Today is a great day, a marvelous day for our Holy Father, St. Francis, for us, because
we celebrate his life, and he is our father, he is the founder of our community, but he's
the founder of this worldwide community, a founder of so many children throughout the
world for 800 years now, the founder, this kernel, this kernel of the gospel, the gospel,
he's, St. Francis really embodied the gospel of Jesus Christ.
He embodied Jesus Christ, he imitated Jesus Christ, he conformed himself so perfectly to
Jesus, and that was his will and intention, to just mirror Jesus as perfectly as he could,
to love Jesus with all his heart, soul, and strength.
The power of his love for Jesus was so strong, and full, and deep, and rich, and that's why
we have the richness of the Franciscan order, which has survived to this day.
and continues to bring new offshoots of Franciscans into the church, and the church is still strong
because of this order, which has been promised to St. Francis to last until the end of time.
Because of the richness of it, the charism that St. Francis had in his own person, this
charism of love for Jesus Christ, love for poverty for the sake of money, love for the
of christ this love for the gospel this love for souls and it's that deep rich love that saint
francis had that really was a fragrance throughout the whole church and and it was really really deep
and and strong and powerful that spread it was like an explosion through the church and
lasts to this day and i can think of the big bang you know this explosion which keeps spreading the
spreading the planets and suns and stars and throughout the throughout the universe and it's
still still here we're still alive the the universe is still here and so the franciscan order is still
here rich and shining bright in the church and bringing new children new new followers of saint
francis followers of jesus christ following this example that this rich strong example that saint
francis
gave us of the love for jesus christ he would meditate in the life of jesus the gospel his
teachings his person the person of jesus christ and he was so captivated so fully in love with
jesus and all that he was and did and especially all he suffered in his passion and he would weep
and weep and weep until he went blind thinking of the love of jesus and how much he suffered
for us and he just wanted to
spend his life for jesus in return for his love for him and to follow the will of jesus whatever
jesus wanted you know he was content to just go into the wilderness and in his uh in his hair shirt
whatever he was wearing and just run and skip and be happy in the wilderness loving jesus and
praying and and being being communion communing with him and he was content to just go into the
wilderness with god through his creation his love for animals and and things that lifted up his mind
and heart to to jesus this is what saint francis wanted and then he found that jesus called him to
rebuild the church to rebuild the church and to found a new religious order and this saint francis
said yes i will do whatever you call me to do and he did it with all his heart and he founded this
rich
powerful
immensely beneficial religious community for the upbuilding of the church for the
renewing love of jesus christ in the hearts of men that's what saint francis did and he didn't
intend to have a large community intended to have a small one even actually but our lord had other
purposes and so the religious franciscan order spread and spread and spread throughout the
the church and we are we are his inheritance and we are carrying on his heritage the patrimony of
saint francis today we franciscans and we who are associated with the franciscan order in some way
as tertiaries or friends or benefactors of the franciscan order we are all growing in holiness
through through this rich charism this example of saint francis he was he took the love of jesus
seriously he took holiness seriously he would go and preach seriously to the crowds and they knew
that he was serious they knew that he was the real thing he was authentic he was really in love with
jesus christ he really wanted to be holy he really wanted to set a good example for everybody
especially his brothers and religious life he wanted to set that perfect example and he was
dead serious about serving jesus and obeying him and he was really serious about serving him and he was
he was just looking at what he could possibly do and i am proud of him and i am proud of him by being
holy and i'm very struck by his commandments and being holy and nobody doubted that and everybody
was swept away by the love of jesus that was in his heart and in his voice in the fervor of his
preaching it was all there and it was powerfully present in saint francis when he when he would
pray at night my god and my all my god and my all my god and my all bernard who said where's bernard
who said where's bernard who said where's bernard who said where's bernard who said where's bernard
was there in the room listening to him thinking that
making pretend that he was asleep he saw the authentic
love of Jesus in the heart of St. Francis and that he
really meant what he was living and what he was preaching
and he impressed everyone because of that
and this is what we need to follow. This is what
we need to take to heart. The seriousness of
St. Francis where he got rid of everything. He got rid of
all his riches and he wanted to live in poverty for the sake of
Jesus Christ. To live only for Jesus Christ.
To despise the world and to embrace the cross and to
love Jesus and to teach everyone else to preach
that. This is what we are presented with
in the life of St. Francis and this is what we are trying to
image in our own life.
And following his great example to the church which was really had to have been
so deep and profound because we have so many saints in the church so many
founders of different
religious communities but can we say
there's one as powerful as the Franciscan order
who can say there's definitely a kernel and a charism there that is so deep and
rich and powerful that it keeps bringing new fruits and flowers
of virtue and saints in
in the church.
We want to be among them.
We want to be true
and good holy followers of St. Francis and his powerful
example of holiness and love for
Jesus Christ and for
Our Lady. He had a deep
profound
love for
Our Lady and he entrusted his church
he entrusted his community and all of his friars to
Our Lady
that it would grow
that they would truly be holy
that they would
that his
that his friars would be
imitators of Jesus Christ as he was trying
to be and
look what
Our Lady did with his order
look what Our Lady did with all his
holy friars all the saints of the Franciscan order
and look what she's doing to
to
Franciscan orders that are still
alive today especially Franciscans of the Immaculate
because St. Francis entrusted
the order to
Our Lady and Our Lady entrusted the order to St. Francis really that came first
and so we are
we are followers of Our Lady and followers of
St. Francis
all to glorify God and to establish in the world the kingdom
of Jesus Christ so let us be
good followers of St. Francis.
and to work well in players in the same place
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