In today’s first reading from Isaiah, we hear
Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see, I am doing something new! (Isaiah 43)
Pope Francis – Jesuit with a Franciscan spirit – may well represent a new category of religious sense in the public square. But that is no reason to forego some of the classic inter-religious jokes. Here is one from Fr. Tom Reese, SJ Continue reading
Several days ago I mentioned that there would be lots of things written about Pope Francis and St. Francis of Assisi in the coming days – and that I was impressed that a writer for a news outlet would be daunting enough to try and produce something which included information about St. Francis. It is a complex task (as I hinted) and it is inevitable that things won’t be exactly correct. Even though I did list a short bibliography of recent books about St. Francis, someone contacted me and said that I should not criticize, especially since I had not written anything about St. Francis. So, I sent them the list of my posts – the same one I am posting here. I hope it is helpful, enlightening, and inspiring. Continue reading
People are surprised to learn that the Early Rule of the friars instructed the brothers not to own pets – as well they were not to ride horses. These rules are only partly about poverty; they encouraged friars not to treat animals as objects or possessions. And, in the case of horseback riding, his rule distanced the friars from the proud world of chivalry. Later in his life when sickness compelled him to ride, Francis always preferred a donkey.
In his own writings, Francis does not adopt images from his experience of nature, rather he took those images from Scripture. In the five passages outside the Rules where he mentions animals, only once does he go beyond the imagery from Scripture, and it is to hold up animals as an example of obedience to God. Continue reading
John Allen, longtime Vatican reporter: “The real winner of the 2013 conclave was St Francis of Assisi:” http://ow.ly/j0HbM We live in hope!
Sacred Heart parish here in Tampa has an unusual history. It was established in 1860 (modern by world standards, ancient by West Central Florida standards) with diocesan priests, but was lead by the Jesuits of the New Orleans province from 1888 until 2005. Their missionary, church planting, and pastoral work was pretty amazing. In 2005 they withdrew from the parish and pastoral leadership of the parish passed to the Franciscan friars of Holy Name Province who remain to this day.
As a parishioner pointed out, are we perhaps the only parish who has a statue/altar for St. 
Ignatius of Loyola and St. Francis of Assisi – as well as the tradition of both august religious orders? Fun to ponder – but in any case we are proud of our Jesuit roots (Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam – For the greater glory of God) and our Franciscan heritage (Deus Meus et Omnia – My God and my all)
Pope Francis
One of the great things about social media and its use by Cardinals, Bishops, and people from Rome these days, is that we have the chance to become “eye-witnesses” to the first hours and days of Pope Francis. I have seen some wonderful snippets of tweets, blogs, etc. that give me great hope about the possibilities of the man who would walk in the shoes of Peter: holiness in humility.
Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Pete diocese (the first blogging bishop) has a great article which encapsulates many of the stories from the first 24 hours. It is a great read by another church man who strives for holiness in humility.
Where were you when the white smoke billowed from the Vatican? I was on my way back to the parish when my cell phone kept rapidly beeping as one text after another poured in. Back in the parish office, I learned the Jesuit Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina had been elected and taken the name Francis – I assumed it was for St. Francis Xavier the great Jesuit missionary and that new evangelization would be the focus of his pontificate. A good choice and a great aim.
St. Francis of Assisi is the patron saint of Italy, merchants, stowaways, ecology, but most famously, of animals. If one searches the internet, you can easily find all kinds of pious, ecologically insightful, and often amazingly-modern sounding quotes from St. Francis. And they are inevitably without a citation from one of Francis’ writings or at least a later Franciscan source writing about Francis. As I noted in the beginning of this series, Francis has always been reinvented and marketed as needed. Perhaps the one book most responsible for casting Francis as the lover of animals and nature is a collection of stories – many miraculous and all very saintly – that first appeared in 1390 in Tuscany: the Fioretti (The Little Flowers). But can we say about St. Francis, the patron saint of animals? Continue reading
By the spring of 1213, four years after the founding of the “order,” Francis’ reputation had risen to the attention of the Italian aristocracy – not just in Assisi but throughout central Italy. The order was beginning to attract men from the higher social classes. Sons of merchants like Francis, sons of the landed wealthy, sons of ruling households, men with established careers in law, music and the arts, and also ordained priests. They joined the already formed group of men from middle and lower backgrounds in muddling through what it meant to follow Christ in the manner of Francis. G.K. Chesterton’s later definition of the Catholic Church – “here comes everybody” – was being lived out in Francis’ day. Continue reading
Over the last several weeks we have been considering what awaited the men who came to join Francis of Assisi and this growing fraternity of believers seeking to follow Christ more fully in the world. We had mentioned there were no rules, regulations, or even a formation program; there was only Francis and the other brothers. But what drew the men to want to “come and see?” Undoubtedly, as today, a complex of reasons, but key among those reasons was Francis of Assisi’s reputation for holiness and miracles. Continue reading
