WELLSPRINGS
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Saint Francis of Assisi
The Essential Good News
Saint Francis - wounded healer
- St Francis
- A Song from Francis to Clare
- A Song from Francis to God
- Portrait of a poor man
- Testament
- Blessing
Saint Clare, the new woman
Saint Colette, Faith in the future
Rebuild
My Church
.... A
happy man in a ragged tunic took a hand cart half full of stones and
toiled up the steep streets of Assisi - "Anyone who gives me a stone
will get a blessing! And if you give me two stones you'll get two blessings."
The reactions varied from "You're the son of a rich merchant - get your
Dad to pay" to the surreptitious widow's mite - half a cold pastry to
feed the would-be church builder. This scanty fare he shared with the
old beggar who followed him around. The children mocked him and threw
mud at him. But Francis lived in a place of joy which human contempt
could no longer reach, and he went on singing in French, "Come and help
me build Saint Damians.... For he was a jongleur at heart.
.... It
was a hot, humid day, the road was steep and Francis, whose family had
long since rejected him, came face to face with his younger brother.
The brother looked at him over superciliously. "For how much will you
sell me your sweat, Francis?"
.... Francis
shook his head, "I can get a higher price from God." Beyond his brother
he saw his father, Pietro Bernadone. The old man spat at him and cursed.
They had been through all this before. "These days, I only call God
in heaven, my Father," he replied, "but I must have someone to bless
me". Francis turned to the old beggar who followed him. " You give me
a Father's blessing, old Uncle," he said, and knelt at the beggar's
feet.
.... Like
Nazareth, Assisi was an ordinary town. It took great perseverance and
miracles to impress inhabitants so reluctant to have prophets in their
midst. Francis was born in 1181. He belonged to the minores - the non-noble
end of the town, [unlike Clare, who was one of the, majores, the aristocracy.]
His father, a rich merchant bent on social climbing, had him educated
with knighthood in view. When in a political shake up the Imperial nobility,
Clare along with them, were exiled, Francis would have been among those
who helped to pull down the Rocca, the residence of the Imperial Vicar.
.... However,
the wheel turned and Francis found himself a prisoner of war in Perugia.
In the miserable wait to be ransomed, God slowly began inserting new
ideas into his head, and when he got home, still nursing jail Fever,
people began to notice a change. In a series of symbolic events God
spoke to him. Three of them formed the direction of his life.
horseback, was crossing the plain of Assisi, probably near to the place
along the road from St Mary's, where subsequently, he was to have his
Leprosarium. A leper approached. They were alone. This time, Francis did
not run away; he dismounted and handed the leper an alms, then he took
the fingerless hand that had received it, and kissed it.
....
"We are servants and should be subject to every human creature
for God's sake. On all those who do this and endure to the last the Spirit
of God will rest, he will make his dwelling in them and there he will
stay, and they will be the children of your father in Heaven whose work
they do. It is they who are the brides, the brothers and the mothers of
our Lord Jesus Christ. A person is a bride when his faithful soul is united
with Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit; we are his brothers when we do the
will of his Father who is in heaven, and we are mothers when we enthrone
him in our hearts and souls by love with a pure and sincere conscience,
and give birth to him by doing good..." [Letter to all the Faithful]