In the fragment cited below, St Teresa meditates on the instability of short-lived love, gratitude and affection of human race toward the Redeemer, and how it contrast with His love for us.

O Christians, it's time to defend your King and to accompany Him in such great solitude.

Few are the vassals remaining with Him, and the great multitude accompanying Lucifer. And what's worse is that these latter appear as His friends in public and sell Him in secret. He finds almost no one in whom to trust. O true Friend, how badly they pay You back who betray You! O true Christians, help your God weep, for those compassionate tears are not only for Lazarus but for those who were not going to want to rise, even though His Majesty call them. O my God, how you bear in mind the faults I have committed against you. O my God, how You bear in minds the faults I have committed against You! May they now come to an end, Lord, may they come to an end, and those of everyone. Raise up these dead; may Your cries be so powerful that even though they do not beg life of You, You give it to them so that afterward, my God, they might come forth from the depth of their own delight.

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Feast of St Teresa of Avila - link to previous post

My God and my infinite Wisdom, measureless and boundless and beyond all the human and angelic intellects!

O love that loves me more than I can love myself or understand! Why, Lord, do I want to desire more than what You want to give me? Why do I want to tire myself in asking You for something decreed by my desire? For with regard to everything my intellect can devise and my desire can want You've already understood my soul's limits, and I don't understand how my desire will help me. In this that my soul thinks it will gain, it will perhaps lose. For I ask You to free me from a trial, and the purpose of that trial is my mortification, what is it that I'm asking for, my God? If I beg You to give the trial, it perhaps is not a suitable one for my patience, which is still weak and cannot suffer such a forceful blow. And if I suffer it with patience and am not strong in humility, it may be that I will think I've done something, whereas You do it all, my God. If I want to suffer, but not in matters in which it might seem unfitting for Your service that I lose my reputation - since as for myself I don't know of any concern in me about honour - it may be that for the very reason I think my reputation might be lost, more will be gained on account of what I'm seeking, which is to serve You.

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Week of St Teresa of Avila

St Teresa praises God for the marvels of His grace that unabled her to do all the works. She admits that on her own she could do nothing. What a great humility.

O my Lord! What a shame it is to see so much wickedness and to tell about some grains of sand, which even then I didn't lift from the ground for Your service, since everything I did was enveloped in a thousand miseries!.
The waters of Your grace didn't flow yet under these grains of sand in order to raise them up. O my Creator! Who could find among so many evils something of substance to relate, since I am telling about the great favours I've received from You! So it is, my Lord, that I don't know how my heart can bear it or how anyone who reads this can fail to abhor me in observing that such marvelous favours were so poorly repaid and that I have no shame, in the end, to recount these services as my own. Yes, I am ashamed, my Lord; but having nothing else to tell about the part I played makes me speak of such lowly beginning so that anyone who did great things in the beginning may have hope; since it seems the Lord has taken my early actions into account. He will do so more with theirs. May it please His Majesty to give me grace so that I might not always remain at the beginning, amen. (Life 31:25).

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Feast of St Edward the Confessor, Patron and King of England - click for link

Image depicts St Edward (with the ring) and St Edmund.

October 13th entry in Wilsons Almanac

British Monarchs - The House of Wessex - St Edward the Confessor

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Week of St Teresa of Avila

Oh, God, help me! Oh God, help me! How great a torment it is for me when I consider -

what a soul that has always here below been valued, loved, served, esteemed, and pampered will feel when after having died finds itself lost forever, and understands clearly that this loss is endless. (Forgetting about the truths of faith will be no help there, as it is here below). Also what a torment it is for me to consider what a soul will feel when it finds itself separated from what seemingly will not yet have began to enjoy (and rightly so, for all that which ends with life is but a breath of wind), and surrounded by that deformed and pitiless company with whom it will always have to suffer. It will be placed in that fetid lake filled with snakes, and the bigger the snake, the bigger the bite; in that miserable where darkness where it will only see what gives it torment and pain, without seeing any light other than a dark flame! Oh how ineffective exaggeration is in expressing what this suffering is!(Soliloquies)

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Twenty Second Sunday after Pentecost

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Annual Rosary Crusade of Reparation - 2008

This year Rosary Crusade of Reparation was again great success, over three thousands Catholics participated in the walk between London Westminster Cathedral and Brompton Oratory. The post is adorned with the image of Our Lady of Victories from the side altar in the Brompton Oratory.

