Finding Saint Francis

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JReducation said:
One thing that I often do is to print what I need. I have three ring binders for different topics.

There is a wonderful site where you can get most of the spiritual writings Catholic and other for free.

Christian Classics

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF :christmastree1:
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A great site. I was thinking of putting the adomonitions in here anyway, for reference and discussion and this seemed an opportune moment. It’s very easy these days with a printer and stapler to make your own prayer booklets and such, like to take to Adoration or just carry about, I’ve made my own for a while now.

Interesting about your ring binders, I know they make smaller ring binders these days to put pages in and out of. I should look into that, be handier than stapling. I also have a Master sheet marked with squares onto which I can put Post-it notes. I can run it through my printer and whatever I have in the boxes in the master in Word print out nice and neatly and then I put the Post-its in a little blank book I have.

I love office technology! (I dislike buying devotionals)
 
JReducation said:
:rotfl:

I gather you didn’t know about this online library.

Can I get you a pillow while you’re down there on the floor? 😊

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF :christmastree1:
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Yes please. Lately, I tend to fall asleep where I lie. 😊
 
CatholicFireman said:
Oh boy…you’re just like my wife. I hate sending her emails. They always come back corrected. :doh2:

😉
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CatholicFireman that is because we women always know best - your wife sounds like a very wise one as well. 👍

Nothing worse than conversing with linguists sometimes - or at least I have learned this from my time at a Jesuit school.
 
CatholicFireman that is because we women always know best - your wife sounds like a very wise one as well.
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She married me. 🙂

She chose…wisely.

I call her, “The English Teacher”. 😉
 
It isn’t that I object to friendly conversation, but when a thread gets derailed like this, it’s a burden for anyone simply reading it trying to find posts relevant to the topic. So, to address one of the issues y’all are chatting about, I bring you Saint Francis:

Chapter XXII. On correction

Blessed (is) the servant who would endure discipline, accusation and rebuke as patiently from another as from his very self. · Blessed (is) the servant, who having been rebuked, acquiesces kindly, submits meekly, confesses humbly and makes satisfaction freely. · Blessed (is) the servant, who is not swift to excuse himself and humbly endures shame and rebuke because of a sin where he has not committed (any) fault.

I wonder when the last time was anyone here didn’t defend themselves when accused of something they didn’t do, but apologized, instead?
 
Luigi_Daniele said:
Just ordered. Got it for about $10:eek:

Grazie, fratello!👍
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The book about the writings of St. Francis and St. Clare? It’s been around for a while. Yes, there have got to be a ton of used copies around online.

Or another one?
 
iloveangels said:
The book about the writings of St. Francis and St. Clare? It’s been around for a while. Yes, there have got to be a ton of used copies around online.
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Indeed, that is the one. I like the rest of the contents, obviously, but the Admonitions is what I am getting it for.🙂
 
Luigi_Daniele said:
youtu.be/rnuXzj8I3D4

youtu.be/78hfhJIW9GM
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What escapes many people here is that there was a mass celebrated in the middle of this stable. Francis authorized turning the stable into a sanctuary, which became very common practice for Franciscans to this day. Except that they no longer go looking for stables to celebrate Midnight Mass. It’s hard to find an available cave in Mid-Town Manhattan. Instead, the friars bring the Christmas pageant into their sanctuaries every December 24. The Christmas pageant has become embedded into the Christmas liturgy, in the Franciscan tradition. Many other religious communities and diocese have incorporated the practice into their own Midnight Mass, while others go a little more conservative with a creche made of statuary. Whichever one uses, the fact is that the Midnight Mass without a creche would be like the Christmas tree without lights. It’s still good, but doesn’t have the same flavor.

Merry Christmas

Br. JR, OSF :christmastree1:
 
JReducation said:
What escapes many people here is that there was a mass celebrated in the middle of this stable. Francis authorized turning the stable into a sanctuary, which became very common practice for Franciscans to this day. Except that they no longer go looking for stables to celebrate Midnight Mass. It’s hard to find an available cave in Mid-Town Manhattan. Instead, the friars bring the Christmas pageant into their sanctuaries every December 24. The Christmas pageant has become embedded into the Christmas liturgy, in the Franciscan tradition. Many other religious communities and diocese have incorporated the practice into their own Midnight Mass, while others go a little more conservative with a creche made of statuary. Whichever one uses, the fact is that the Midnight Mass without a creche would be like the Christmas tree without lights. It’s still good, but doesn’t have the same flavor.

