St Francis Quotes

“Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures, especially through my lord Brother Sun, who brings the day; and you give light through him. And he is beautiful and radiant in all his splendor! Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.

Be praised, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars; in the heavens you have made them, precious and beautiful.

Be praised, my Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air, and clouds and storms, and all the weather, through which you give your creatures sustenance.

Be praised, My Lord, through Sister Water; she is very useful, and humble, and precious, and pure.

Be praised, my Lord, through Brother Fire, through whom you brighten the night. He is beautiful and cheerful, and powerful and strong.

Be praised, my Lord, through our sister Mother Earth, who feeds us and rules us, and produces various fruits with colored flowers and herbs.

Be praised, my Lord, through those who forgive for love of you; through those who endure sickness and trial. Happy those who endure in peace, for they will be crowned.”
― St. Francis of Assisi

“What is a saint supposed to do, if not convert wolves?”
― Umberto Eco, How to Travel With a Salmon & Other Essays

“The modern mind is merely a blank about the philosophy of toleration; and the average agnostic of recent times has really had no notion of what he meant by religious liberty and equality. He took his own ethics as self-evident and enforced them; such as decency or the error of the Adamite heresy. Then he was horribly shocked if he heard of anybody else, Moslem or Christian, taking his ethics as self-evident and enforcing them; such as reverence or the error of the Atheist heresy. And then he wound up by taking all this lop-sided illogical deadlock, of the unconscious meeting the unfamiliar, and called it the liberality of his own mind. Medieval men thought that if a social system was founded on a certain idea it must fight for that idea, whether it was as simple as Islam or as carefully balanced as Catholicism. Modern men really think the same thing, as is clear when communists attack their ideas of property. Only they do not think it so clearly, because they have not really thought out their idea of property.”
― G.K. Chesterton, St. Francis of Assisi

“May Wisdom’s light bespoke my mind,
May Grace’s charity provoke my care;
May Heaven’s bounty sustain my soul;
May Godly Reason make calm myself.”

Prayer of St Francis - Azlander/Second Chances”
― Gabriel Brunsdon

“Twice in this book Thich Nhat Hanh puts before us a powerful image of Christian legend: In midwinter, St. Francis is calling out to an almond tree, “Speak to me of God!” and the almond tree breaks into bloom. It comes alive. There is no other way of witnessing to God but by aliveness. With a fine instinct, Thich Nhat Hanh traces genuine aliveness to its source. He recognizes that this is what the biblical tradition calls the Holy Spirit. After all, the very word “spirit” means “breath,” and to breathe means to live. The Holy Spirit is the breath of divine life. —Brother David Steindl-Rast”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ

“It took me five minutes of awkward silence to come up with an answer, but upon careful consideration, I told her that my perfect job would entail spending the day in a cushiony room, napping with baby animals. Maybe they had been abandoned by their mothers of left by the side of the road; whatever their situation, it would be my job to keep them company and pet them and generally give them a warm motherly vibe. When they wanted to play and roll around on the floor, I would do that with them, and then when they got tired, they could fall asleep in the crook of my arm or snuggled in my blouse. And sometimes I would give them a warm bottle, just like in all the nature specials. But they would definitely have to be baby animals. I wasn't about to get scratched or nipped or anything - I'm no St. Francis.”
― Samantha Bee, I Know I Am, But What Are You?

“When people tell me they don't believe in God, I usually ask, "What God don't you believe in?" They invariably go on to describe a God who is judgmental, vengeful, overbearing, unloving, or whimsical. "Oh, I don't believe in that God, either," I say.”
― Jon M. Sweeney, When Saint Francis Saved the Church

“Where Francis self-consciously modeled his actions after the Jesus he met in the Gospels, many later saints read accounts of earlier saints like Francis in order to chart their paths and make their decisions according to what the blessed are supposed to do.”
― Jon M. Sweeney, When Saint Francis Saved the Church

“One way to express Francis's approach is to say that his life was focused on orthopraxy (right action) over orthodoxy (right belief).... The Gospel was not something to believe as much it was a vocation to a changed life.”
― Jon M. Sweeney, When Saint Francis Saved the Church

“He responded to each person he met as if he were already a friend.”
― Jon M. Sweeney

“With the help of the Gospel, which he began to listen to carefully, Francis began to break down the barriers to friendship inherent in his old worldview. Every person, he began to see, was at the most basic root the same.”
― Jon M. Sweeney, When Saint Francis Saved the Church

“Francis's expressions of friendship came from his heart in an uncalculated way. We see Francis befriending without judging, noticing and responding to people's needs, and expressing love simply because that person has been created by a God who says that every created thing is good.”
― Jon M. Sweeney, When Saint Francis Saved the Church

“May the Lord give you peace," was Francis's most common remark to people. What a contrast this was to the apocalyptic fear-mongering of most other wandering spiritual groups in those days, and how different it was even from the doctrinaire preaching of the new Dominican Order.”
― Jon M. Sweeney, When Saint Francis Saved the Church

“In one of the most personal of all the writings of Francis we possess, this one from 1226, Francis writes a note of encouragement to his closest male friend, Leo...

"I am speaking to you, now, as a mother would, because all of the words we passed between us on the road together I am summarizing in this message and bit of advice. If you ever feel the need to for my counsel, I suggest that you turn to this letter.

"My advice is this : In whatever way you feel called to serve the Lord, and to make him happy, to follow his footprint and his poverty, do that, and do that with my blessing and with the blessing of the Lord God.

"If you ever want to come and see me, Leo, for the sake of your soul or for any other reason, come, by all means, come back to me.”
― Jon M. Sweeney, When Saint Francis Saved the Church