Franciscan Month Reflection Series

I first became aware of the Franciscan tradition when I was 12 years old. My dad got a new job at Alvernia University (then College), a school rich with Franciscan traditions. I was at an age where I could appreciate what that meant, but I was also a pre-teen in middle school, so learning about St. Francis was not at the forefront of my mind. Still, I learned a little. I met the Bernardine Franciscan Sisters and learned about the importance of their role on Alvernia’s campus as the founders and sponsors of the school. Through my dad’s job, I saw the importance of prayer, peace and, my most favorite, service. Eleven years later, I have found myself back at Alvernia in a role where I get to encompass all of the parts I love most about St. Francis. St. Francis was determined to help the poor and to live among them. After experiencing a life of wealth and prosperity, he chose a life of poverty. A great sacrifice for anyone to make. But in doing so, he started a movement that has lasted cen...

There are three experiences that profoundly shaped St. Francis of Assis’s life. Two were early: one year spent as a prisoner-of-war (from 1202-1203), and subsequent homelessness living among lepers outside Assisi’s walls (likely 1205). The third, Francis’ journey to Egypt (in 1219), occurred seven years before his death in 1226. Each unfolded differently than Francis anticipated. Seeking fame, Francis joined Assisi’s ongoing fight with its neighbor Perugia. The son of a wealthy cloth merchant went off to war well equipped with horse and armor. When the battle turned against Assisi, Francis’s life was spared because his equipment revealed he came from a family capable of paying a ransom. His poorer, fellow soldiers who survived the battle were likely executed or if wounded “dispatched” on the battlefield. Strangely, Francis wrote nothing about his year-long imprisonment. Released from captivity, he was shell of his former self. Having witnessed men killed in battle, others executed as...

My call to the Franciscan life in 2013 was completely unexpected, and since then it has been one surprise after another. In fact, Franciscanism does more than surprise me; it often turns my typical and conventional thinking on its head. The more I dive into the example and teachings of St. Francis and Clare, the more such challenges—sometimes unsettling, often delightful—I find. Last year during Advent I spent some time each day reading St. Francis’ Admonitions, a set of 28 teachings from the saint collected by the early Franciscan movement. This passage stopped me in my tracks: Consider, O human being, in what great excellence the Lord God has placed you, for He created and formed you to the image of His beloved Son according to the body and to His likeness according to the Spirit. And all creatures under heaven serve, know, and obey their Creator, each according to its own nature, better than you. (St. Francis of Assisi, Admonitions V) The first part of this Admonition is beaut...

The manger scene evokes our memories of Christmas: sharing delicious holiday dishes with family members, sitting around a Christmas tree with hot cocoa, or roasting chestnuts on an open fire. However, on this night, St. Francis did not partake in the feasting typical at Christmastime in the Middle Ages. Instead, he desired to “…enact the memory of that babe who was born in Bethlehem: to see as much as is possible with [his] own bodily eyes the discomfort of [Christ’s] infant needs, how he lay in a manger, and how, with an ox and ass standing by, he rested on hay”. Thus, the manger scene was born. On Christmas Eve in 1223, St. Francis of Assisi had the first live manger scene created in the town of Greccio. He gathered the townspeople from near and far to celebrate Mass and recall the origins of Christ’s humble birth.   Francis saw Our Lord’s birth as fundamental. His Birth is intimately tied to His Death. The two bookends of Christ’s Life on earth form the basis of Francis’ spiritu...

[Francis] was not always the gentle, docile, animal-hugging cartoon that he’s been turned into in the public imagination. He could be intense, bordering on harsh. He did, contrary to what some people seem to want to believe, get angry. He did get upset with others, and with himself. There were times in his life when he was dejected, annoyed, frustrated. And while I’m sure you must have realized that prior to reading it, for many people - admittedly, myself included - it’s something that’s easy to forget. When we take a closer look at St. Francis, we also see a man who was filled with seeming contradictions. Francis was both uncompromising in his devotion to Christ and willing to engage in an early form of interreligious dialogue with the Muslim sultan. Unfailingly faithful to the Church while living a very different lifestyle than most clerics at the time. Harshly intense with his expectations for himself and his brothers - as we can see from the opening story - yet often display...

It has been 10 years since I was given the opportunity to join Franciscan Pilgrimage Programs on a journey to Assisi and Rome. Each day of my life since then has been touched by those 10 days. Below are a few of the gifts of being welcomed into the Franciscan family: I’ve learned from Francis the rhythm of contemplation and action, and the importance of a heart turned to God. Just as breath is not life-sustaining with solely an exhale or an inhale – we must have both – so we must have both contemplation and action in our lives. And, just as air is the completely necessary foundation for breath – for breath is ‘nothing’ without it – so my action and contemplation must relate to God, the unseen but wholly Good foundation of all. I’ve learned from Francis to embrace that which has been difficult for me to love or understand. Francis’ life changed when he embraced someone of whom he was afraid – a person with leprosy. At the end of his life, Francis said it was that embrace that transf...

  When Francis preached love to the birds They listened, fluttered, throttled up Into the blue like a flock of words Released for fun from his holy lips. (Seamus Heaney “St. Francis and the Birds”) Seamus Heaney’s 1966 poem is beautiful verse on a beautiful story of beautiful creatures. It calls out for beautiful visual representations. Yet years ago, our youngest son, almost three, visited campus and concluded, regarding a somewhat abstract framed print of St. Francis and the birds, “He loved butterflies and worms.” Fair enough on the butterflies, in artistic interpretation, birdlike, I thought, but I never did see the worms. I’m not a fan. They wash out onto the sidewalks on rainy days and are slimy and icky and all-around uncanny. Shame for my unfair worm aversion turns me toward another frequently taught poem on Francis,   Galway Kinnell's "Saint Francis and the Sow," and its central line: though sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveli...