Saint Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan orders of the Friars Minor, the women's Order of St. Clare, and the lay Third Order
Today is the feast of: St Francis d’Assisi, October 4; one of the holiest people to ever live. He kept his life simple and avoided all worldly distractions. He believed that all he needed to do was seek God's will and follow it; he believed God would look after everything else.
Francis had all the comforts and luxuries of life and, in keeping with the times, was a highly popular romantic who passionately sought knighthood! Thus, in 1202, when Assisi went to war against Perugia, his involvement cost him a year in prison. Recovering from a serious illness that followed, his attempt in late 1205 to join the papal forces against Frederick II in Apulia came to naught when a vision at Spoleto bid him return to Assisi and there await a call to a new kind of knighthood whereby he would “serve the Master rather than the man”, marking the start of his conversion.
In prayerful solitude, he passionately prayed to know God’s will for him. His newfound concern for the poor and the sick reached its peak when he one day dismounted his horse to give a leper by the wayside alms and a warm embrace that, in his own words, changed “bitterness to sweetness.” In response to Jesus’ command from the cross at San Damiano’s Church, “Francis, go repair my house which, as you see, is falling into ruin,” he instantly set about repairing old, dilapidated San Damiano’s. In 1208, he perceived clearly at Mass the Lord’s plan for him in Matthew 10:5-14. In 1209, with the enrobing of Peter of Cattaneo, Canon of the Cathedral, was born the Order of Friars Minor, with Mary, Queen of the Angels as guide and protector. Canonized in 1228, Francis was called by Pope Benedict XV the “most perfect image of Christ” and by Pope Pius XI alter Christus.
PRAYER OF SAINT FRANCIS
"LORD, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O DIVINE MASTER, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life." Amen.
PRAYER TO SAINT FRANCIS
O GLORIOUS SAINT FRANCIS, who during the whole course of thy life continually wept over the passion of the Redeemer, and labored most zealously for the salvation of souls: Obtain for us, we pray, the grace of weeping continually over those sins by which we have crucified afresh Our Lord Jesus Christ, that we may attain to be of the number of those who shall eternally bless His supreme mercy.
GLORY BE TO THE FATHER, AND TO THE SON, AND TO THE HOLY SPIRIT. As it was in the beginning is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
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