[Editor’s Note: Father Liam is away for his annual pilgrimage and to lead retreats in Assisi, Italy! In order to give us a taste (no pun intended!) of his Italian journey, he is sending blog posts for the next few Sundays! Each entry will lead us on a tour on the life of St. Francis with his reflections and insights! This will be another wonderful way to deepen ‘The Year of St. Francis’ we are honoring at Saint Miriam. Post #2 is here!]
Hello from Assisi, friends!
Today we visited San Damiano. This place contains the chapel where Francis prayed and heard Christ speak. It was also the first convent of Clare and her sisters.
Francis, after losing all enthusiasm for Chivalry and knighthood, struggled to figure out what he was meant to do and how he was meant to live.
He would spend long periods in prayer in the chapels that dotted the landscape of Assisi. “Who are you God, and who am I?” was his constant lament.
During one such time of wrestling with God and himself before the Cross in the chapel of San Damiano, Francis distinctly heard Christ speak to him: “Francis, go and repair my house, which as you can see is falling into ruins.” Initially Francis took this quite literally and began to repair the dilapidated chapel. Only with time did he come to see that Christ was telling him to repair the Church by living the Gospel as literally as possible: putting no trust in the material things of this world, and but instead putting his trust in the love of God and dedicating himself to service to the poor, the lepers and outcasts, and all who needed to know God’s love.
This San Damiano Cross now hangs in the chapel of the Church of Santa Chiara. (When the Poor Clares were asked to leave San Damiano for safety’s sake and move inside the walls of the city of Assisi, they only agreed to do so if the Cross came with them.) Pilgrims from all over the world come to see and pray before this sacred symbol.
We too can pray before an image of the San Damiano Cross. And, like Francis, the essential question we can meditate on is, “Who are you God, and who am I?” What could be a more important question! After all,
· do we think we have God all figured out? Or do we constantly leave room for God to reveal Godself to us in ever deeper ways. Do we desire to know our inexhaustible God—our Source and Center, our Beginning and our End, the Wellspring of Life within us and all around us—more fully and try to enter an ever-deepening relationship with God?
· Do we think we have ourselves all figured out-we are who we are and always will be and there’s no room for growth? Or are we always asking God to help us become more faithfully and fully we were created to be. As the other Francis—Francis de Sales—would say: “Be who you are and be that well.” Am I striving to be my authentic self, my self-rooted-in-God? Am I letting God live in me and through me each day for the good of the world?
Saint Francis and Saint Clare, pray for us! Help us to trust in God as completely as you did, and to let God live so completely in us, that like you, all we do brings love and light to our world.
Pace e bene (“Peace and every good.” [This was Francis’ greeting to all.])
Father Liam