Franciscan Quote of the Day

Consider and see how the day of death approaches. With all respect I beg of you not to forget God amid the many distracting occupations in which your life is spent and do not wander from the way of His Commandments.

~ St Francis of Assisi

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

Those brothers to whom the Lord has given the grace of working may work faithfully and devotedly so that, while avoiding idleness, the enemy of the soul, they do not extinguish the Spirit of holy prayer and devotion to which all temporal things must contribute.

~St. Francis of Assisi, The Later Rule

They must be careful not to be angry or disturbed at the sin of another, for anger and disturbance impede charity in themselves and in others.

~St. Francis of Assisi, The Later Rule

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

Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to his beloved is that of overcoming self.

~St. 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

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

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

~St. Francis of Assisi

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

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

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

~~St. Francis of Assisi

If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.

~St. Francis of Assisi

Preach the Gospel at all times and, when necessary, use words.

~St. Francis of Assisi