Franciscan Quote of the Day

The vision which has been so faintly suggested in these pages has never been confined to monks or even to friars. It has been an inspiration to innumerable crowds of ordinary married men and women; living lives like our own, only entirely different.

~G.K. Chesterton, Saint Francis of Assisi

He would tell his sons that she was the way of perfection, the pledge and earnest of eternal riches. No one was so greedy of gold as he of poverty; no one more careful in guarding a treasure than he in guarding this pearl of the Gospel.

~Thomas of Celano, The Second Life of St. Francis of Assisi

He plunged after poverty as men have dug madly for gold. And it is precisely the positive and passionate quality of this part of his personality that is a challenge to the modern mind in the whole problem of the pursuit of pleasure. There undeniably is the historical fact; and there attached to it is another moral fact almost as undeniable. It is certain that he held on this heroic or unnatural course from the moment when he went forth in his hair-shirt into the winter woods to the moment when he desired even in his death agony to lie bare upon the bare ground, to prove that he had and that he was nothing. And we can say, with almost as deep a certainty, that the stars which passed above that gaunt and wasted corpse stark upon the rocky floor had for once, in all their shining cycles round the world of labouring humanity, looked down upon a happy man.

~G.K. Chesterton, Saint Francis of Assisi

Never was any man so little afraid of his promises. His life was one riot of rash vows; of rash vows that turned out right.

~G.K. Chesterton, Saint Francis of Assisi

Many thousand things that I now partly comprehend I should have thought utterly incomprehensible, many things I now hold sacred I should have scouted as utterly superstitious, many things that seem to me lucid and enlightened now they are seen from the inside I should honestly have called dark and barbarous seen from the outside, when long ago in those days of boyhood my fancy first caught fire with the glory of Francis of Assisi.

~G.K. Chesterton, Saint Francis of Assisi

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)

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

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

St. Francis was accustomed not to pass over any visitation of the Spirit with negligence. When indeed such was offered, he followed it, and as long as the Lord would permit, he would enjoy the sweetness offered him. When, therefore, while he was pressed by some business or was intent upon a journey, he would taste the sweetest manna in frequent snatches.

~Celano, Second Life, Chapter LXI (via a post on the blog Portiuncula: the Little Portion)

The encounter with the leper made St. Francis.

~Mother Teresa (quote found in this americancatholic.org article)

In choosing “failure” from the outset, Francis frees himself from the enormous burden of the opinion of others. Beginning with his own father, he rejects knowing who he is only through others. He becomes a free man, a man whose identity comes from God.

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

Then the holy lover of complete humility went to the lepers and lived with them, serving them most diligently for God’s sake; and washing all foulness from them, he wiped away also the corruption of the ulcers, just as he said in his Testament: “When I was in sins, it seemed extremely bitter to me to look at lepers, and the Lord himself led me among them and I practiced mercy with them.”

~Thomas of Celano, First Life of Saint Francis

Tomorrow is World Leprosy Day. You can learn more about this important effort to increase awareness about this terrible disease at their website: http://www.worldleprosydayusa.org/index.php.