Murray Bodo, OFM

This Incarnate God can become present in us through the sacramental grace of the mystery of the Holy Eucharist wherein we eat the body and drink the blood of Christ whose effect is to intensify the indwelling of God in us.

He was only forty-five years old when he died, but he left behind a Dream to dream and a Journey to challenge everyone.

He hoped Jesus’ coming to him would be like that. They would melt into one another, limb to limb and wound to wound, and Francis would rise completely in Jesus, flesh of His flesh, and his Journey would be ended and he would be himself.

Francis lay upon the cold ground of his hut at St. Mary of the Angels and felt nothing but the touch of Jesus in his feet and hands and side.

Its life, so brief and vulnerable, was an act of praise as everyone’s life should be.

In suffering Francis felt especially close to Jesus. Not that he wanted to punish himself or that he took delight in pain, but in illness he saw a weakness that was strength.