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A most sublime gift of heavenly contemplation and prayer, was the fruit of this great saint's holy retirement. Whole nights seemed to him short in those exercises, and when the rising sun in the morning seemed too soon to call him from his knees, to his manual labor or other employments, he would lament that the incomparable sweetness which he enjoyed, in the more perfect freedom with which his heart was taken up in heavenly contemplation in the silent watching of the night, should be interrupted or abated. But the foundation of his most ardent charity, and that sublime contemplation by which his soul soared in noble an lofty flights above all earthly things, was laid in the purity and disengagement of his affections, the contempt of the world, a most profound humility, and the universal mortification of his senses and of the powers of his soul. Hence flowed that constant tranquility and serenity of his mind, which was the best proof of a perfect mastery of his passions. St. Athanasius observes of him, that after thirty years spent in the closest solitude, "he appeared not to others with a sullen or savage, but with a most obliging, sociable air." A heart that is filled with inward peace, simplicity, goodness, and charity, is a stranger to a lowering or contracted look. The main point in Christian mortification is the humiliation of the heart, one of its principal ends being the subduing of the passions. Hence, true virtue always increases the sweetness and gentleness of the mind, though this is attended with an invincible constancy, and an inflexible firmness in every point of duty. That devotion or self-denial is false or defective, which betrays us into pride or uncharitableness; and whatever makes us sour, morose, or peevish, makes us certainly worse, and instead of begetting in us a nearer resemblance of the divine nature, gives us a strong tincture of the temper of the devils.
The opening up of the human heart and seeing every person as my brother and sister in humanity. Sounds great ... . Sounds great. But it's a road ... and a painful road ... but a beautiful road.
"Brother Leo, though the Brothers Minor throughout all the world were great examples of sanctity and true edifying, rather write it down and take heed diligently that not therein is perfect joy." And going on a little further, St. Francis called a second time: "O Brother Leo, albeit the Brothers Minor should give sight to the blind, make straight the crooked, cast out devils, make the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, the dumb to speak, and (greater still) should raise them that have been dead a four days' space, write that not herein is perfect joy." And going on a little, he cried aloud: "O Brother Leo, if the Brother Minor should know all tongues and all sciences and all scriptures, so that he could prophesy and reveal not only things to come but also the secrets of consciences and souls, write that not therein is perfect joy." . . . And going on a little further, St. Francis cried aloud: "O Brother Leo, albeit the Brother Minor could preach so well as to turn all the infidels to the faith of Christ, write, write that not therein is perfect joy." And this manner of speech continuing for full two miles, Brother Leo with much marvel besought him, saying: "Father, I pray thee in the name of God that thou tell me wherein is perfect joy."
And St. Francis thus made the answer: "When we come to St. Mary of the Angels, all soaked as we are with rain and numbed with cold and besmirched with mud and tormented with hunger and knock at the door; and the porter comes in anger and says: 'Who are ye?' and we say: 'We be two of your brethren'; and he says: 'Ye be no true men; nay, ye be two rogues and gad about deceiving the world and robbing the alms of the poor, get ye gone'; and thereat he shuts to the door and makes us stand without in the snow and the rain, cold and a-hungered, till nightfall; if therewithal we patiently endure such wrong and such cruelty and such rebuffs without being disquieted and without murmuring against him; and with humbleness and charity bethink us that this porter knows us full well and that God makes him speak against us; O Brother Leo, write that herein is perfect joy. And if we be instant in knocking and he come out full of wrath and drive us away as importunate knaves, with insults and buffetings, saying: 'Get ye gone hence, vilest of thieves, begone to the alms-house, for here ye shall find nor food nor lodging'; if we suffer this with patience and with gladness and with love, O Brother Leo, write that herein is perfect joy. And if we still constrained by hunger, cold and night, knock yet again and shout and with much weeping pray him for the love of God that he will but open and let us in; and he yet more enraged should say: 'These be importunate knaves, I will pay them well as they deserve', and should rush out with knotty stick, and taking us by the hood, throw us upon the ground and send us rolling in the snow, and beat us with all the knots of that stick: if with patience and with gladness we suffer all these things, thinking on the pains of the blessed Christ, the which we ought to suffer for the love of Him: O Brother Leo, write that here and herein is perfect joy."
"Then hear the conclusion of the whole matter, Brother Leo. Above all graces and gifts of the Holy Spirit, that Christ granteth to His beloved, is to overcome oneself, and willingly for the love of Christ endure pains and insults and shame and want: inasmuch as in all other gifts of God we may not glory, since they are not ours but God's; whence saith the Apostle: 'What hast thou that thou hast not received of God? And if thou hast received it of Him, wherefore boastest thou thyself as if thou hadst it of thyself?' But in the cross of tribulation and affliction we may boast, since this is ours; and therefore saith the Apostle: 'I would not that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.' "
The discovery that those who are the most vulnerable and the weakest somewhere call us forth, and they are teaching us about how God is vulnerable . . . vulnerability of God. The mystery of a vulnerable God, of a little God, and dare we say, of a naked God.
"I was frightened and so I hid." And maybe the God was saying, "I am naked but I let myself be exposed, just to be there . . . to bring life."
He chose to give up his life for another.But why?
...
Greater love has no man than this:that a man lay down his life for his friends.-- John 15:13
He too has loved--loved God and loved man with a love of peculiar intensity and recklessness. It was love that had made him leap off his horse and kiss the foul and rotting hand of the leper; it was love that had made him abandon for ever the comforts and decencies of his father's house; it was love which had led him by way of poverty and humility and simplicity. Love had driven him on his long journeys in heat and cold, in hunger and thirst; love led him to face almost certain death at the hands of the Saracens; love took him up to the mountaintop to be branded as Christ's. His whole life had been nothing but an expression of love--love of God and love of man--to the end, and to the uttermost.
