Franciscan Quote of the Day

Our sins, whether we realize it or not blind us, they prevent us from truly “seeing” things as they are. That goes for those of us with advanced graduate degrees and for those of us who have high school educations. Remember the words of Jesus in Mathew’s gospel, “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see the face of God” (MT 5:8-12).

By going to confession monthly, “our eyes will be open” to reality, not a “perceived reality” projected to us by the media and the culture but reality. God’s grace is real, it is free and it is for everyone: all we need to do is ask for it! I guess the underlying question that first needs to be asked is: Are you humble enough to confess your faults and failures regularly? If you are, you will be absolutely amazed by the way you “see” life around you.

Joe Reciniello,  OH……….. FRANCESCO: “How we LOOK and how we LISTEN determine what we see and what we hear”

We are here to serve each other. Humanity’s grotesque pride and individualism has turned the idea of serving into something negative, when in fact it’s the whole point of all our life and all our relationships. In the end, the only things that truly matter are those things we do for others.

~ Thomas L. McDonald, “In Sickness and in More Sickness”

Francis echoed the theme of humility at every opportunity because it was in this way that Christ served his brothers and sisters, and it was in this way that Francis desired to serve.

~Francis of Assisi and the Future of Faith by Daniel Horan OFM

I counsel, admonish, and exhort my brothers in the Lord Jesus Christ not to quarrel or argue or judge others when they go about in the world; but let them be meek, peaceful, modest, gentle, and humble, speaking courteously to everyone, as is becoming.

~St. Francis of Assisi, The Later Rule

Our souls are like wood: the more they imbibe the oil of submission and humility the more they are set on fire with divine love.

~St. Clare of Montefalco

When a man is too sure of himself, he becomes less wary of the enemy, and if the Devil can call his own even one hair of a man’s head, he will lose no time in making a rope of it.

~St. Francis of Assisi

If any one begins to argue with you, and you wish to gain — yield; otherwise, when you believe yourself to have triumphed, you will have lost all.

~Bishop  Egidius Junger

I choose patience… I will overlook the inconveniences of the world. Instead of cursing the one who takes my place, I’ll invite him to do so. Rather than complaining that the wait is too long, I will thank God for a moment to pray. Instead of clinching my fist at new assignments, I will face them with joy and courage.

~Max Lucado via Flowing Faith.

It was because Francis saw the humility and poverty of Christ, this pattern of living without grasping, so clearly expressed in the Eucharist that he had such a great veneration of it and urged his brothers to hold it in the same veneration. The Eucharist was, if you like, the symbol of so much of what he held to be at the heart of the Gospel. And the Eucharist lies at the heart of Franciscan spirituality still for the same reasons. It puts us in touch with the living Christ as nothing else can do. In the Eucharist we see expressed Christ’s pattern of living through dying, a pattern that we are also called to make our own. And as we do that we are following Christ after the example of St Francis in a particularly powerful way.

~Gordon Plumb, St. Francis of Assisi and Eucharistic Adoration

The Latin words sine proprio in the writings of Francis are usually translated poverty, but that is a quite inadequate translation of them. They refer, rather, to a way of living without grasping (and are thus far more about attitudes and values than about intrinsic wealth or the lack of it).

For Francis the Eucharist is a sign of the sine proprio of Christ – he holds nothing of himself back for himself, but pours himself out totally in saving and redeeming grace to us in the Sacrament. And yet the Sacrament is also the means by which we may return all that we are and have to Christ, appropriating nothing of it to ourselves.

~Gordon Plumb, St. Francis of Assisi and Eucharistic Adoration

No, no I never expected that there is a short-cut that bypasses the drudgery of human experience. I don’t want one, I want to drink to the chalice of my Lord. In my case (and isn’t this the common, ordinary state?) how non-glamorous, how ignoble this chalice! What does it amount to me with me? A sense of inner fragility and faintness which taps, knocks at the wall of my body too. I seem unable to face up to any pressure. I feel faced with an immense ‘trial’ utterly beyond myself, and yet when I look, where is the trial? What have I to suffer compared to so many people? I have good health, am surrounded with love, have everything I need, and yet life itself seems more than I can bear—the unutterable loneliness and emptiness, the mystery and obscurity. Yesterday, I heard of a poor woman enduring humiliating helplessness for ten years, and now, faced with new symptoms, her splendid spirit is breaking and she can take no more. Just one of millions similarly suffering from seemingly unbearable afflictions. And what relation has my life to hers? By comparison I have nothing to suffer. It is my hope that this ‘suffering’ of mine which is nameless, which really has no right to be called suffering, this inner ‘dissolution’ should be a way through which Jesus comes to others in grief and pain. I feel overwhelmed with everything: with the beauty of the world, with its terrible pain, with its evil and ugliness, the devilish brutality of man to man–with the word of God so mighty and so obscure. I could weep my eyes out with–I don’t know what! Oh, how fragile I am, without achievement; no human victory, no human beauty, only that which is he, who experienced in all its raw bitterness the human condition.

