Brothers in Christ

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Canticle of the Creatures, Christ Jesus, peace of God, Philippians, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trials

On this feast of St. Francis, one of the most beloved of Christian saints, I was struck by the second lectionary reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians (PHIL 4:6-9). It’s an uplifting text that is familiar and rather typical of Paul in his moments of encouragement to the followers of Jesus. What crossed my mind, however, about this reading today was the similarity in the lives of Francis and Paul regarding suffering.

Reading Francis, especially works like his “Canticle of the Creatures,” one would sometimes think his life as one idyllic, carefree day after another. We know, however, the suffering he endured from others, in his own body and even from his “band of brothers.” Yet he was always aware of the presence and blessings of God. Paul’s trials were similar if not matching – most at the hands of those who persecuted him for the faith he had found in Christ.

I can hear Francis echoing the words of Paul from the Letter to the Philippians this morning and I give thanks for both as worthy servants of God. Listen:

Brothers and sisters: have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think on these things…Then the God of peace will be with you.

Clarified Light

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denial, St. Clare, St. Francis of Assisi, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Something that is very difficult for some of us who live in the U.S.A. to comprehend is the choice made by saints to live in abject poverty for the sake of holiness and the desire for God. I’m thinking of this today because it is the feast of St. Clare, disciple of Francis of Assisi and the first woman to write a rule for religious women that was approved by the Roman Catholic Church. Clare lived from 1194 to 1253 and was just 15 years old when she was captivated by the spirit of Francis and 18 when she left home by night to join the band of friars who had given up everything to search for a life totally immersed in God.

Clare’s life was far from the romanticized image of her relationship with Francis. She hardly saw him at all and never left her convent at San Damiano. She and the women who followed her begged their food and lived a spartan life, composed of discipline and self-denial. While it is true that life was very different eight centuries ago in Europe, one still wonders how it would be possible – especially for a young person of an upper-class family – to be so totally captivated and dedicated for the entirety of her earthly life to an ideal of total denial. Clearly, Clare was an intelligent young woman who certainly knew what she was choosing. The proof is in the living out of the ensuing four decades where Clare shone as a beacon to those who would see the light as she did and be consumed by the great love of God.

How might we contextualize such desire and dedication in our own time and culture?

The Saint of Ecology

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ecology, faith, hope, love, nature, St. Francis of Assisi, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today there will be celebrations and prayer services throughout the world commemorating the life and death of one of the most beloved saints in the history of Christianity: Francis of Assisi. The website franciscanmedia.org has much to say about Francis but for those who seek brevity, there is a summary statement on their calendar at the beginning of the biography which gives a taste of the most important information, including the most recent title under which Francis is known.

Saint Francis of Assisi: founder of the Franciscan family, Patron Saint of Ecology, inspiration to thousands, claimed by people of all faiths as well as those with no particular faith, a truly “catholic and apostolic man.” Though born in the 13th century, he belongs to all ages.

I think of Francis walking the Italian countryside, addressing all of nature as Sister and Brother, talking to the beasts and birds and listening to God’s messages everywhere. Today we are in the company of Brothers Wind and Air, and “fair and stormy all weather’s moods.” Tonight I will hope for a sighting of Sister Moon and the stars, who “in the heavens You have made them bright, precious and fair.”

Francis is a good model of how to live – amazed at everything – but also how to die, offering himself and all his suffering to the God in whom he placed all his faith, hope and (boundless) love. As I wrote that last sentence, Brother Sun made a momentary appearance, bathing the autumn countryside with golden light before receding into the cloudy sky. Just like Francis. Praised be…

Clare of Assisi

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humility, love of God, poverty, rule of life, simplicity, St. Clare, St. Francis of Assisi, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I’ve been sitting for quite a while now, trying to find words that will bring alive the saint whose feast we celebrate today. It it Clare of Assisi, who entered into the religious life as a teenager and who, once installed in the Church of San Damiano in Assisi, never left the convent walls. Her teacher and spiritual father was Francis and her life was a following of his in simplicity, poverty and total dedication to the love of God, lived out in love of all creatures, especially her Sisters in community.

I marvel at how easy it is to be dedicated to the memory of someone who lived over 800 years ago, especially because one could read the stories of Clare’s life and, while noting a few extraordinary events, be aware of the dailiness of most of her time. I can only conclude that it is her all-consuming desire for God that captivates us and draws us in to her story. Here is what I know from http://www.franciscanmedia.com this morning.

