Saint Francis of Assisi

Bret Thoman

Description

All Christians know his name. Few truly know the man.Francis of Assisi was not even five feet tall. He was not well educated. And yet he is the one saint commonly recognized as Alter Christus, the "other Christ." Francis is not just any saint-he's a saint for everyone, whatever your place or position in life. But do we really know him?Who was this man at his core? What was it that thrust this little man from a little town to the heights of sanctity, into a place of high honor among the celestial court?In this riveting biography, author Bret Thoman accomplishes what few biographers have. He pierces the inner life of Francis, revealing his deepest passions, his unquenchable love for poverty, and his unshakable grip on the core of the Gospel. The life of Francis, so often festooned with spectacle and miracle, is in reality the story of a soul yearning for God in every moment and glimpsing His presence in all creation.If you want to see the hidden life of the greatest saint, if you want to hear his thoughts, if you want to feel the fervor that blazed within his soul, you must readSt. Francis of Assisi: Passion, Poverty, and the Man who Transformed the Catholic Church.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christian theology
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: TAN Books
• Date de parution: 26 septembre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781618907516
• Langue: English

Extrait

S T. F RANCIS OF A SSISI
PASSION, POVERTY, AND THE MAN WHO TRANSFORMED THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
BRET THOMAN, O.F.S.
WITH A FOREWORD BY BISHOP GREGORY J. HARTMAYER, O.F.M. CONV.
TAN Books
Charlotte, North Carolina
Copyright © 2016 TAN Books, PO Box 410487, Charlotte, NC 28241. All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1965, 1966 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture texts noted as NABRE are taken from the New American Bible, Revised Edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970, Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, DC, and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
Quotes from the Franciscan Sources come from Francis and Clare: The Complete Works , translated and with an introduction by Regis J. Armstrong, O.F.M., Cap., and Ignatius C. Brady, O.F.M. (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1982) and Francis of Assisi: Early Documents , vol. 1, The Saint (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1999); vol. 2, The Founder (2000), and vol. 3, The Prophet (2001), translated and edited by Regis J. Armstrong. These have been used with the permission of Paulist Press ( www.paulistpress.com ) and New City Press ( www.newcitypress.com ).
Cover illustration: The Dream of Innocent III , 1297-99 (fresco), Giotto di Bondone (c.1266-1337) / San Francesco, Upper Church, Assisi, Italy / Bridgeman Images
Cover design: David Ferris
ISBN: 978-1-61890-749-3
ISBN: 978-1-61890-751-6 (ebook)
Cataloging-in-Publication data on file with the Library of Congress Printed and bound in the United States of America -->
TAN Books
Charlotte, North Carolina
www.TANBooks.com
2016
CONTENTS
Foreword
Bishop Gregory J. Hartmayer, O.F.M. Conv.
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Nativity
2. War
3. From War to Obedience in Spoleto
4. Humility and San Damiano
5. Leprosy and Minority
6. The Crucifix Speaks
7. Spiritual Sword
8. Go Forth: Through Creation to Gubbio
9. Poverty and the Portiuncula
10. Evangelization and Brother Bernard
11. Community and Rivotorto
12. To Rome
13. Praying in the Hermitage
14. On Pilgrimage
15. Peace and the Sultan
16. Incarnation and Greccio
17. Stigmata and Laverna
18. Transitus
The Canticle of the Creatures
About the Author
Index
Photos
This book is dedicated to my son, Iacopo . . .
May you keep this book with you throughout your life’s journey. May the spirit and intercession of St. Francis guide you, inspire you, move you, and make you enthusiastic in all you do.
Thank you for giving me the gift and joy of fatherhood.
FOREWORD
Bishop Gregory J. Hartmayer, O.F.M. Conv.
A T first blush, St. Francis of Assisi: Passion, Poverty, and the Man Who Transformed the Catholic Church may appear to be just another book about St. Francis. However, it soon becomes apparent that this is no ordinary biography about the “poor man of Assisi.”
The author takes you on a spiritual odyssey in the footsteps of Francis back in time to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, leading to a deeper understanding of the saint. You will experience the sights and sounds of Assisi as it was in Francis’ day: the cathedral, the bishop’s palace, the fortress, San Damiano, the Portiuncula, Rivotorto, and the leper hospitals. You will then accompany Francis throughout Italy to Greccio, Laverna, and the other mountain hermitages, as well as Rome. You will even journey with him to the Holy Land, where Francis was threatened by the Saracens with decapitation, yet still met face-to-face with the sultan.
The more profound journey, however, is the spiritual one, as Francis struggles with the conflicting voices of his dreams and his parents’ prophecies that he would “one day be something great.” In Francis’ search for meaning and “greatness,” he mistakenly sought out the glories of knighthood and war. However, in Spoleto, he experienced a deep and significant change of heart and correctly followed the call to return to Assisi.