Once in Oratory reparation prayers and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament were offered this year in atonement for the disaster of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology bill, currently almost reaching the phase of implementation by the Parliament. The Crusade was filmed by EWTN TV crew. However, there is certain specific and disturbing problem that is in obvious increase this year. In the introduction to the prayers, one of the Oratory's Fathers mentioned that this July the consecrated Host was
stolen during Mass at the Oratory and later individuals in possession of the Host committed sacrilegious act of desecration that was filmed and posted on the internet. Oratorian Fathers therefore, no longer offer Communion in the hand, as there is specific provision from the Holy See allowing to ban this way of Communicating to prevent sacrilege when applicable. I can think how many times in the past the Host has been stolen unnoticed and that this way of Communion distribution should be definitely banned for ever from all Catholic Churches not only when 'suspicion of sacrilege' is the option. Well known website posting various home-made videos, such as Youtube, is notorious in promoting public desecration of the Host. Despite petitions and protests of Catholics they keep a channel of attention-seeking individual who had produced 43 videos depicting desecration of the Hosts stolen during Masses in some Canadian Catholic Churches. Angry and scandalised Catholics cannot even flag these videos as offensive and hateful. And ironically, as one can read in Youtube's instruction for videos flagging, Youtube declares: 'We will not tolerate videos showing disturbing images of abusing animals, depicting dead bodies' etc. However, they are happy to keep videos promoting sacrilegious desecration of the Host. Twice, thousands of Catholics sent petitions to Youtube to remove these videos, however Youtube did not act. I encourage Catholics to boycott Youtube. There are alternatives such as Godtube and LoveToBeCatholic.

Commentary from Catholic Culture journalist, Philip Lawler
Desecration of the Eucharist: a story not worth telling

Most sweet Jesus -- Act of Reparation (Iesu dulcissime - Reparationis actus)
Act of Reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

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Blessed Angela Truszkowska

Today we honour extraordinary woman who submitted to God's will throughout her life—a life filled with pain and suffering.

Angela was the eldest daughter of Joseph and Josephine Truszkowski, Polish nobles. Well educated, pious, and lively youth with a frail constitution. Moved to Warsaw in 1837, and attended the Academy of Madame Guerin. Due to respiratory illness, she and her tutor Anastasia moved to Switzerland in 1841 at age 16. On 26 June 1848, at age 23, she had a moment of extraordinary grace that she considered a conversion experience, and which led her to the religious life. She became spiritual daughter of Capuchin Father Honorat Kozminski in 1854. Joined the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul in 1855 to help the poor, aged and homeless of Warsaw. Housed homeless children into her own home. In November 1854, she and her cousin Clothilde rented a two-room apartment at 10 Church Street, Nowe Miasto, in Warsaw, Poland. There homeless children spent their days in class and Mass, and then stayed the night; it was known as the Institute of Miss Truszkowska. Sophia prayed with the children at the Shrine of Saint Felix of Cantalice in a nearby Capuchin church. People call the kids the "children of Saint Felix" and the women the Sisters of Saint Felix, the Felicians. Thus was founded the Felician Sisters who are devoted to service to the poor, orphaned, sick and elderly. Mother Angela served as superior of the new Order for many years until ill health forced her to resign at the age of 44. She watched the order grow and expand, including missions to the United States among the sons and daughters of Polish immigrants.

Pope John Paul II beatified her in 1993.