Saint Clare referred to herself as a little plant. In many ways, she was a strong oak. The first woman to write a Rule of Life for her sisters, she insisted on the privilege of poverty until her dying breath, getting papal approval for her Rule just days before she died. A model of humility, Clare cared for her sisters even through her own years of illness. Her devotion to Jesus was extraordinary.

What I know from my heart is what can never be taught but only caught: God loves us more than we can ever ask or imagine, and the fire of that love is, if we allow it to be, all consuming. It was so for Clare.

AMDG

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AMDG, jesuits, JMJ, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Ignatius of Loyola, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

This morning I learned something new about acronyms. It’s only if the letters of the acronym can be pronounced and used as a word (like NASA) that it is correct to call what you are using an acronym. Otherwise it’s called an initialism (like FBI or CIA). There is so much shortening of words in both categories these days that hardly any conversation includes all complete words – to the detriment of those not initiated into this way of speaking. I see it most on television (TV) commercials about health care these days and it’s rather frustrating. If you miss the first ten seconds of the commercial you have also missed the fact that they are talking about deep vein thrombosis when they say – throughout the advertisement – “DVT.” And I remember how long it took me to decode “24/7” when it became popular.

Today is the feast of St Ignatius of Loyola, S.J. (Society of Jesus, the religious order he founded, commonly called the Jesuits). The conversion story of this soldier is not dissimilar to that of St. Francis of Assisi and of other great ones whose life was changed by a serious wound or illness during military service. For Ignatius, it was fortuitous that during his recuperation there were no books available to him except stories of the lives of Christ and the saints, which he read and credited with his conversion.

When I was in what used to be called “grammar school” (an interesting descriptive should you be led to research it), we were often directed to write at the top of all papers that we turned in (especially our tests) “JMJ.” All Roman Catholic children knew that initialism to stand for Jesus, Mary, Joseph, likely to remind us to dedicate our work to the Holy Family. As we grew into middle school we were introduced to “AMDG” = Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (For the greater glory of God) I don’t know when I learned that the Latin phrase was the motto of the Jesuits, but it adorned all my efforts in school and now directs my life.

Whatever the acronym or initialism or word or motto or other phrase that reminds us of God’s place in our life (or even if our devotion is wordless), we might take a moment today to consider what leads us to that mindfulness and be grateful for our teachers, and for the great ones like Ignatius, whose influence remains visible throughout the world today.

Radical Generosity

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Father Damien de Veuster, Mother Marianne Cope, saint, St. Francis of Assisi, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

When I was 13 years old my father’s job changed and we moved from Massachusetts to Syracuse, New York where I met and was educated for two years by Franciscan Sisters. It was during that first school year that I read a book about Mother Marianne of Molokai, later to be canonized as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. Mother Marianne Cope was already famous in Syracuse; she was, in the early years of the 20th century, the Superior General of the Sisters who taught in my school and lived only about a mile from there. Many of the Sisters in her community were born in or ministered to the people of Hawaii.

Today is the feast of Father Damien de Veuster who entered the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary at age 19 and later volunteered to go to the Hawaiian Islands to replace his brother, a priest who had been assigned there but fell ill. In 1873 Damien went as a part-time chaplain to the Hawaiian government’s leper colony on the island of Moloka’i but soon volunteered to stay there permanently to serve the physical, medical and spiritual needs of the people, especially those with leprosy (now called Hansen’s disease.).

Needing help for this difficult ministry, Father Damien wrote to many communities of religious Sisters asking for volunteers to come to work with him. The story goes that he promised in his letters that no Sisters who volunteered would contract the disease (although he himself was later to die of Hansen’s disease). Of the reputed 50 communities to whom he made the request, Mother Marianne was the only Superior who responded affirmatively and volunteered herself to go with her Sisters to Moloka’i. As promised, none of the Sisters became infected with the disease which is now curable with multi-drug therapy and early treatment.

The courage and willingness of Mother Marianne Cope and Father Damien touched my heart as a young teenager and remains an example to me to this day. I honor all of those who follow in the steps of St. Francis and celebrate them especially in the heritage of Father Damien and Mother Marianne.

