Solemnity of St. Francis of Assisi

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I was going to write a long thread about the Franciscan tradition for the solemnity, but something happened that I cannot explain. During the last few days, as we (the brothers) prepare for the great feast, I’ve been in a rather “somber” mood, for lack of a better term.

As some of you know, I’m a revert to the religious life. I’m very involved in the great feast of our Seraphic Father, but in a very different way this year. It’s usually more like Christmas for me. But this year it seems to feel like a time of retreat, prayer, discernment and opening up to God’s love and his message for me, my brothers and my friends, especially all of you here on TC Forum.

I’m feeling very drawn to wonder, “Why me?”

I’ll probably not know the answer until I get to heaven. So I decided to drop that question. My motto is “Don’t waste time on questions that have no answers while the answers to real questions pass you by.”

I had a dream. I mean literally. In this dream I was back at my Alma Mater, CUA. It’s actually one of several universities that I have attended. But it’s one of my maters. 😃

Back to my dream. In my dream, I was walking along the side of the campus when a beautiful young woman whom I have never seen approached me. I can still see her smile. She waved me to come up onto the campus You have to know CUA to understand. It’s on a hill. There are steps and slopes that one climbs from the sidewalk onto the campus.

I started to climb the steps. All the time, she’s smiling, but not saying anything. As I step onto the main mall of the campus, I see the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. Now, I have a great devotion to the Immaculate and as a student I spent many hours in the shrine. Many of you may already know that the Franciscans have been great defenders of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. In fact. St. Bonaventure was so Marian that when he was superior general he mandated that we observe the First Saturdays. I’m not sure if this was a Church custom or something that he started. But in any case, he mandated it to the friars under his care. But I digress.

As I looked at the shrine I remembered something that St. Francis wrote, which has left theologians perplexed for 800 years. No one ever said it before him and no one really knows what he meant to this day. “Hail O Virgin made Church.”

It’s obviously a reflection of his ecclesiology and Marian spirituality. But he never explained it and every attempt on our part to explain it has as many holes as Swiss cheese.

In any case, I heard that line very clearly in my dream. I looked around and saw the beautiful young woman smiling and looking to the shrine. All I can remember is her face and hair. She was absolutely beautiful. I can’t explain how beautiful.

In the dream, I asked her “Why am I here?”

Again, the voice “Hail O Virgin made Church.”

I walked across the campus and into the Basilica of the Immaculate. As I walked in a warm sense came over me. It was just a dream, but it felt so real. I suddenly had the answer to the question that I’ve been asking myself all week and I woke up.

“There’s no place like home.”

See my blog for the rest of the story and have a blessed feast of St. Francis. Please pray for my soul.
 
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen

In 1997, on the brink of total disability, I was accepted in a drug trial at the NIH in Bathesda. After an early morning infusion I took (1st time) the Red Line? to the end. As the train left I could see The Basilica through a campus on a hill. Despite signs to the contrary I cut through the steep University and entered the Shrine. I visited many statues of Our Mother . At one She “took up my cause”. I don,t know what that means? It was the “Immaculate Conception” statue. It is as if Our Blessed Mother, and St. Bernadette became devoted, at times doted, on me. I have been given too many graces. I am not worthy. “Hail O Virgin made Church”.

Have a Blessed Solemnity.

Peace
 
Thank you for your presence here, Brother. This Carmelite wishes you and your community a blessed solemnity of St. Francis.
 
agnes_therese said:
Thank you for your presence here, Brother. This Carmelite wishes you and your community a blessed solemnity of St. Francis.
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Thank you. The feelings are mutual. We certainly remember our Carmelite brothers and sisters. Many people do not know that St. Teresa of Avila died on the Feast of St. Francis. When she reached the gate of heaven the little poor man from Assisi was the first one in line to kiss the scapular of her habit.
 
Virgin made Church.

The Church contains Jesus: Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. So did our Mother. So in that sense she was the 1st Church, protecting Jesus within her, as the Church (and each of its individual churches) protects Jesus within it now and gives birth to Him into the world after each Mass in all of us who assist at it, to go out and tell the Good News.

At least that is how I’ve always understood it. :o
 
Thank you for that telling of your dream. I am sure I will be thinking about it when I visit the Shrine this weekend.

Have a great feast day and blessed celebration of the Transitus tonight.

Pax et bonum,
Jim
 
Dear Br. JR, do you know where and when a practice of a “blessing of the animals” originated? I am seeing some local Anglicans and Lutherans doing it in conjunction with the feast of St. Francis. It doesn’t appear that any local Catholics are doing it.
 
Happy Feast Day all, especially brother Jay and our Franciscan brethren (brothers, sisters, nuns and lay) on this forum, as well as Dominican brethren (friars, sisters, nuns and lay)!
 
QNDNNDQDCE said:
Dear Br. JR, do you know where and when a practice of a “blessing of the animals” originated? I am seeing some local Anglicans and Lutherans doing it in conjunction with the feast of St. Francis. It doesn’t appear that any local Catholics are doing it.
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Not sure about where the custom of doing it near St. Francis’ feast day originated but there are several Catholic churches near me doing it, including the local Franciscan friary. Usually several large animals show up there for blessings.
 
QNDNNDQDCE said:
Dear Br. JR, do you know where and when a practice of a “blessing of the animals” originated? I am seeing some local Anglicans and Lutherans doing it in conjunction with the feast of St. Francis. It doesn’t appear that any local Catholics are doing it.
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I’m surprised. Around here 2/3 parishes and Catholic schools do the blessing each year. Some parishes don’t do it, because they don’t have the facilities.

The blessing originated with St. Francis himself. As he grew in popularity, he also acquired many young friends (children). When he went to a town, he always liked to spend time with the kids. In those days, most kids worked on farms on in sweatshops. In order to get away for a little while to be with Francesco as they called him, they would have to take their animals with them. In other words, they couldn’t leave their charges unattended. Their parents would kill them.

After he taught them the catechism, the children would often offer the brothers some bread as a “donation” for a blessing. The always asked the brothers to bless their chickens, geese, pigs, sheep and other farm animals.

Animal mortality was very high in those days. Veterinary medicine was primitive. If you lost a few goats, it could mean no coal for the winter. The blessing was important to the kids.
 
Praying for you Bro Jay.

May today’s Solemnity be all that you need it to be as God intended for you.
 
QNDNNDQDCE said:
Dear Br. JR, do you know where and when a practice of a “blessing of the animals” originated? I am seeing some local Anglicans and Lutherans doing it in conjunction with the feast of St. Francis. It doesn’t appear that any local Catholics are doing it.
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Our parish does it every year. We will be doing it this Sunday after the last Mass of the day. 🙂

I live in the North East.
 
I’ll be driving to old Mission Santa Barbara tomorrow, where two of my uncles did their minor seminary training for the blessing of the Animals with my two critters. Coming from a family that had the OFM on both sides, I’m partial to all the Franciscans, and hold a special place for the spirituality.

I pray that our Holy Father, who has taken St. Francis as a special patron of his pontificate can overcome the Media’s depiction of him as a whimp Pope, and see as that just as St. Francis was a humble servant of God, he did not compromise on issues of Faith or Morals. While he approaced all where they were and brought them back to the Church where they could get the remedy to sin they needed, he never endorsed the sin, just that the sinner was a creature of God who needed God. As St. Francis is in many places depectied as a whimp when in fact he was a great hero of the Faith, I can’t think of a better patron for our times. I encorage all who think they know his life to read the real story.
 
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