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St Therese of Lisieux poem-prayer in honour of Our Lady - link to part 1

Beautiful poem "Why I love You, O Mary" written by St Theres in honour of Our Blessed Mother will adorn this blog Saturday's posts this month (part 2)

Oh! I love you, Mary, saying you are the servant
Of God whom you charm by humility.
This hidden virtue makes you all powerful,
It attracts the Holy Trinity into your heart.
The the Spirit of Love covering you with his shadow,
The Son equal to the Father became incarnate in you,
There will be a great many of His sinner brothers,
Since He will be called: Jesus, your first-born!...

At least you find Him and you are overcome with joy,
You say to the fair Child captivating the doctors;
"O my Son, why have you done this?
Your father and I have been searching for you in tears."
And the Child God replies (O what a deep mystery!)
To his dearest Mother holding out her arms to him:
"Why were you searching for me? I must be about
My Father's business. Didn't you know?"

The Gospel tells me that, growing in wisdom,
Jesus remains subject to Joseph and Mary,
And my heart reveals to me with what tenderness
He always obeys his dear parents.
Now I understand the mystery of the temple,
The hidden words of my Lovable King.
Mother, your sweet Child wants you to be the example
Of the soul searching for Him in the night of faith.

Since the King of Heaven wanted his Mother
To be plunged into the night, in anguish of heart,
Mary, is it thus a blessing to suffer on earth?
Yes, to suffer while loving is the purest happiness!...
All that He has given me, Jesus can take back.
Tell Him not to bother with me....
He can indeed hide from me, I'm willing to wait for Him
Till the day without sunset when my faith will fade away...

Mother full of grace, I know that in Nazareth
You live in poverty, wanting nothing more.
No rapture, miracle, or ecstasy
Embellish your life, O Queen of the Elect!...
The number of little ones on earth is truly great.
The can raise their eyes to you without trembling.
It's by the ordinary way, incomparable Mother,
That you like to walk to guide them in Heaven.
("Poetry of St Therese of Lisieux")


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St Therese's week

O Jesus, You offer me a cup so bitter that my feeble nature cannot bear it.

But I do not want to draw back my lips from the cup Your hand has prepared....You teach me the secret of suffering in peace. The word peace does not mean joy, at least not felt jot; to suffer in peace, it is enough to will whatever You will. To be Your spouse, Jesus, one must be like You, and You are all bloody, crowned with thorns! How consoling it is to remember that You shuddered at the sight of the bitter sup, the cup that earlier You had so ardently desired to drink. (from Therese of Lisieux "general correspondence")

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For Daily Reflection

We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal: but the things which are not seen, are eternal. (2Cor4:18)

The harvest indeed is great, but the labourers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he send labourers into his harvest. Go: Behold I send you as lambs among wolves. (Luke 10:2)

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ANNUAL ROSARY CRUSADE OF REPARATION - THIS SATURDAY OCTOBER 11TH LONDON

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St Therese's week

PRAYER FOR ACQUIRING HUMILITY

O Jesus! When You were a Pilgrim on earth, You said: "Learn of Me for I am gentle and humble of heart and you will find rest for your souls."

O Mighty Monarch of Heaven, yes, my soul finds rest in seeing You, clolthed in the form and nature of a slave, humbling Yourself to wash the feet of Your apostles. I recall Your words that teach me how to practice humility: "I have given you an example so that you may do what I have done. The disciple is no greater than the Master....If you understand this, happy are you if you put them into practice." Lord, I do understand these words that came from Your gentle and humble heart and I want to practice them with the help of Your grace.
I want truly humble myself and to submit my will to that of my sisters. I do not wish to contradict them nor seek to see whether or not they have the right to command me. O my Beloved, no one had the right over You and yet you obeyed not only the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph but even our executioners. Now in the Sacred Host I see You at the height of Your annihilations. how humble You are, O Divine King of Glory, to subject Yourself to all Your priests without making any distinction between those who love You and those who are, alas! lukewarm or cold in Your service....At their word, You come down from Heaven. Whether they advance or delay the hour of the Holy Sacrifice, you are always ready...
O my Beloved, how gentle and humble of heart You seem under the veil of the white Host! To teach me humility You cannot humble Yourself further. Therefore, to respond to Your love, I desire that my sisters always put me in the lowest place, and I want to convince myself that this place is indeed mine.
I beg You, my Divine Jesus, to send me a humiliations whenever I try to set myself above others.
I know, O my God, that You humble the proud soul but to the one who humiliate herself You give an eternity of glory. So I want to put myself in the last rank and to share Your humiliations so as "to have a share with You" in the kingdom of Heaven.
But, You know my weakness, Lord. Every morning I make a resolution to practice humility and in the evening I recognize that I have committed again many faults of pride. At this I am tempted to become discouraged but I know that discouragement is also pride. Therefore, O my God, I want to base my hope in You alone. Since You can do everything, deign to bring to birth in my soul the virtue I desire. To obtain this grace of Your infinite mercy I will very often repeat: "O Jesus, gentle and humble of heart, make my heart like Yours!" (taken from "Prayers of St Therese of Lisieux")

