Murray Bodo, OFM

The practical conclusion of the first teaching of St. Francis is that if we listen and pray, God will show us what we are to do with our lives. In Francis’s life it had to do with intimacy with God in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, whom he found first in the lepers, and then in repairing the dwelling place of God; first in God’s churches and then in repairing the believing community, the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church. The latter rebuilding had to do with repairing human relationships by, in Francis’s words, “working mercy” with them.