Franciscan Spirit

Lent with St. Francis: ‘Let Us Begin Again’

Easter is a beginning, not an ending. And this Easter story from Thomas of Celano reminds us that for Francis, the challenge to remain true to the Gospel was one that needed to be renewed again and again.

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Lent with St. Francis: Dead to Sin

As we come now to the celebration of Easter, we recall that one of the hallmarks of Francis’s life was a deep joy in the love of Christ and the glories of creation.
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Lent with St. Francis: ‘By Your Holy Cross’

For St. Francis, meditating on the Passion was not some medieval exercise in masochism but a means of uniting himself completely to the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, a way of living so thoroughly into the mystery of Christ ...
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Lent with St. Francis: Eucharist

St. Francis was absolutely devoted to the Eucharist. It’s one of the reasons he was so concerned about rebuilding and cleaning local churches, making them suitable homes for the Eucharist.
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Lent with St. Francis: Betrayal

Do we always end up betraying Jesus at some point? We are all sinners. We all need salvation, again and again and again. And so we come to the paschal mystery, the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
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Lent with St. Francis: Love of Money

In this holiest of weeks, we are challenged more than ever to think about our own relationship with money and material goods. Are we in danger of letting it come between ourselves and our God or ourselves and our loved ...
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Lent with St. Francis: True Concern for the Poor

The tension between material possessions and the spiritual life has always been part of religious life. We see it in our own religious institutions and in our own lives.
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