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St Therese's week

St Therese tells us today of her total trust and love for God, nothing can disturb her gazing upon the Lord.

With bold surrender, I wish to remain gazing upon You, O Lord, my divine Sun.
Nothing will frigthen me, neither wind nor rain, and if dark clouds come and hide You from my gaze, I will not change my place because I know that beyond the clouds You still shine on and Your brightness is not eclipsed for a single instant. Even if You remain deaf to the sorrowing of Your creature, even if You remain hidden, I accept being numb with cold and rejoice in this suffering. My heart is at peace and continues its work of love.

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Anniversary of the Lepanto Victory - The Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary

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St Therese's week

O Jesus, the sight of Your precious blood flowing from Your wounds strikes me deeply, and I feel pang of sorrow in thinking that this blood is falling to the ground without anyone's hastening to gather it up.

I want to remain here in spirit at the foot of the cross to receive this divine dew and to pour it out upon souls. O Jesus, Your cry sounds continually in my heart. "I thirst!" These words ignite in me an unknown and very living fire. I wish to give You to drink, O my Beloved, and I feel myself consumed with a thirst for souls. It is the souls of great sinners that attract me, and I burn with the desire to snatch them from eternal flames. My desire to save souls grows form day to day, adn I seem to hear You say to me what You said to the Samaritan woman" "Give me to drink!" What a wonderful interchange of love! To souls I give Your blood, to You I offer these same souls refreshed by Your divine dew. i hope thus to slake Your thirst, and the more I give You to drink, the more the thirst of my poor little soul increases, but truly this ardent thirst You are giving me is the most delightful drink of Your love. (Story of the Soul")

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St Therese's week

St Therese famous text explaining her idea of 'elevator' to Heaven to replace 'the rough stairs of perfection' commonly used to climb there.

God cannot inspire unrealizable desires. I can, then, in spite of my littleness, aspire to holiness.

It is impossible for me to grow up, and so I must bear with myself such as I am with all my imperfections. But I want to seek out a means of going to heaven by a little way, a way that is very straight, very short, and totally new. We are living now in an age of inventions, and we no longer have to take the trouble of climbing stairs, for....an elevator has replaced these very successfully. I wanted to find an elevator which would raise me to Jesus, for I am too small to climb the rough stairway of perfection. I searched, then, in the Scripture for some sign of this elevator, the object of my desires, and I read these words coming from the mouth of Eternal Wisdom: "Whoever is a LITTLE ONE, let him come to me." And so I succeeded. I felt I had found what i was looking for...The elevator which must raise me to heaven is in Your arms, O Jesus! And for this I had no need to grow up, but rather I had to remain little and become this more and more. O, my GGod, You surpassed all my expectation. I want only to sing of Your Mercies. (St Therese: 'Story of a Soul' ICS 1976)

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TWENTY FIRST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

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Feast of St Francis of Assisi

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI
Founder of the Franciscan Order, born at Assisi in Umbria, in 1181.