~Carmelite Ruth Burrows quoting a friend named Petra in Guidelines for Mystical Prayer via Heather King’s fantastic blog Shirt of Flame.

Christ’s perfect humility was rooted in His complete confidence in God’s love and perfect plan. God’s perfect plan for our redemption gives us, in turn, the courage to trust Him. That trust is the basis upon which we strive for humility.

If we were all able to be as humble and obedient as Christ, the world would be a very different place. When we are open to God, we are open to grace and the Holy Spirit. We are open to accept God’s guidance in learning from our mistakes and fulfilling the potential for which He created us. We leave behind pride and open the way for joy, generosity, love, and all the other fruits of the Spirit. Those gifts can change not only our own lives, but the lives of everyone we know.

~The Power of Humility, Christopher News Notes

Christians should know better than most that we are not in ultimate control of our lives, and therefore be better at flourishing in situations which call for us to give up the illusion of control.  But are we?  Living in a culture which celebrates self-actualization above almost everything else makes this a very difficult counter-cultural practice. Indeed, I count myself among the Christians who need to get better at trusting in God and giving up the illusion of control.

~Charles Camosy, The Allure of Choice and Control: From Pete Carroll, to Defensive Medicine, to the NRA | Catholic Moral Theology

The humility and gratitude that arise from acknowledging God as the source of all good gifts should lead us to freely share those gifts with others. Hoarding our talents, resources, and power for our own good or glory is an injustice. Francis calls us to use our gifts wisely, serving God and others through good works.

~Francis of Assisi and the Future of Faith by Daniel Horan OFM

Because he lived in such a perfect state of humble existence among his sisters and brothers, Jesus was able to meet those he encountered as they were and treat them with the inherent dignity rightly deserved by virtue of their humanity. For Francis, this became a major component of his way of life and remains a characteristic of Franciscan ministry today.

~Francis of Assisi and the Future of Faith by Daniel Horan OFM

It really is a curse to be afflicted with pride. Because your chief sin is the very obstacle to understanding how much you require God’s aid. It’s a blockade. If my own opinion and way of viewing the world is always correct, if my own personal prayers are always superior to the prayers of the church, then how will I reorient myself to the reality that God is the authority of my life? I am not the authority on my life. I am not even the authority on my emotions. Could I even put into words what I’m feeling one minute to the next? Very few of the things that I will for myself are worthy of putting into words, much less a prayer. “Not my will, Thine.”

~Elizabeth Duffy

The world calls for and expects from us simplicity of life, the spirit of prayer, charity towards all, especially towards the lowly and the poor, obedience and humility… Without this mark of holiness, our word will have difficulty in touching the heart of modern man. It risks being vain and sterile.

~Pope Paul VI via Little Portion Hermitage

This spirit of humility acts as the foundation for all subsequent characteristics that compose a Franciscan approach to ministry. Francis was less concerned about what someone did in the world than about how someone did it. Here we see the saint’s admiration for the humility of Christ emerge as part of the centerpiece of his spirituality; to be a Franciscan is to live the Gospel by following in the footprints of Jesus Christ.

~Francis of Assisi and the Future of Faith by Daniel Horan OFM

As I was reminded by a wise religious sister of the Servants of God’s Presence, the sisters of Heart’s Home, there is a difference between action and activism. A true action is one done through, with, in, and for God—one that is filled with meaning, purpose, and God’s grace. Activism on the other hand is the temptation to do things just to do them, to do things for myself so that I’ll feel competent, important, in control. How easy it is to cross that line! Even the truest, purest action is plagued by the human tendency to fall into activism.

~Katherine Infantine, First Thoughts | A First Things Blog

But on the earthly plane the ascension into paradise seems to begin in just such homely acts as putting on a good face and pretending to enjoy the Christmas candy. Someone breaks a lunch date to which we’d been looking forward for weeks. Instead of showing we’re hurt, we can say, “I’d so still love to see you! When can we reschedule?” A friend inadvertently upstages our birthday party with the announcement of her pregnancy: we take a bit of a back seat and rejoice for her with the rest of the guests. That’s not dishonesty; that’s maturity. That’s refraining from making every little thing about us. That’s caring about the spiritual well-being of the other. That’s wearing the world like a loose garment.

~Heather King, Shirt of Flame: A Year with Saint Therese of Lisieux