Francis of Assisi is the patron saint of ecology, animals, and peacemaking--because he understood that the entire circle of life has a Great Lover at the center of it all. (Sunday) The way of Francis included and integrated the negative--forgiving and accepting the imperfection and woundedness of life. (Monday) Francis says it this way: "The Rule and the life of the Friars Minor is simply to live the Gospel." (Tuesday) Francis, like all saints, delighted in both his Absolute Littleness and his Absolute Connection in the very same moment, knowing they depended on one another. (Wednesday) Precisely because both Jesus and Francis were "conservatives" in the true sense of the term, they conserved what was worth conserving--the core, the transformative life of the Gospel--and did not let accidentals get in the way, which are the very things false conservatives usually idolize. (Thursday) Once death is joyfully incorporated into life, you are already in heaven and there is no possibility or fear of hell. That is the Franciscan way. (Friday)
|