God In All Things

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blessings, drink, eternal life, fire, flame, God, love, Nikos Kazantzakis, spiritual growth, St. Francis of Assisi, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, water

Today in churches and schools far and wide there will be infrequent guests lining up for blessings. It is the feast of St. Francis, of course, who loved all of creation but chose to possess nothing in order that he could be totally dependent on God. My favorite story about Francis may not be factual and it is not the one of the sweet stories of his relationship with the birds and the beasts (although those are also compelling). It comes from a novel by Nikos Kazantzakis entitled  simply Saint Francis, in which the narrator, Brother Leo, says something like the following:

Once I asked him, “Brother Francis, how does God reveal himself to you when you are alone in the night?” He answered, “Like a glass of cool water,” Brother Leo. “God is like a glass of water?” I asked. “Why, yes,” he replied. “We take and drink it and we are satisfied unto eternal life.” But some years later, when he was simply a lump of skin and bones, Brother Francis called me to him and whispered: “God is a conflagration, Brother Leo. He burns and we burn with him!”

I know there are a few incorrect words in that telling of the story but I have to go searching for my copy of the book to be more precise. The point is made, however, if we consider the process of spiritual growth in Francis as he struggled to do everything for God and to spread the message of God’s all-consuming love with all those he encountered.

Fire is a mighty image for that love: beautiful – for those of us who wish to sit by a fireplace and watch wood flicker into life and then burn uproariously with energy and color – but totally consuming if we consider the result for the wood. That was the fire that ignited Francis to become all flame and calls to us, perhaps, to that same willingness, that unstinting love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clare of Assisi

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contemplation, humility, light, love, poverty, presence of God, St. Clare, St. Francis of Assisi, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, vision

St. Clare of Assisi, whom we celebrate today, was a great example of the adage “Behind every good man, there is a good woman.” While he did not see her often, St. Francis counted on her holiness and wisdom to shore up his determination in times of doubt and difficulty. Clare was a clear mirror of the presence of God for Francis and for those women who followed her to the convent of San Damiano, and he was the same for her. She was a woman of great strength and perseverance who believed that she was the one who knew best what should be written in a rule for women in a religious order. Although she easily accepted the rule that Francis has written in the early days, after the death of Francis she continued for 27 years to submit a revised rule to bishops and popes until she finally received and signed a constitutional document of her own two days before her death on August 11, 1253.

Living in the freedom of poverty and the humility of a cloistered community, motivated by love alone, Clare wrote to a younger woman to encourage her in her living of religious life:

Happy, indeed is she to whom it is given to share the sacred banquet, to cling with all her heart to Him Whose beauty all the heavenly hosts admire unceasingly, Whose love inflames our love, Whose contemplation is our refreshment, Whose graciousness is our joy, Whose gentleness fills us to overflowing, Whose remembrance brings a gentle light, Whose fragrance will revive the dead, Whose glorious vision will be the happiness – of all the citizens of the Heavenly Jerusalem.

Praise be to God for this wonderful woman!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Power of Prayer

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franciscan, lost, power of prayer, St. Anthony, St. Francis of Assisi, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I’ve just been reading about St. Anthony of Padua on this, his feast day. While I have known many facts about this revered saint, (primarily because of having served in an Italian parish for eight years) stories at http://www.franciscanmedia.org piqued my interest in going deeper. Most of what I read was familiar: the fact that he was born in Portugal rather than Italy, his stint in the Augustinian religious order where his studies gifted him with theological and scriptural prowess before he joined the Franciscan friars, the fact that he was a contemporary of St. Francis of Assisi, etc. There is so much to admire about this saint whose life took many twists and turns in the brief 35 years before his death in 1231. Even Wikipedia was a source for new learnings.

The one thing that most everyone knows about St. Anthony is his knack of finding lost things, even to this day for all of us, but today was the first time I read what seems to be the original story of this gift. (Remember that this came from Wikipedia but still…) The incident occurred in Bologna and concerned a favorite book of Psalms belonging to Anthony. It was important to him because of his notes and comments included there which he used to teach his students. It seems that a novice who left the order took it with him. When he noticed that it was missing, Anthony prayed that it would be returned or found and his prayer was answered when the thief was moved to return it. The book is said to be preserved in the Franciscan friary in Bologna.

Mystery solved! And aren’t we all grateful for Anthony’s power of prayer!

 

 

 

 

 

Just Love

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charity, give, love, Love Poems from God, retreat, St. Francis of Assisi, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

After all my preparation and the very meaningful retreat day yesterday for a wonderful group of welcoming parishioners, I have little to say today. I yield to St. Francis of Assisi for a poem that seems a perfect postscript for me and a meaningful thought for all of us.

God came to my house and asked for charity. And I fell on my knees and cried, “Beloved, what may I give?” “Just love,” He said. “Just love.” (Love Poems from God, p. 33)