The rest of the book narrates Francis’ search for meaning and how he eventually understood that the “greatness” he was called to was spiritual, not worldly. The author invites you to accompany Francis along this journey of his, which was from war to peace. Along the way, you do more than merely observe Francis’ conversion from a distance—you participate in it as well.
Without realizing it, you will find yourself reviewing the discernment of your own commitment as a “missionary disciple.” You will reflect upon those times when you, too, heard the voice(s) that caused you to wrestle with your own decisions as to which road to travel down. In the course of your reading, you, too, will ask, “Lord, what do you want me to do?”
The author reminds us that following the humble Christ on the road to peace is not an easy road to find or travel. We meet the melancholy Francis who, during his discernment, experienced debilitating depression, discouragement, and a lack of interest and enthusiasm. Yet in his loneliness and brokenness, Francis experienced a connection to the Man on the cross and felt drawn to the crucified for the gift of absolution and a clarity of mission. His heart became alive with a burning love of Jesus and a desire to follow Him. Francis brings us with him.
Francis experienced a transformational joy that overwhelmed him as he discovered the incarnational God whom he began to see in all creation. Throughout his work, the author masterfully makes subtle use of the thirteenth-century Franciscan Sources in retelling many of the familiar stories of Francis of Assisi and the playful, yet challenging, relationship he developed with God.
We see how Francis experienced his metanoia (conversion) perhaps most dramatically when he encountered the leper. We are reminded that Francis saw not only himself in the repulsive leper but also the vivid image of the brokenness of the rejected Jesus on the cross. The embrace with the leper filled Francis (and, I hope, the reader as well) with a compassion that allowed Francis to look beyond his obvious physical decay and see into the man’s heart and soul.
This was a pivotal moment in the life and sanctification of Francis of Assisi. The author keenly underscores a reference in one of Francis’ own writings recalling that the encounter with the leper marked the beginning of his penitential conversion.
Pieces of Francis’ broken life began to mend and were fortified by the epiphany with the cross in the little broken-down Church of San Damiano. The relationship between Francis and the Triune God continued to evolve as the author describes, in detail, Francis’ rejection of his father’s way of life. Then, with the blessing of the bishop, Francis literally left his past behind as he donned a farmer’s tunic and set out toward Gubbio.
Francis then began to live his life one day at a time as he ascended to the mountain caves for prayer and solitude. He began to see creation as he had never seen it before. He saw the goodness of God in Mother Earth and Brother Sun and Sister Moon.
As the familiar stories of Francis are told, the author appropriately references the Scriptures in pointing out the similarities between the virtuous life of Jesus and the poverty of life that Francis embraced. In fact, the Rule of Life that Francis would present to Pope Innocent III for his approval was mostly composed of Scripture verses.
Obtaining papal approval of the Rule was not easy. For Francis’ followers, living the Rule would not be easy, either. The approved Order grew quickly, and more and more men sought to join this band of humble and simple brothers. The friars soon became missionaries to various parts of the world, as the friars were to be pilgrims in this world.
It was in the cave in Greccio where Francis declared Christmas to be “the feast of feasts.” For Francis, Christmas was real and tangible. Francis’ simple Rule of Life was modeled after the birth of the Christ child in a simple stable in Bethlehem. The author clearly notes that Francis’ spirituality was truly incarnational, and it was through Jesus’ humanity that he finally came to know who God was. The events of the humanity of Jesus drew Francis to live the gospel more closely, and he required his friars to strive to do the same.
As the author points out, it was in Mount Laverna, with his health declining, that Francis embraced the crucified Christ, as he had so many other times. But Laverna was different. It was where Francis reached the highest and final point of the Christian life. There, Francis received the greatest of all gifts: the marks of Jesus’ crucifixion. He and God became one, sharing in the pain, as well as the love, of the redemptive mission of the Son.
As I approached the final pages of this book, I wanted more. When the death of Francis was dramatically (but accurately) portrayed, with Francis placed naked on the ground by the Portiuncula in the final moments of his death, I wanted more. I took a few moments and prayed Francis’s prayer/poem, The Canticle of the Creatures , slowly reading each verse. As I did, I was reminded of Pope Francis’ timely encyclical, Laudato Sí , in which he describes the earth as our common home.
St. Francis of Assisi: Passion, Poverty, and the Man Who Transformed the Catholic Church is a journey well worth taking. This work is well researched, easy to read, and presented with the affection of a true son of Francis.
M OST R EVEREND G REGORY J . H ARTMAYER, O . F . M . C ONV.
Bishop of Savannah, Georgia
September 17, 2015
Feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis of Assisi
PREFACE
I S another book about St. Francis necessary? Aren’t there already enough biographies out there written ab