Franciscan Quote of the Day

The Preacher: Meantime, why don’t you put me to work?

Hull Barret: Oh no, I couldn’t ask you to, uh… Well, I mean, ya know – maybe if there was somethin’ spiritual.

The Preacher: Well, that Spirit ain’t worth spit without a little exercise. Now you tell me where.

~Pale Rider (1985)

Possibly related quotes:

• But in how great an error…
• We are not…
• This is our destiny…

It means the state of a soul caught up, so to say, in God’s machinery, for whom the supernatural life is more real than the natural.

~Father Jean-Pierre de Caussade, Self-Abandonment to Divine Providence

Possibly related quotes:

• Only the child-like…
• To have defects…
• To discover God…

Humility and simplicity belong together; Where we have no wish to compete with our neighbour; Where we can be open and helpful; Where we can comfort the distressed, And encourage those who are left behind. Humility is what Peter called; “The imperishable jewel of a gentle and quiet spirit”. (1 Peter 3:4)

~Third Order, Society of Saint Francis, Lenten  Reflection Day 23

Possibly related quotes:

• Regardless of the consequences
• Where there is…
• Silence frees us…

A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual at all. No man can serve two masters. Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire.

~Thomas Merton

Possibly related quotes:

• Promises
• Only the child-like…
• Without a little exercise…

While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.

~St. Francis of Assisi

Possibly related quotes:

• You cannot be too gentle…
• He prepared to obey…
• You have no enemy except yourselves

I cannot discover God in myself and myself in Him unless I have the courage to face myself exactly as I am, with all my limitations, and to accept others as they are, with all their limitations.

~ Thomas Merton (Another great quote from what is quickly becoming one of my favorite web stopping places — Little Portion Hermitage)

Possibly related quotes:

• Then discover that God is present
• The self we become in true prayer…
• Regardless of the consequences

The alarming, effervescent, energizing, and contagious freedom of the saints flows from their having learned this lesson. They no longer gauge their actions or decisions by what other people will think of them. And so they don’t live in fear, instability, and hesitancy. Rather, they have discovered that God’s love for them is as firm as the mountains (as the Psalms tell us). They don’t need to earn it; they just humbly accept it. And once they do, it propels them to echo and reflect it spontaneously and joyfully, regardless of the consequences.

~Fr John Bartunek, LC, STL, “A Question about the Litany of Humility in Lent – How can I be freed from the desire of being loved?”

Possibly related quotes:

• Happiness is…
• Then discover that God is present
• Only the child-like…

Abbot Pastor said: “If you have a chest full of clothing, and leave it for a long time, the clothing will rot inside it. It is the same with the thoughts in our heart. If we do not carry them out by physical action, after a long while they will spoil and turn bad.”

Thomas Merton, The Wisdom of the Desert

Possibly related quotes:

• You cannot be too gentle…
• While you are proclaiming peace…
• Where there is…

Trust in God experienced—not contemplated—is the most liberating thing in the world.

~Marion Fernandez-Cueto, Surrender the Choosing: A Lenten Journey Toward Trust

Possibly related quotes:

• Only the child-like…
• Imitate little children…
• Grateful to all creatures…

It is impossible for a person who prays regularly to remain in serious sin; because the two are incompatible, one or the other will have to be given up.

~St.Teresa of Avila

Possibly related quotes:

• Remembrance of wrongs…
• What no-one else asks for…
• Walking, sitting, eating, or drinking…

I’d like to thank Guy Kawasaki and his team for including Franciscan Quote of the Day on Alltop’s Religion page. I’m honored. After all, FranciscanQotD is only a little more than two months old.  Alltop is a really great idea. It can be thought of as a “digital magazine rack” designed to “help you explore your passions by collecting stories from ‘all the top’ sites on the web” (Alltop. All the top. Get it?). They have pages for dozens of topics and they’re adding more all the time. Check it out. I guarantee you’ll find a really useful or cool site you had no idea existed.

Possibly related quotes:

• No related quotes.

While he was in this affected state, something absolutely unheard-of occurred. The crucifix moved its lips and began to speak. “Francis,” it said, calling him by name, “go and repair my house, which, as you see, is completely destroyed.” Francis was stupefied and nearly deranged by this speech. He prepared to obey, surrendering himself completely to the project. But since he considered the change in him to be beyond description, it is best for us to be silent about what he himself could not describe. From then on compassion for the crucified one was imprinted in his holy soul and, one may devoutly suspect, the stigmata of the holy passion were deeply imprinted in his heart, though not yet in his flesh.

~Thomas of Celano, First and Second Lives of Saint Francis

Possibly related quotes:

• While you are proclaiming peace…
• He plunged after poverty…
• You cannot be too gentle…

No one is to be called an enemy, all are your benefactors, and no one does you harm. You have no enemy except yourselves.

~St. Francis of Assisi

Possibly related quotes:

• While you are proclaiming peace…
• When Necessary
• The way of perfection…

His good life, his gentleness and patience, his almost superhuman readiness to oblige, together with his generosity which exceeded his means, and his pleasant manner were so many indications which marked him out as a young man. They seemed to be almost a foretaste of things to come, indicating that the abundance of God’s blessings would be heaped upon him more plentifully than ever in the future.

~St. Bonaventure, Major Life of St. Frances

Possibly related quotes:

• To have defects…
• To be a witness…
• Only the child-like…

To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda, nor even in stirring people up, but in being a living mystery. It means to live in such a way that one’s life would not make sense if God did not exist.

~Cardinal Suhard

Possibly related quotes:

• To have defects…
• The way of perfection…
• Only the child-like…

Remembrance of wrongs is the consummation of anger, the keeper of sins, hatred of righteousness, ruin of virtues, poison of the soul, worm of the mind, shame of prayer, cessation of supplication, estrangement of love, a nail stuck in the soul, pleasureless feeling cherished in the sweetness of bitterness, continuous sin, unsleeping transgression, hourly malice.

~St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent via Scott’s Catholicism Blog

Possibly related quotes:

• Walking, sitting, eating, or drinking…
• Only the child-like…
• One or the other will have to be given up

For His Kingdom is ruled from the throne of the Cross, and to be ambitious within it is to want to place oneself below others as their servant and slave. This is why the Cross is the salvation of the world; It undermines and subverts all of the quiet and respectable violences by which we try to ‘get ahead’ of each other in the selfish mess of our lives. The Cross is the escape from the cycles of violence by which we build fleeting securities and comforts for ourselves at the expense of the flourishing of others.

~Brother Charles, in his blog post: “Drink The Cup, If You’re So Special“

Possibly related quotes:

• God has given away everything…
• Remember that they have given themselves…
• I am prepared to endure with joy…

Wherever they may be, let all my brothers remember that they have given themselves and abandoned their bodies to the Lord Jesus Christ. For love of him they must make themselves vulnerable to their enemies, both visible and invisible, because the Lord says: Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it in eternal life.

~St. Francis of Assisi, The Earlier Rule

Possibly related quotes:

• The way of perfection…
• Only the child-like…
• Do not extinguish the spirit of holy prayer…

I have been all things unholy. If God can work through me, He can work through anyone.

~~St. Francis of Assisi

Possibly related quotes:

• The Shelter of Compassion and Pity
• You have no enemy except yourselves
• Without a little exercise…