Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
Today in the Franciscan Institute, we honor all the saints of the Seraphic Order,
that is, all those who came to follow the way of St. Francis of Assisi,
and faithfully persevered in the following of that way,
and now they have joined their Seraphic Father with the other angels and saints,
praising their good God together for all eternity.
And when we look upon the life of St. Francis of Assisi,
we are not, as it were, confronted with something hard to discern,
for St. Francis returned to what is called the marrow of the gospel,
that is, he followed the gospel sine glossa,
that is, he followed the gospel sine glossa,
without any commentary.
He took the words of our Lord as they were given,
and did not try to wrestle with them,
and try to make them say things that they did not say,
or read into them things that were not there.
And so he was truly a man of the gospel.
And so at a time when the world was growing cold and bitter,
through the vices of greed and lust,
St. Francis of Assisi sought to teach the world again a way,
and that way would touch the lives of many souls,
the souls that would come to follow him in the first order,
the religious men,
the souls that would come to follow his way in the second order,
the religious woman who always strove to seek to imitate St. Clair of Assisi,
that bright and shining star of the Franciscan Institute,
but he would also touch the souls of the lay people,
for lay people from all walks of life would follow the way of St. Francis
in the third order.
And what was the primary characteristic,
the primary characteristic of all these souls?
It was love of God and poverty towards the things of this world.
Whether they were rich or poor,
they did not look upon the things of this world
as a means for their salvation,
as a means for their happiness,
but they looked only upon the things of God
as the true means of happiness.
And so they came to see,
as St. Francis saw, the mystery in suffering.
Indeed, St. Francis tried to begin to teach us again
that we need to look upon our sufferings,
in a different manner,
for we often look upon them as punishments,
and indeed, in a certain sense,
that is what they are.
But more, especially St. Francis saw,
we need to look on them as Scripture reveals them.
Our first parents had fallen.
They had no means to find their way back to heaven
unless someone else came and did the work for them.
And so, the Lord would come and do the work for us,
and then we had to unite something to the sacrifice and suffering,
that He would undergo for ourselves.
And so, St. Francis saw the toil that was added to our labors,
the pains in childbirth,
as a means for us to unite ourselves
to the suffering of Jesus Christ.
And that's why St. Francis is truly called a lover of the cross,
because he knew that suffering was a means
by which we cooperate with the mission of Christ
in our own salvation.
And so, we must, as it were, unite our sufferings
to the suffering of Jesus Christ.
We must unite our sufferings of the Lord,
for then it is elevated.
Indeed, St. Francis would say that the greatest consolation
that the Christian can have is no consolation at all.
Rather, it is the cross.
And so, the more we enter into the mystery of the cross,
the more we enter into the mystery of love,
that love that would drive St. Francis
to leave no stone of suffering unturned,
he would truly be a man who would drink to the dregs.
And all those saints of the seraphic order
were the ones who faithfully followed him
in drinking to the dregs the sufferings
that the Lord would send into their lives.
And so, they would begin to establish
a most marvelous mystery to be seen in Christianity.
For it was the marvel of St. Francis
that in this love of suffering,
this love of poverty,
he began to see the things of the world
in their true way and in their true light.
And so it was, at the inspiration of St. Francis of Assisi,
that many of the devotions came about in the church.
The decoration of the church with flowers.
Indeed, St. Francis had such a profound and delicate
and practical love of the Blessed Sacrament
that the brothers would have to carry brooms with them,
and when they would come across a church
that had fallen into an untidy state,
they were to tidy it up,
for the Lord of all goodness dwelt in that abode.
And so, his love of the sacraments
was a true love of the sacraments,
and it encompassed every aspect of it.
Indeed, it even included keeping tidy
those places where the greatest of all sacraments was to be.
Indeed, St. Francis would require
of all those who would follow him
an examination of their faith
so that they would truly be shown
to hold the Catholic faith.
He would begin his rule for the brothers, the sisters,
and also he would require of the lay people
that they be noted
for their filial devotion to the Vicar of Christ,
that they would love him as children love their father,
because he understood very profoundly
the mystery that Christ had revealed
in the Vicar of Christ,
that one man stands alone
against all the greeds and lusts of the world,
that is, the successor of St. Peter,
for he alone has been given a grace by Almighty God
to be preserved from making any error
in regards to faith and morals
when he acts and speaks as the Vicar of Christ.
And so St. Francis would truly be devoted to him
like a child was to his father,
for he knew that it was through the Vicar
that our faith and our morals are preserved.
And so he was truly
a holy Catholic and apostolic man,
and all those who would come to follow his way of life
would show themselves to be the same.
For they would all drink to the dregs
the suffering the Lord sent them,
they would all uphold and defend the Catholic faith.
