Franciscan Quote of the Day

It pleases me that you should read sacred theology to the brothers so long as on account of this study they do not extinguish the spirit of holy prayer as is ordained in the Rule.

~St. Francis of Assisi, via AlmostCatholic

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve -
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for help, that I might do greater things -
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.
I asked for riches, that I might be happy -
I was given poverty, that I might be wise.
I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life -
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I asked for -
But everything that I had hoped for.
Despite myself, my prayers were answered.
I am, among all men, most richly blessed.

~Prayer/poem written by an anonymous Confederate soldier during the Civil War via Michael Wade blog Execupundit

Lord,
may our evening prayer come before you
and let the faith our lips profess
live in the prayerful thoughts of our hearts.

~Liturgy of the Hours, Evening Prayer for Tuesday in Ordinary Time, Week IV

Pita: Dear God, I do not ask for health or wealth. People ask you so often that you can’t have any left. Give me, God, what else you have. Give me what no-one else asks for. Amen.

~Man on Fire (A 2004 film directed by Tony Scott)

Walking, sitting, eating, or drinking, St. Francis was always intent upon prayer. He would go alone to pray at night in churches abandoned and located in deserted places, where, under the protection of divine grace, he overcame many fears and many disturbances of mind.

~St. Francis of Assisi, Celano, First Life, Chapter XXVII (thanks to Portiuncula: the Little Portion)

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

Oh, the liberty that is released in our hearts when we let go of the opinions of others! The less we are mesmerized by human voices, the more we are able to hear the Divine voice. The less we are manipulated by the expectations of others, the more we are open to the expectations of God.

~Richard Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home (quote found via the Twitter feeds of Jonathan McIntosh and Caleb Sigler. Thanks guys!)

We must pray without tiring, for the salvation of mankind does not depend on material success; nor on sciences that cloud the intellect. Neither does it depend on arms and human industries, but on Jesus alone.

– Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini (via Saint Quote of the Day)

Who we become in God is then his work and not our own success in conforming to some ideal. The self we become in true prayer is seldom the self we envisioned, but it is a new and marvelous self that God fashions out of the gradual redeeming of the false self we now acknowledge as the work of our own misguided idealism. We then know God in what he has done in us to enable us to discover our true face. And in that face only do we see the reflection of God as he really is.

~Murray Bodo, O.F.M. — The Way of St. Francis: The Challenge of Franciscan Spirituality for Everyone

We commune with God as we honestly are and not as we would like to be. The idealized self is always dying in prayer, because it cannot bear the truth. And if we let it die and pray from who we are becoming, then our image of God changes as we understand more clearly who we are.

~Murray Bodo, O.F.M. — The Way of St. Francis: The Challenge of Franciscan Spirituality for Everyone