In 1182, Pietro Bernadone returned from a trip to France to find out his wife had given birth to a son. Far from being excited or apologetic because he'd been gone, Pietro was furious because she'd had his new son baptized Giovanni after John the Baptist. The last thing Pietro wanted in his son was a man of God -- he wanted a man of business, a cloth merchant like he was, and he especially wanted a son who would reflect his infatuation with France.

So he renamed his son Francesco -- which is the equivalent of calling him Frenchman.Francis enjoyed a very rich easy life growing up because of his father's wealth and the permissiveness of the times. From the beginning everyone -- and I mean everyone -- loved Francis. He was constantly happy, charming, and a born leader. If he was picky, people excused him. If he was ill, people took care of him. If he was so much of a dreamer he did poorly in school, no one minded. In many ways he was too easy to like for his own good. No one tried to control him or teach him.
As he grew up, Francis became the leader of a crowd of young people who spent their nights in wild parties. Thomas of Celano, his biographer who knew him well, said, "In other respects an exquisite youth, he attracted to himself a whole retinue of young people addicted to evil and accustomed to vice." Francis himself said, "I lived in sin" during that time.
Francis fulfilled every hope of Pietro's -- even falling in love with France. He loved the songs of France, the romance of France, and especially the free adventurous troubadours of France who wandered through Europe. And despite his dreaming, Francis was also good at business. But Francis wanted more..more than wealth. But not holiness! Francis wanted to be a noble, a knight. Battle was the best place to win the glory and prestige he longed for. He got his first chance when Assisi declared war on their longtime enemy, the nearby town of Perugia.
Most of the troops from Assisi were butchered in the fight. Only those wealthy enough to expect to be ransomed were taken prisoner. At last Francis was among the nobility like he always wanted to be...but chained in a harsh, dark dungeon. All accounts say that he never lost his happy manner in that horrible place. Finally, after a year in the dungeon, he was ransomed. Strangely, the experience didn't seem to change him. He gave himself to partying with as much joy and abandon as he had before the battle.
The experience didn't change what he wanted from life either: Glory. Finally a call for knights for the Fourth Crusade gave him a chance for his dream. But before he left Francis had to have a suit of armor and a horse -- no problem for the son of a wealthy father. And not just any suit of armor would do but one decorated with gold with a magnificent cloak. Any relief we feel in hearing that Francis gave the cloak to a poor knight will be destroyed by the boasts that Francis left behind that he would return a prince.But Francis never got farther than one day's ride from Assisi. There he had a dream in which God told him he had it all wrong and told him to return home. And return home he did. What must it have been like to return without ever making it to battle -- the boy who wanted nothing more than to be liked was humiliated, laughed at, called a coward by the village and raged at by his father for the money wasted on armor.
Francis' conversion did not happen over night. God had waited for him for twenty-five years and now it was Francis' turn to wait. Francis started to spend more time in prayer. He went off to a cave and wept for his sins. Sometimes God's grace overwhelmed him with joy. But life couldn't just stop for God. There was a business to run, customers to wait on.
One day while riding through the countryside, Francis, the man who loved beauty, who was so picky about food, who hated deformity, came face to face with a leper. Repelled by the appearance and the smell of the leper, Francis nevertheless jumped down from his horse and kissed the hand of the leper. When his kiss of peace was returned, Francis was filled with joy. As he rode off, he turned around for a last wave, and saw that the leper had disappeared. He always looked upon it as a test from God...that he had passed.
