Daily Reflections

2 Peter 1:10, 11; Ephesians 5:8, 11

Wherefore, brethren, labour the more, that by good works you may make sure your calling and election.                                                                – For so an entrance shall be ministered to you abundantly into the ever-lasting Kingdom of Our LORD and Saviour Jesus Christ.

For you were heretofore darkness, but now light in the Lord.  Walk then as children of the light.

– For so an entrance shall be ministered to you abundantly into the ever-lasting Kingdom of Our LORD and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Wednesday of the Twenty-Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

Saint Francis of Assisi, Confessor

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI, CONFESSOR 

Francis was born in 1182 in Assisi, Italy, the son of a rich cloth merchant.The Seraphic Patriarch of Assisi was a man especially raised up by God in the Middle Ages with the mission to re-convert the world to Christ. Francis was born in a stable, and heralded into the world by angelic song; In 1208, he heard the Gospel in which Christ sends his disciples forth, telling them to take “no haversack for the journey or spare tunic or footwear or a staff” (Mt 10:10). Immediately, Francis went out to preach on the streets of Assisi as Christ instructed. He commenced his work with twelve followers, whom he sent two by two to preach the Gospel. He expoused most high Poverty, and received in his own body the marks of the Sacred Passion on Mount Alvernia. Francis’s message of charity, peace, and justice was heard by men and women of every grade of society, and thousands in consequence, desired to leave all and follow Francis in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. Therefore he founded the Order of Friars Minor, the Second Order, or the Poor Clares, and the Tertiaries or Third Order, which bear his name. Francis died about sunset on Saturday, October 3, 1226. 

From a letter written to all the faithful by Saint Francis of Assisi
(Opuscula, edit. Quaracchi 1949, 87-94)

We must be simple, humble and pure

It was through His archangel, Saint Gabriel, that the Father above made known to the holy and glorious Virgin Mary that the worthy, holy and glorious Word of the Father would come from Heaven and take from her womb the real flesh of our human frailty. Though He was wealthy beyond reckoning, He still willingly chose to be poor with His blessed mother. And shortly before His passion He celebrated the Passover with His disciples. Then He prayed to His Father saying: Father, if it be possible, let this Cup be taken from Me.

Nevertheless, He reposed His will in the Will of His Father. The Father willed that His blessed and glorious Son, whom He gave to us and who was born for us, should through His own Blood offer Himself as a sacrificial Victim on the altar of the Cross. This was to be done not for Himself through Whom all things were made, but for our sins. It was intended to leave us an example of how to follow in His footsteps. And He desires all of us to be saved through Him, and to receive Him with pure heart and chaste body.

O how happy and blessed are those who love the LORD and do as the LORD Himself said in the Gospel: You shall love the LORD your God with your whole heart and your whole soul; and your neighbour as yourself. Therefore, let us love God and adore Him with pure heart and mind. This is His particular desire when he says: True worshippers adore the Father in spirit and truth. For all who adore Him must do so in the spirit of Truth. Let us also direct to Him our praises and prayers saying: Our Father, Who art in Heaven, since we must always pray and never grow slack.

Furthermore, let us produce worthy fruits of penance. Let us also love our neighbours as ourselves. Let us have Charity and Humility. Let us give alms because these cleanse our souls from the stains of sin. Men lose all the material things they leave behind them in this world, but they carry with them the reward of their charity and the alms they give. For these they will receive from the LORD the reward and recompense they deserve. We must not be wise and prudent according to the flesh. Rather we must be simple, humble and pure. We should never desire to be over others. Instead, we ought to be servants who are submissive to every human being for God’s sake. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on all who live in this way and persevere in it to the end. He will permanently dwell in them. They will be the Father’s children who do His work. They are the spouses, brothers and mothers of Our LORD Jesus Christ.

DAILY MEDITATION 

I also warn and exhort the brothers in the LORD Jesus Christ, that they beware of all pride, vainglory, envy, covetousness, the cares and solicitudes of this world, of  detraction and murmuring. Let not those who are ignorant of letters, care to learn letters, but let them consider that, beyond all, they should desire to possess the Spirit of the LORD and His holy operation, to pray always to Him with a pure heart, and to have humility, patience in persecution, and in infirmity, and to love those who persecute, reprove, and accuse us. “Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’s sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven“ [Matthew 10:22].

Saint Francis of Assisi [+1226] – Italian mendicant friar, mystic, preacher and beloved founder of multiple religious orders.

The Prayer of a True Disciple

LORD Jesus Christ, who chose the twelve apostles, and though one of them was lost, the rest remained true to You and preached the Gospel, being filled with the Holy Ghost: now, LORD, in Your mercy You have endowed the brothers with faith so that they can strengthen others and so fulfil the mystery of the Gospel….

LORD Jesus Christ, You are the Good Shepherd. You grant us Your loving mercy without our having deserved it, and many a time it must endure the pangs of sharp pain. Since You have called me to Your flock, I beg You by Your grace and strength that in trouble, anguish and distress I may never turn away from You….

LORD, look down on me in my infirmities and help me to bear them patiently…. I will rejoice at my tribulations and infirmities and be strong in the LORD, at all times giving thanks to God the Father and to His Only Son Our LORD Jesus Christ and to the Holy Ghost, for the great grace He has given me in deigning to assure me, His unworthy servant, while I am still alive, that His Kingdom will be mine.

Saint Francis of Assisi

Saint Francis of Assisi († 1226) was a deacon, father to the poor, missionary, and religious founder. [From The Prayers of Saint Francis, Alan Neame, Tr. ©

Matthew 5:3-4, 6

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.                   – Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land. 

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.                        – Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land.

“The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.” – Ven. Archbishop Fulton Sheen