There are untold martyrs in the Seraphic Order
from all levels, the First Order,
the Second Order and the Third Order,
because they would again embrace those doctrines
that St. Francis would bring to light.
They would not deny their good King,
and in their love for the Sacred Heart
they would not risk losing that safe abode
where they alone knew they were safe from their sins.
And so many of the modern devotions
that we see in the Church
are rooted in the spirituality of St. Francis.
St. Bonaventure was preaching devotion to the Sacred Heart
before it was revealed to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque.
The devotion to the wounds of Christ were very common.
The Way of the Cross, indeed,
would be given and developed by a son of St. Francis.
Almost all the modern devotions
in their popular expression
are rooted in the spirituality of St. Francis,
for he was such a holy Catholic and apostolic man,
there was not one aspect of the life of Christ
and of the Blessed Virgin Mary
that was not dear to him
and in some way was reflected in his life.
And so in all those saints of the Seraphic Order
that same life was manifested,
the love of Christ crucified
and the love of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
who under good that incredible torment
at the foot of the Cross also for our sake.
And so St. Francis saw in the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts
the means of our salvation
and the hope that is in us.
And so let us strive like St. Francis
and all the saints of the Seraphic Order
to follow his way,
for Popes have blessed the Way of St. Francis,
Popes have blessed the spirituality of St. Francis,
Popes have constantly held out
the Third Order of St. Francis
as the means by which the world
can truly be drawn from its lust
and from its greed
and put back on the way of salvation.
And so let us strive to follow the Way,
for the Way of St. Francis
touches every aspect of human life.
It touches our spiritual,
it touches the spiritual
as well as the temporal.
It seeks to organize all of society
in the most special way
so that all of society
expresses a love for God,
and hence all of society
becomes a means by which we are safely protected
under the mantle of the Immaculate Virgin Mary.
And so let us strive to seek
the love of St. Francis,
that love that burned in all the saints
of the Seraphic Order,
touch each and every soul
in some way and in some aspect
so that again Christendom can be built up
and so again that charity
which St. Francis sought to bring
to every nook and corner of the world,
which all his faithful followers
sought to bring and indeed
it can truly be said have brought
for the missionary activity in this nation
first and foremost was done
by the sons of St. Francis,
the missionary activity in South America
also done by the sons of St. Francis
and the beginning as it were
of the missionary activity in China
which has yet to be completed
in the mystical body of Christ,
again was first carried out
by the sons of St. Francis
and so they would go everywhere in the world
paving the way for other missionaries to come,
for other orders of the Church to come
in order to bring the word of the Gospel
to all nations and to all kingdoms
for St. Francis truly had
a maternal love for all souls.
He truly was transubstantiated into the Immaculate
for he found a way in which
the mission of Christ would go
to all lands and to all peoples
and because he knew
that it was the mission of the Mother
to save all lands and all peoples
and so his sons would strive
to bring about that love and devotion
to the Immaculate Virgin Mary
which is truly the beginning
of the Christian life
and indeed St. Francis anticipated,
saw in his own life before
St. Maximilian Mary Colby
would give it proper expression
that we are to entrust ourselves
to the Mother of God,
we are to consecrate ourselves entirely to her
not as some passive veil
by which we pass to Christ
but as an end in itself.
We give ourselves to the Immaculate
and we need no go further
for St. Francis understood
that she will give us to the Eternal Father,
she will give us to the Son
and so she will ultimately
bring us to Calvary
and so we too embracing our sacrifices
and our sufferings
as the Lord first did for us
would be recognized
as true children of the Father
and so at the end of his life
St. Francis would be seen
winging his way directly to Heaven
because the Father saw
in the Seraphic Father
the patriarch of all the Franciscan saints
he saw complete and total imitation
of his Son
and so St. Francis had no more sin,
no more fault,
no more failing to make expiation for
because he gave himself totally
to the Mother of God
as the Savior gave himself
first totally to the Mother of God
and then he gave himself totally for us
and so he truly showed
the wounds of Christ in his own body
and for St. Francis
that literally meant
the stigmata of Christ
he was the only saint so far
in the history of the Church
who maintained those wounds
after his life on this earth
and so we have great reason
to rejoice because
we have such a model of holiness
a model that many souls
aspired and attained
to imitate and so now
they truly are members
of the angelic choir
and so we pray this day
that each and every member of the mystical body
may in some way
be touched by the spirit of St. Francis
so that they too may safely
journey through this life
and after a life of suffering
and repentance
that is after a life
of love on this earth
love of Jesus crucified
they may gain that life
that life in eternity
which has no suffering
which has no sacrifice
it is merely the pure love
by which we see God as he truly is
and therefore we remember
of Christ
all the signs
and coincidences
so son as also
of God
I want to suscide
for the soul