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It is my presumption that Francis and his brothers became living gospels the same way we do, by walking in the footsteps of Christ, which is a gradual, ongoing pilgrimage.
Enlightenment is not so much knowing as unknowing. It is not so much learning as unlearning.
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.