His search for conversion led him to the ancient church at San Damiano. While he was praying there, he heard Christ on the crucifix speak to him, "Francis, repair my church." Francis assumed this meant church with a small c -- the crumbling building he was in. Acting again in his impetuous way, he took fabric from his father's shop and sold it to get money to repair the church. His father saw this as an act of theft -- and put together with Francis' cowardice, waste of money, and his growing disinterest in money made Francis seem more like a madman than his son. Pietro dragged Francis before the bishop and in front of the whole town demanded that Francis return the money and renounce all rights as his heir.The bishop was very kind to Francis; he told him to return the money and said God would provide. That was all Francis needed to hear. He not only gave back the money but stripped off all his clothes -- the clothes his father had given him -- until he was wearing only a hair shirt. In front of the crowd that had gathered he said, "Pietro Bernadone is no longer my father. From now on I can say with complete freedom, 'Our Father who art in heaven.'" Wearing nothing but castoff rags, he went off into the freezing woods -- singing. And when robbers beat him later and took his clothes, he climbed out of the ditch and went off singing again. From then on Francis had nothing...and everything.Francis went back to what he considered God's call. He begged for stones and rebuilt the San Damiano church with his own hands, not realizing that it was the Church with a capital C that God wanted repaired. Scandal and avarice were working on the Church from the inside while outside heresies flourished by appealing to those longing for something different or adventurous.Soon Francis started to preach. (He was never a priest, though he was later ordained a deacon under his protest.) Francis was not a reformer; he preached about returning to God and obedience to the Church. Francis must have known about the decay in the Church, but he always showed the Church and its people his utmost respect. When someone told him of a priest living openly with a woman and asked him if that meant the Mass was polluted, Francis went to the priest, knelt before him, and kissed his hands -- because those hands had held God.Slowly companions came to Francis, people who wanted to follow his life of sleeping in the open, begging for garbage to eat...and loving God. With companions, Francis knew he now had to have some kind of direction to this life so he opened the Bible in three places. He read the command to the rich young man to sell all his good and give to the poor, the order to the apostles to take nothing on their journey, and the demand to take up the cross daily. "Here is our rule," Francis said -- as simple, and as seemingly impossible, as that. He was going to do what no one thought possible any more -- live by the Gospel. Francis took these commands so literally that he made one brother run after the thief who stole his hood and offer him his robe!
Francis never wanted to found a religious order -- this former knight thought that sounded too military. He thought of what he was doing as expressing God's brotherhood. His companions came from all walks of life, from fields and towns, nobility and common people, universities, the Church, and the merchant class. Francis practiced true equality by showing honor, respect, and love to every person whether they were beggar or pope.Francis' brotherhood included all of God's creation. Much has been written about Francis' love of nature but his relationship was deeper than that. We call someone a lover of nature if they spend their free time in the woods or admire its beauty. But Francis really felt that nature, all God's creations, were part of his brotherhood. The sparrow was as much his brother as the pope.In one famous story, Francis preached to hundreds of birds about being thankful to God for their wonderful clothes, for their independence, and for God's care. The story tells us the birds stood still as he walked among him, only flying off when he said they could leave.Another famous story involves a wolf that had been eating human beings. Francis intervened when the town wanted to kill the wolf and talked the wolf into never killing again. The wolf became a pet of the townspeople who made sure that he always had plenty to eat.Following the Gospel literally, Francis and his companions went out to preach two by two. At first, listeners were understandably hostile to these men in rags trying to talk about God's love. People even ran from them for fear they'd catch this strange madness! And they were right. Because soon these same people noticed that these barefoot beggars wearing sacks seemed filled with constant joy. They celebrated life. And people had to ask themselves: Could one own nothing and be happy? Soon those who had met them with mud and rocks, greeted them with bells and smiles.Francis did not try to abolish poverty, he tried to make it holy. When his friars met someone poorer than they, they would eagerly rip off the sleeve of their habit to give to the person. They worked for all necessities and only begged if they had to. But Francis would not let them accept any money. He told them to treat coins as if they were pebbles in the road. When the bishop showed horror at the friars' hard life, Francis said, "If we had any possessions we should need weapons and laws to defend them." Possessing something was the death of love for Francis. Also, Francis reasoned, what could you do to a man who owns nothing? You can't starve a fasting man, you can't steal from someone who has