Showing posts with label joy and peace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label joy and peace. Show all posts

March 14, 2013

Who is St. Francis of Assisi?

In a nod of tribute to the newly elected Christian leader, Pope Francis, the simplexlife posts an article which first appeared here previously:

The Prayer of Saint Francis
Sung by Sarah McLaughlin

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
for
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life

Who is Francis of Assisi that the world should recollect him still, nearly 1,000 years beyond his lifetime? The "Peace Prayer" of St. Francis has become a very well known attribute. However further search turns up that he did not write it at all, though it so well expresses the aims of Saint Francis of Assisi. It was written first in French about 1912, appearing in the journal, La Clochette, the poem written by an unknown author.
As for the flesh and blood Francis of Assisi, the saint's early life gave no indication of his future virtue. No one loved pleasure more than Francis; he had a quick wit, sang freely and often, delighted in fine food, clothes, women and ostentation. Handsome, cheerful, and chivalrous, he soon became most popular among the young nobles of Assisi, the very king of frolic. Still, he showed an instinctive sympathy with the poor, and though he spent money freely, he spent in such sums as to demonstrate a charity of spirit.

When about twenty, Francis went out with the townsmen to box and battle the Perugians (a neighboring region, Perugia) in one of the petty skirmishes so frequent at that time between the rival cities. The Assisians were defeated this time, Francis, was taken prisoner, was held captive for more than a year in Perugia. A low fever which he there contracted apparently turned his thoughts to spiritual matters, or at least to reflect upon the emptiness of the life he had been leading. 

With better health, Francis' eagerness to chase after after glory was restored; he wandered in search of opportunity for victory. Initially a military career appealed to him. His biographers record a story that the night before Francis was to set forth, he had a strange dream, in which he saw a great hall hung with armor, all marked with Crosses. "These", said a voice, "are for you and your soldiers." Francis had another dream in which the same voice told him to turn back to Assisi. With a change of heart, he did follow the voice this time and returned to Assisi in 1205 C.E..

His changed demeanor demonstrated that his heart was no longer attached to frivolities; a yearning for the life of the spirit had possessed him. As if to put his nature to the test, he exchanged clothes with a ragged beggar man and stood for the rest of the day without food or drink among the horde of beggars at the door of the church in Rome. He developed his beliefs strongly over time; the saint's convictions were simple and practical; he was no slave to theory or dogma in regard to the practice of Charity, or anything else. There was nothing fanatical or narrow about his way. He stuck to the roots of simplicity which figured so largely into his spiritual life and ideals, so that nothing threatened to stifle the spirit of prayer which he thought preferable to anything he had experienced prior.

Francis was nonetheless deeply a mystic in the truest sense of the word. The whole world was to him one shining, sun filled ascent, he climbed forward into the sky, ascending like a ladder, closer and closer to the source, to behold his love, his Lord.

This is a bit about who Francis is, and about those who would want to follow him. Watch, and the world is watching too!

December 13, 2011

The Breath of Heaven

Breath of Heaven
by Chris Eaton, Amy Grant

I have traveled many moonless night
Cold and weary, with a babe inside
And I wonder what I've done
Holy Father, you have come
And chosen me now
To carry your son

I am waiting in a silent prayer
I am frightened by the load I bear
In a world as cold as stone,
Must I walk this path alone?
Be with me now
Be with me now

Breath of heaven
Hold me together
Be forever near me
Breath of heaven
Breath of heaven
Light up my darkness
Pour over me your holiness
For you are holy
Breath of heaven

Do you wonder as you watch my face
If a wiser one one should have had my place
But I offer all I am
For the mercy of your plan
Help me be strong
Help me be
Help me...

All of us at one time or another are looking for a "breath of heaven." In hard times we struggle for that break to make it right, to make the "babe" we carry inside bright, peaceful light. We hope and pray for that light, that we not walk the road alone, frightened by the loads we must all bear. Help. Help me be strong. Like Mary, it is a prayer for all.

January 22, 2011

Come to the Water, Light to the Nations

The Servant Song
composed by Richard Gillard
Listen Here

Brother, sister let me serve you.
Let me be as Christ to you.

Pray that I might have the grace
To let you be my servant, too.
We are pilgrims on a journey.
We are brothers on the road.

We are here to help each other
Walk the mile and bear the load.
I will hold the Christ-light for you
In the night time of your fear.

I will hold my hand out to you;
Speak the peace you long to hear.
I will weep when you are weeping.

When you laugh, I’ll laugh with you.
I will share your joy and sorrow
Till we’ve seen this journey through.

When we sing to God in heaven,
We shall find such harmony
Born of all we’ve known together
Of Christ’s love and agony.

Brother, sister let me serve you.
Let me be as Christ to you.
Pray that I might have the grace
To let you be my servant, too.

At this season, after the feast of Christmas, there comes in the Gospel story of John, the baptism of the Lord. And through this story we learn several important things about the infant who grows to become the Christ. First, we learn that the 'lamb of G-d' is then not a warrior, that in baptism the child is filled with the Holy Spirit of God, that the child is the divine creation of G-d. In baptism, the child is both interiorly and externally announced as a creature with a life in the Spirit. While many faith communities today find it fit to argue and debate endlessly, to schism and separate from others over the nature, timing and significance of baptism, both the Orthodox and Catholic Christian communities see fit to follow both the Torah and the later Christian gospels for guidance on the matter, choosing to christen or name a child before the Lord in its early days, after birth.

In the Book of Isaiah 49-52, there are the four passages about the "Suffering Servant" in which a servant whose identity is unclear, yet this One is to be chosen by the Lord for a particular service. He is not merely to restore the people to a faith, but to moreover be the sign of God's presence in the world. Thus over millennia, the Servant has come to represent both individuals and whole communities in faith. We are called then to be the light of the nations.

In baptism then, one is called in the Holy Spirit to a life of light. The baptized then live in the light, for help to all, to bear the load, to share in community the gifts which the Spirit then brings. Many are baptized as tiny infants with the faith of their parents, a constant light; others come to the waters of baptism as adults to signify that while they may have once seen only darkness, now they see light. Guided by established members of the faith community, the baptism is their exterior announcement, that they, the light of the world, have been made anew, given life by the Holy Spirit. For them, their eyes shine brightly; peace and joy is their heart.