Thoughts of Today

Today 4th Oct 06....

I was thinking of St Francis of Assisi, Patron of Animals, Merchants, Ecology & Italy
let me tell you what i know about him...
he's a man of Poverty & Humility, he live his life as what the Gospel aka "Teachings of Christ" has taught him... Francis comes from a very rich family, he's father wants him to be a "Somebody" in his family but is he actually everybody in the village likes him... he was a very picky person and he was not that good in education.

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 aka "His Father" 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.

he never wanted to found a religious order but he founded the Franciscan Order... Francis was never a priest, though he was later ordained a deacon under his protest. Francis was thinking 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 loves nautre "God's Creation" and that was included with the brotherhood. Francis really felt that nature, all God's creations, were part of his brotherhood. The sparrow was as much his brother as the pope.

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.

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.


If the world would be like St Francis of Assisi, I tell you the whole world is HEAVEN... but now you hear from news everyday it speak of Molesation, Religious problems, Nuclear Testing and many more... If the world can think of this word PEACE but we cant cause we cannot give peace to others only the Almighty God can give it to us... as what Our Lord taught his followers, "Carry your Cross everyday if you want to be a Follower of mine" this also apply to all of us who believe in Him.... ahhh God if you really can see what the world is up to i hope and pray that i can see and meet you soon if it is Your Will...
let Your Will be done on earth and also in heaven...

~fjm outta....