Love endureth in adversity,
It rejoices in good deeds,
It is strong in suffering,
It is safe from temptation; cheerful among true brothers.
Love is everything...
...
Even today there remain some wild places in Italy, hard of access, savagely beautiful, and assured of a privacy never to be violated by the intrusion of man's all too often clumsily fashioned contrivances -- a rocky bluff, a generously wide shelf of mountain grown all over with thick-girthed trees, the loud anger of a waterfall heard from a distance and the undertones of an unseen rill, some twisting steep path ending at the edge of a surprising patch of even, emerald-green ground, encircled by juniper and tamarisk, suggesting a plate of rare majolica offered on the palm of Atlas -- narrow ribbons of tracks running up and down, pine needles for their carpet and skies for their roof -- not a single evidence of any human habitation but the pulse of life beating richly in tree and water, in birdsong and the unseen footfall of animals, and the majesty of mountain peaks most surprisingly in accord with the tiny pink and blue flowers edging the track.
In such places, recorded history becomes less than a crumb of a loaf. The earth does not so much belong to man as man to earth. Whether he will or no, he stands subject to the natural law and may, if he so chooses, come to a sense of curious release by virtue of the subjection. However wild the landscape, it is informed by a truth seldom found elsewhere. Also, it promises an enlargement of horizons other than the visible one....
Such piety seldom pauses to reflect that the genuine manifestations of the supranatural have simplicity for their basis.
For Francis the only barrier between man and the rest of creation was fear -- unworthy of man and insulting to the Creator. He held that fear in man engendered fear in the animals he met and that the animal's fear found an outlet in ferocity.
... his whole life with its undeniably grotesque touches, the same life which was spent not only in tears over the world's trespasses but in laughter and delight at the world's beauty, the life spent in conviction that the love of God was a simplicity and a necessity.
For a tree there is a hope,
if it be cut down, that it will sprout again
and that its tender shoots will not cease.
Because we have been sent into the world as a "people for life," our proclamation must also become a genuine celebration of the gospel of life....For this to happen, we need first of all to foster, in ourselves and in others, a contemplative outlook. Such an outlook arises from faith in the God of life, who has created every individual as a "wonder" (cf. Ps 139:14). It is the outlook of those who see life in its deeper meaning, who grasp its utter gratuitousness, its beauty and its invitation to freedom and responsibility.It is the outlook of those who do not presume to take possession of reality but instead accept it as a gift, discovering in all things the reflection of the Creator and seeing in every person his living image (cf. Gn 1:27; Ps 8:5). This outlook does not give in to discouragement when confronted by those who are sick, suffering, outcast or at death's door. Instead, in all these situations it feels challenged to find meaning, and precisely in these circumstances it is open to perceiving in the face of every person a call to encounter, dialogue and solidarity.It is time for all of us to adopt this outlook, and with deep religious awe to rediscover the ability to revere and honor every person.
At Thessalonika the early Christians were described as the men who had "turned the world upside down". Whatever was meant by this phrase, it would certainly apply to St. Francis, for he reversed all the usual values and lived in what might almost be called a "looking-glass" world in which the things most to be desired were things like poverty and contempt, cold and hunger, suffering and death. Well might one say that Francis "turned the world and its standards upside down". But which is the right way up?
He spared lanterns, lamps, and candles unwilling to use his hand to put out their brightness which is a sign of the eternal light. He walks reverently over rocks, out of respect for Him who is called the Rock...
When the brothers are cutting wood he forbids them to cut down the whole tree, so that it might have hope of sprouting again...
Even for worms he had a warm love, since he had read this text about the Savior: I am a worm and not a man. That is why he used to pick them up from the road and put them in a safe place so that they would not be crushed by the footsteps of passerby.
...
Whenever he found an abundance of flowers, he used to preach to them and invite them to praise the Lord, just as if they were endowed with reason.
That the bees not perish of hunger in the icy winter, he commands that honey and the finest wine be set out for them.
He calls all animals by a fraternal name, although, among all kinds of beasts, he especially loves the meek.
...all that the Lord had revealed to him, saying to them that no one in this world ought to be despised, let him be a thief, or an actor on the stage, or one that tilled the ground and was bound to a wife, or was a merchant and served a trade: for in every condition of human life there are souls that please God and have their hidden deeds wherein he takes delight; whence is it plain that it is not so much profession or habit that is pleasing to God as the sincerity and affection of soul and honesty of deed. And when he had spoken thus about each in turn, he gave up his spirit.
We need to rediscover a contemplative spirit, so that the love of God may warm our hearts.
"I'd love to see this place at dawn," Myra said suddenly. "That is always such a forgiving time. When that first cold, bright streak comes over the water, it's as if all our sins were pardoned; as if the sky leaned over the earth and kissed it and gave it absolution."
"charity is patient and kind, charity is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Charity does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Charity bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
"charity is patient and kind, charity is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Charity does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Charity bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
"charity is patient and kind, charity is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or ride. Charity does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Charity bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
"Man must reconcile himself to his natural greatness...he must not forget that he is a person."
If it be true that there are dangers of illusion in the study of mysticism, it is also true that there is greater danger in the ignorance of it.
"Of what profit is it to seek things which we cannot take away with us? Why should we not rather acquire those things which we are able to take away with us, such as prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude, intelligence, charity, love of the poor, faith in Christ, meekness, hospitality."
