Ilia Delio, OSF

As one enters more closely into relationship with God by entering more deeply into relationship with Christ, one becomes a friend of Christ.

Prayer that allows the mystery of Christ to change our lives, is a high-risk enterprise—an uncontrollable experience.

The Franciscan path of prayer that leads to peace is a path of transformation and witness.

Those who seek God along the path of Franciscan prayer are to be transformed by the one they seek, the one they claim to love.

Prayer is the energy of evangelical life because it transforms the desire for Gospel life into the practice of Gospel living.

Freedom is the gift of God’s humble love. It is the gift of a God who loves us faithfully despite our failures, always bending low to embrace us in love. God’s love is free because real love always desires the best for the other without interfering or manipulating the other. God is one who neither manipulates nor interferes with our created freedom. Rather, God respects the gift of freedom that he has given us. If God forced us to love him, God would not be perfect love and we would not be free.

Francis and his early followers remind us that it is not place or circumstances that make us free, it is the heart that makes us free when it is turned toward God.