Feast of St Francis, a rich boy who renounced his privilege and heard a voice from the cross in a ruined chapel calling him to “repair my church.” He came to understand that this meant restoring the church to the image of Jesus—nonviolent, poor, and for the poor.
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Francis has been sentimentalized by charming images of him preaching to the birds. But Francis represented a radical breakthrough to a new model of human and cosmic community—a new relationship between men and women, with people of other faiths, with nature...

Oct 4, 2019 · 10:34 AM UTC

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—contrary to the values of his world (and our own). His was the name that occurred to Pope Francis when he was elected pope. “Immediately I thought of St Francis of Assisi. Francis was a man of peace, a man of poverty, a man who loved and protected creation.” (Art: J.A Swanson)
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Francis’ Canticle to the Sun inspired the title of Pope Francis’ encyclical on “care for creation”: Laudato Si’. Written during a time of suffering, it extols “Brother Sun, Sister Moon,” wind, fire, those who forgive and those who endure in peace—finally Sister Death.
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“Be praised my Lord through our Sister Bodily Death...Happy those she finds doing your most holy will. The second death can do them no harm.”—St Francis of Assisi
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