At the heart of it all, Franciscan prayer is about gospel living. It is not really concerned with knowledge or intellectual contemplation. It is concerned with the human person and the transformation of the human person in God. It is about living Christ and making the Good News of the Incarnation alive. How desperately this path of prayer is needed in our world today! We seek healing of divisions, hate and violence. We desire wholeness, unity and peace. How shall these things come about? Are they merely ideas or values that must be given flesh and blood? To live the gospel is to put flesh and blood on God and proclaim throughout the universe, the glory of God is fully alive! Without flesh and blood, the Good News that God has become human and healed the divisions of humankind and all creation is not news at all. Christian life demands human participation or it simply does not exist. It is an empty title in a broken world. If we desire justice, peace and love among humankind and throughout creation, then we humans must become justice, peace and love. This is the Good News of Jesus Christ and the Good News of being Christian—to live in the depths of God’s faithful love in a way that resounds throughout all creation. The path of Franciscan prayer is a way to live fully the Gospel life by living fully in the mystery of Christ. We must descend with Christ into the darkness of our humanity so that we may rise with Christ in the unity of love. In a world marked by violence and death, suffering does not have the last word. The last word is love and that love is the fullness of Christ, the Word of God.
—from the book Franciscan Prayer
by Ilia Delio, OSF
