Franciscan Quote of the Day

Franciscan prayer is not an escape from the world but an entrance into it. We become conscious in prayer of how much the world is with us and we are in the world.

~Ilia Delio, Franciscan Prayer

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

For those who think the world has gone mad, remember this is not our first rodeo. Sanity has only been with us in bits and pieces throughout history. Evil and persecution is a mainstay on this planet. For a time, some of us were lured into complacency back when television was wholesome, babies were protected blessings, and it seemed we all agreed on what was evil and what was good.

~Patti Maguire Armstrong, This is Not Our First Rodeo, But is it Our Last? : Catholic Stand

If you are what you are meant to be, you will set the world on fire.

~St. Catherine of Siena

You cannot please both God and the world at the same time. They are utterly opposed to each other in their thoughts, their desires, and their actions.

~St. John Vianney

“If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze!”

~St. Catherine of Siena

To hold our tongues when everyone is gossiping, to smile without hostility at people and institutions, to compensate for the shortage of love in the world with more love in small, private matters; to be more faithful in our work, to show greater patience, to forgo the cheap revenge obtainable from mockery and criticism: all these are things we can do.

~Hermann Hesse (via The Hammock Papers)

Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good.

~Thomas Sowell as quoted on Execupundit.com

As a Franciscan my home is everywhere, but also nowhere in this world. It’s a gospel challenge, but it’s also a gospel freedom.

~Brother Charles, “First Spanish Mass“.

We spend money we don’t have on things we don’t need to create impressions that won’t last on people we don’t care about.

~Tim Jackson, Prof. Of Sustainable Development, University of Surrey as quoted on the blog Wrestling with Angels…

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

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.

~C. K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong with the World

Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive, as we did during World War II. And then, to mention the subject at all is to be greeted with howls of anger. It is not that people think this too high and difficult a virtue; it is that they think it hateful and contemptible. ‘That sort of thing makes me sick.’ they say. And half of you already want to ask me, ‘I wonder how you’d feel about forgiving the Gestapo if you were a Pole or a Jew?’

So do I. I wonder very much. Just as when Christianity tells me that I must not deny my religion even to save myself from death or torture, I wonder very much what I should do when it came to the point. I am not trying to tell you in this book what I could do—I can do precious little—I am telling you what Christianity is. I did not invent it. And there, right in the middle of it, I find, ‘Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.’ There is no slightest suggestion that we are offered forgiveness on any other terms. It is made perfectly clear that if we do not forgive we shall not be forgiven. There are no two ways about it.

~ C. S. Lewis, via a post on the Little Portion Hermitage blog.

We are disciples of Jesus Christ whose power and influence reach to most corners of the world. We are called to bring healing, help and hope to the places where it is needed most, especially to the most vulnerable of our fellow members of the Body of Christ. We, too, have the Spirit of the Lord upon us, and we have been anointed to embody the mission of Christ in our lives and in our world.

This is our destiny; this is what we are called to do. The greatest tragedy of all would be for us to settle for anything less.

~Francis Gunn, OFM from “Thoughts on Impact of Haiti’s Catastrophe“

In all your affairs rely wholly on divine Providence, through which alone you must look for success; labor, nevertheless, quietly on your part to cooperate with its designs, and then you may be assured, if you trust as you ought in God; the success which shall come to you shall be always that which is the most profitable for you, whether it appear good or bad according to your private judgment. Imitate little children who, as they with one hand hold fast by their father, and with the other gather strawberries or blackberries along the hedges; so you, gathering and handling the goods of this world with one hand, must with the other always hold fast the hand of your heavenly Father, turning yourself towards him from time to time to see if your actions or occupations be pleasing to him; but above all things take heed that you never leave his protecting hand nor think to gather more, for should he forsake you, you will not be able to go a step further without falling to the ground.

~Saint Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life

We lose everything which we leave behind in this world; we can bring with us only the right to a reward for our charity and the alms we have given.

~St. Francis of Assisi, Rule of 1221

In Jesus Christ, God has given away everything it means to be God, and has lavishly bestowed upon us every blessing of the divine life. And we are called to imitate God by wasting the best of ourselves on each other, to give of ourselves for the life and happiness of the other. That’s what it means to give up your life for the life of the world, just like Jesus does on the Cross.

Brother Charles, in his blog post: “The Gospel of Prosperity“

I counsel, admonish and beg my brothers that, when they travel about the world, they should not be quarrelsome, dispute with words, or criticize others, but rather should be gentle, peaceful and unassuming, courteous and humble, speaking respectfully to all as is fitting.

~St. Francis of Assisi, 1209 Rule (found on the blog Almost Catholic)