Faith without works – not for St. Francis!
St. Francis is often honored as the saint that cherished peace and quiet – one who comforted those around him instilling everywhere a sense of rest. We even place his statue in our gardens where he...
View ArticlePassing through Life with a Soul that is Asleep
St. Francis desired to open our eyes to the fact that a great number of us are passing through life with our souls asleep. The clergy of his day (and maybe our day too?) failed to realize that the...
View ArticleA follower of Christ involved in government?
St. Francis flew under the church’s radar – at least early on. Instead of trying to reform the church, he focused on his own ministry of preaching and service to the poor. However, he did not look the...
View ArticleHow Authentic is Your Ministry?
The Apostle Paul described his own ministry: To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. (1Co 9:22 NRS) Paul …...
View ArticleBeing the Church without Going to Church?
There are a lot of people in America who are angry at the church today. And why not? It has at times supported a variety of awful things: slavery, the destroying of Native American communities,...
View ArticleMiracles are NOT God’s Preferred Way to Work
St. Francis was said to do many miracles – healing miracles in particular. So much so that when he was dying, the church authorities tried to keep him at the bishop’s residence so that they would have...
View ArticleBelieving in Diabolical Powers – It’s not for wimps.
In St. Francis’s culture, the devil, demons, and evil powers had an enormous presence in the practice of spirituality. It is impossible to know St. Francis without understanding the spiritual warfare...
View ArticleOne Set of Footprints or Two?
There is a popular poem about two sets of footprints in the sand where one disappears sometimes. It is said that in hard times, Jesus doesn’t just walk beside us, he carries us. That is comforting....
View ArticleGiving Up Everything
My husband and I spent the last several weeks on a pilgrimage to Assisi where we hiked the last journey of St. Francis into Assisi before his death. We spent the Feast Day of St. Francis in Assisi...
View ArticleWhen do Nuns buy Guns?
In Assisi, on the day after St. Francis’s Feast Day, the streets are opened once a year to local vendors to sell their wares. Steve and I were beginning a seven-hour hike by passing through the town...
View ArticleSt. Francis Meditation Ten: “Clare”
I am blogging a daily meditation for the participants (and others!) of my class on St. Francis… After St. Francis’s death, the Pope wanted St. Clare to give up her vow of poverty. She answered him by...
View ArticleSt. Francis Meditation Eleven: “Politics”
I am blogging a daily meditation for the participants (and others!) of my class on St. Francis… The Civil Peace Agreement (between the rich landowners and peasants) that St. Francis negotiated saved...
View ArticleSt. Francis Meditation Twelve: “Rule of Life”
I am blogging a daily meditation for the participants (and others!) of my class on St. Francis… This is a summary of the Rule of Life that St. Francis wrote for Secular Franciscans: Simplicity and...
View ArticleSt. Francis Meditation Thirteen: “Sacrifice”
I am blogging a daily meditation for the participants (and others!) of my class on St. Francis… When St. Francis had regrets as to the decision he had made to follow Christ, he built a family of...
View ArticleSt. Francis Meditation Fourteen: “Regret”
I am blogging a daily meditation for the participants (and others!) of my class on St. Francis… Reread the story of the snowmen from yesterday: When St. Francis had regrets as to the decision he had...
View ArticleSt. Francis Meditation Fifteen: Dominic and Francis
I am blogging a daily meditation for the participants (and others!) of my class on St. Francis… St. Dominic was an insider in the church. St. Francis was a perpetual outsider. Dominic’s call was to...
View ArticleSt. Francis Meditation Sixteen: “Canticle of the Sun”
I am blogging a daily meditation for the participants (and others!) of my class on St. Francis… St. Francis wrote the Canticle of the Sun and it made him joyful! Read it today and see if it can fill...
View ArticleSt. Francis Meditation Seventeen: “Jugglers”
I am blogging a daily meditation for the participants (and others!) of my class on St. Francis… St Francis asked the question: “Is it not in fact true that the servants of God are really like jugglers,...
View ArticleSt. Francis Meditation Eighteen: “Did Francis Get it Right?”
I am blogging a daily meditation for the participants (and others!) of my class on St. Francis… Did Francis get it right? Should those in full time ministry do what Jesus commanded the first disciples...
View ArticleApril’s St. Francis Classes Now Available Free of Charge On-Line
St. Francis: Not Just a Garden Statue For three Sundays, Dr. April Love-Fordham, who spent St. Francis’s feast day in Assisi in 2014 and the two weeks afterwards following in the last steps of St....
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