Saint Francis
LK 10:38-42
Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.”
But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
A Love For God That Knows No Bounds
When you think of a saint, what comes to mind? Oftentimes, we can see saints as beingunrelatable and emotionless. St. Francis couldn’t have been less like this. He had the heart of a poet and the passion of a warrior. He felt the infinite heartbeat of God pulse in the world, in everything he met. He loved all, including sinners and animals. He is the one who decided to build a church on his own because God told him to. He is the one who, when presented with the choice between God and his possessions, stripped his clothes and gave even those back to God. These are either the choices of a madman, or that of a man who was deeply and madly in love. He was a romantic whose tender heart constantly broke and beat for all. May we all be given that reckless love for God that knows no bounds.
—Alex Hale, SJ, is a Jesuit scholastic from the Midwest Province studying philosophy at Loyola University Chicago.
Prayer
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
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 of St. Francis