Merry Christmas

Br. JR, OSF :christmastree1:
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Exactly, fratello. It is probably my favorite “story” of St Francis. It shows his love for humanity and especially, I think, for children 🙂
 
Luigi_Daniele said:
Exactly, fratello. It is probably my favorite “story” of St Francis. It shows his love for humanity and especially, I think, for children 🙂
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It also shows Francis’ great love for natural beauty and how smoothly he integrates it into the liturgical life. There are three big Franciscan elements in Catholic tradition that people don’t know are Franciscan: the Christmas pageant, the passion play and the stations of the cross.

Tradtionalists kill to protect them from change. But what people don’t realize is that they were changed. You see, Francis did not invent any of them. He was inspired by the Christians in Jerusalem, during his famous trip to convert the Saracens. So he brings these ancient customs back to Europe, tweaks them and makes them very popular.

What people fail to understand is why he brings these back to Europe. There were two powerful reasons and one does not obscure the other.

Reason 1: These devotions and practices had stirred his heart. Francis always went from the heart to the head, which leads to the second reason for bringing them back to Europe.

Reason 2: Most Europeans could not read, even among the nobility. The Latin language was no longer the language of the common man. In Southern Europe, the Romance languages were emerging. They were really dialects of Latin, not real languages, yet. But that’s what the common man spoke. So he did not understand the readings of the scriptures at mass, which were in Latin. The use of visual images was a wonderful catechetical tool in an era where there were no DVDs or picture books.

Francis proceeded to modify the Eastern Catholic traditions to fit the Italian context of his time. He even wrote a prayer that we use during the Stations of the Cross.

“We adore you O Christ and we bless you
Because by your holy cross, you have redeemed the world”

He introduces the Living Stations of the Cross and the Passion Play into Holy Week. As we know, they became popular practices used through the year, not just Holy Week.

It’s important to understand that Francis makes a significant contribution to the liturgical life of the Church here. What he does is help the Church show the continuity between Christ’s entrance into human history and his redemptive sacrifice on the cross. In Francis’ mind, Christ and Easter are meaningless without each other.

Again, this was not a new thought. The Fathers of the Church had written about this and at the Councils of Chalcedon and Nicea the Nativity and Passion are locked together forever in the dogmas that had developed concerning the nature of Christ and expressed in the Nicene Creed. There is no more question about Christ’s human & divine natures.

What was missing during Francis’ time was a comprehensible expression of what the Church defined at Chalcedon and Nicea and what she professed in the Creed. Francis provides this through his pageants. He uses God’s creation and the beauty of the created world to illustrate the great mysteries of our redemption.

A Trent, the liturgy became very formal and the Latin Rite is formatted. It would later be promulgated by Pope Pius V. These very elaborate representations of the Nativity and Passion became less common; but they were preserved by many Franciscans and we’re seeing them resurface.

They’re elaborate, because they are choreographed, but in another sense, they are very simple, because they deliver the message in a way that is easy for people of all ages and cultures to understand. While putting it together may require a little work, it effectiveness is quite simple. People understand what they see better than what they hear.

It makes you wonder about the expression “active contemplative”. Active is one who is engaged in apostolic work and contemplative is one who looks at God and his work with the awe and wonder of a child. Francis blends the two together seamlessly.

Merry Christmas

Br. JR, OSF :christmastree1:
 
JReducation said:
It also shows Francis’ great love for natural beauty and how smoothly he integrates it into the liturgical life. There are three big Franciscan elements in Catholic tradition that people don’t know are Franciscan: the Christmas pageant, the passion play and the stations of the cross.

Merry Christmas

Br. JR, OSF :christmastree1:
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Merry Christmas! I knew about the 1st and the third, but had forgotten about the second.
Our Founder was a religious genius 🙂
 
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