poor man's feet, and tell him how you have sinned in speaking ill of him, and ask him to pray for you.' So the friar went and did all that blessed Francis had told him. And the Father said to him, 'Do you want to know how you sinned against him, and against Christ Himself? Whenever you see a poor man, remember Christ in Whose Name he comes, and how He took upon Himself our poverty and weakness.'

Saint Francis of Assisi
Mirror of Perfection - 37