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The poet Rumi once wrote: “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” How often do we try to do too much in a given day?
Do the choices you make line up with the life that Jesus led? Do you seek the common good or your own self-interests?
This mystery of gospel poverty is the great desire of Francis’s heart and soul because it is the mystery of Christ, who is being born within Francis as Francis dies to himself to become like Christ.
G.K. Chesterton once wrote: “Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed.”
The beauty of Francis’s world after his experience of the San Damiano cross is that it largely shielded him.
When asked which virtues are most important, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux said, “Humility, humility and humility.”
I have found that if someone is going to work hard at being immersed in God, the effort should not be just in the praying itself but in becoming yourself a place of prayer.
What happens is that you realize that you cannot connect to God by sheer force of will or by a multitude of prayers.
The natural world can speak to us about God when we pay attention. The earth, sea, and sky can all manifest God’s glory to us and reflect God’s love.
I have tried to learn from St. Francis. In my home, pinned to the curtain of my front door, is a reminder—”Remember to remember God.”