no money, you can't ruin someone who hates prestige. They were truly free.Francis was a man of action. His simplicity of life extended to ideas and deeds. If there was a simple way, no matter how impossible it seemed, Francis would take it. So when Francis wanted approval for his brotherhood, he went straight to Rome to see Pope Innocent III. You can imagine what the pope thought when this beggar approached him! As a matter of fact he threw Francis out. But when he had a dream that this tiny man in rags held up the tilting Lateran basilica, he quickly called Francis back and gave him permission to preach.Sometimes this direct approach led to mistakes that he corrected with the same spontaneity that he made them. Once he ordered a brother who hesitated to speak because he stuttered to go preach half-naked. When Francis realized how he had hurt someone he loved he ran to town, stopped the brother, took off his own clothes, and preached instead.Francis acted quickly because he acted from the heart; he didn't have time to put on a role. Once he was so sick and exhausted, his companions borrowed a mule for him to ride. When the man who owned the mule recognized Francis he said, "Try to be as virtuous as everyone thinks you are because many have a lot of confidence in you." Francis dropped off the mule and knelt before the man to thank him for his advice.Another example of his directness came when he decided to go to Syria to convert the Moslems while the Fifth Crusade was being fought. In the middle of a battle, Francis decided to do the simplest thing and go straight to the sultan to make peace. When he and his companion were captured, the real miracle was that they weren't killed. Instead Francis was taken to the sultan who was charmed by Francis and his preaching. He told Francis, "I would convert to your religion which is a beautiful one -- but both of us would be murdered."Francis did find persecution and martyrdom of a kind -- not among the Moslems, but among his own brothers. When he returned to Italy, he came back to a brotherhood that had grown to 5000 in ten years. Pressure came from outside to control this great movement, to make them conform to the standards of others. His dream of radical poverty was too harsh, people said. Francis responded, "Lord, didn't I tell you they wouldn't trust you?"He finally gave up authority in his order -- but he probably wasn't too upset about it. Now he was just another brother, like he'd always wanted.Francis' final years were filled with suffering as well as humiliation. Praying to share in Christ's passion he had a vision received the stigmata, the marks of the nails and the lance wound that Christ suffered, in his own body.Years of poverty and wandering had made Francis ill. When he began to go blind, the pope ordered that his eyes be operated on. This meant cauterizing his face with a hot iron. Francis spoke to "Brother Fire": "Brother Fire, the Most High has made you strong and beautiful and useful. Be courteous to me now in this hour, for I have always loved you, and temper your heat so that I can endure it." And Francis reported that Brother Fire had been so kind that he felt nothing at all.How did Francis respond to blindness and suffering? That was when he wrote his beautiful Canticle of the Sun that expresses his brotherhood with creation in praising God.Francis never recovered from this illness. He died on October 4, 1226 at the age of 45. Francis is considered the founder of all Franciscan orders and the patron saint of ecologists and merchants.


Copyright 1996-2000 by Terry Matz. All Rights Reserved.

text after www.catholicsaints.org

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St Therese of Lisieux week

Beautiful poem in honour of Our Lady written by St Therese - Why I Love You, O Mary - will adorn this blog's Saturday posts this month - part 1

Oh! I would like to sing, Mary, why I love you,
Why your sweet name thrills my heart,
And why the thought of your supreme greatness
Could not bring fear to my soul.
If I gazed upon youn in your sublime glory,
Surpassing the splendor of all blessed,
I could not believe that I am your child
O Mary, before you I would lower my eyes!

If a child is to cherish his mother,
She has to cry with him and share his sorrows,
O my dearest Mother, on this foreign shore
How many tears you shed to draw me to you!...
In pondering your life in the holy Gospels,
I dare look at you and come near you.
It's not difficult for me to believe I'm your child,
For I see you human and suffering like me...

When an angel from Heaven bids you be the Mother
Of God who is to reign for all eternity,
I see you prefer, O Mary, what a mystery!
the ineffable treasure of virginity.
O Immaculate Virgin, I understand how your soul
Is dearer to the Lord than his heavenly dwelling.
I understand how your soul, Humble and Sweet Valley,
Can contain Jesus, the Ocean of Love!...

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