Saint Francis of Assisi - "We must be simple, humble and pure"
We must be simple, humble and pure
From the Letters from Saint Francis of Assisi to all the faithful
(Opuscula, edit. Quaracchi (Florence) 1949, 87-94)
The coming to the world by the Word of the Father, so dignified and worthy, so saintly and glorious, was announced by the Father Most High, through the mouth of His Holy Saint Gabriel, to the Holy and Glorious Virgin Mary, from whose womb she received an authentic human nature, fragile like our own.
He, being rich beyond every consideration, wanted to choose poverty, together with His Most Holy Mother. And, with His Passion approaching, He celebrated the Paschal Feast with His disciples. Later He prayed to the Father, saying: My Father, if it is possible, may this chalice pass me by.
Nevertheless, He submitted His will in the Will of His Father. The Will of the Father was that His Blessed and Glorious Son, who He delivered for us and who was born for us, offer Himself as a sacrifice and victim in the altar of the Cross, with His own Blood, not for Himself, through whom all things were made, but rather for our sins, leaving us an example so that we follow in His footsteps. And He desires that all be saved through and by Him and that we receive Him with a pure heart and a chaste body.
How blissful and blessed are those who love the Lord and fulfill what the Lord Himself says in the Gospel: You shall love the Lord, your God, with your whole heart and your whole soul; and your neighbour as yourself. Let us love God and adore Him with a pure heart and pure mind, as He makes His greatest desire known to us, when He says: The true worshippers will adore the Father in spirit and in truth. For all who adore Him must do so in spirit and in truth. In addition, let us, day and night, direct to Him our praise and prayer, saying: Our Father, who art in heaven, because we must pray always and never give up.
Let us procure to give fruits of true repentance. Let us love our neighbours as ourselves. Let us possess charity and humility and give alms, as these things cleanse our souls of the filth of sin. In effect, men lose all the things they leave behind them in this world; they only carry with them the reward of their charity and the alms they practiced, for which 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 must never desire to be above others. Instead, on the contrary: as examples of the Lord, we must live as servants, submissive to every human being, moved to our love for God. The Spirit of the Lord will repose on all who work and persevere in this manner until the end, and will convert them in His dwelling, and they will be children of the Celestial Father, whose works they imitate: they are the spouses, brothers and mothers of our Lord Jesus Christ.
PRAYER
Lord God, who in the poor and humble Saint Francis of Assisi has given to Your Church a vivid image of Jesus Christ, deign that we, following his example, imitate Your Son and we live, like this saint, united to You in the Bliss of Love. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit and is God, for ever and ever, Amen.
Translated from the Spanish Liturgies of the Hours by Jan Paul von Wendt -
liturgiasdelashoras.com.ar
We must be simple, humble and pure
From the Letters from Saint Francis of Assisi to all the faithful
(Opuscula, edit. Quaracchi (Florence) 1949, 87-94)
The coming to the world by the Word of the Father, so dignified and worthy, so saintly and glorious, was announced by the Father Most High, through the mouth of His Holy Saint Gabriel, to the Holy and Glorious Virgin Mary, from whose womb she received an authentic human nature, fragile like our own.
He, being rich beyond every consideration, wanted to choose poverty, together with His Most Holy Mother. And, with His Passion approaching, He celebrated the Paschal Feast with His disciples. Later He prayed to the Father, saying: My Father, if it is possible, may this chalice pass me by.
Nevertheless, He submitted His will in the Will of His Father. The Will of the Father was that His Blessed and Glorious Son, who He delivered for us and who was born for us, offer Himself as a sacrifice and victim in the altar of the Cross, with His own Blood, not for Himself, through whom all things were made, but rather for our sins, leaving us an example so that we follow in His footsteps. And He desires that all be saved through and by Him and that we receive Him with a pure heart and a chaste body.
How blissful and blessed are those who love the Lord and fulfill what the Lord Himself says in the Gospel: You shall love the Lord, your God, with your whole heart and your whole soul; and your neighbour as yourself. Let us love God and adore Him with a pure heart and pure mind, as He makes His greatest desire known to us, when He says: The true worshippers will adore the Father in spirit and in truth. For all who adore Him must do so in spirit and in truth. In addition, let us, day and night, direct to Him our praise and prayer, saying: Our Father, who art in heaven, because we must pray always and never give up.
Let us procure to give fruits of true repentance. Let us love our neighbours as ourselves. Let us possess charity and humility and give alms, as these things cleanse our souls of the filth of sin. In effect, men lose all the things they leave behind them in this world; they only carry with them the reward of their charity and the alms they practiced, for which 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 must never desire to be above others. Instead, on the contrary: as examples of the Lord, we must live as servants, submissive to every human being, moved to our love for God. The Spirit of the Lord will repose on all who work and persevere in this manner until the end, and will convert them in His dwelling, and they will be children of the Celestial Father, whose works they imitate: they are the spouses, brothers and mothers of our Lord Jesus Christ.
PRAYER
Lord God, who in the poor and humble Saint Francis of Assisi has given to Your Church a vivid image of Jesus Christ, deign that we, following his example, imitate Your Son and we live, like this saint, united to You in the Bliss of Love. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit and is God, for ever and ever, Amen.
Translated from the Spanish Liturgies of the Hours by Jan Paul von Wendt -
liturgiasdelashoras.com.ar
"Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible."
October 4 - Saint Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) - "We must be simple, humble and pure"
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