Who is Francis of Assisi
Saint Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) was a Roman Catholic friar and the founder of the Order of Friars Minor, more commonly known as the Franciscans.
“To most people … there is a fascinating inconsistency in the position of Saint Francis. He expressed in loftier and bolder language than any earthly thinker the conception that laughter is as divine as tears. He called his monks the mountebanks of God. He never forgot to take pleasure in a bird as it flashed past him, or a drop of water as it fell from his finger: he was, perhaps, the happiest of the sons of men. Yet this man undoubtedly founded his whole polity on the negation of what we think the most imperious necessities; in his three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, he denied to himself and those he loved most, property, love, and liberty. Why was it that the most large-hearted and poetic spirits in that age found their most congenial atmosphere in these awful renunciations? Why did he who loved where all men were blind, seek to blind himself where all men loved? Why was he a monk and not a troubadour? These questions are far too large to be answered fully here, but in any life of Francis they ought at least to have been asked; we have a suspicion that if they were answered we should suddenly find that much of the enigma of this sullen time of ours was answered also.”
Francis of Assisi quotes
1. All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.
2. Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
3. Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.
4. He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.
5. For it is in giving that we receive.
6. The deeds you do may be the only sermon some persons will hear today
7. Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that have received–only what you have given.
8. I have been all things unholy. If God can work through me, He can work through anyone.
10. While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.
11. We have been called to heal wounds, to unite what has fallen apart, and to bring home those who have lost their way.
12. True progress quietly and persistently moves along without notice.
13. A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows.
14. Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to his beloved is that of overcoming self.
15. No one is to be called an enemy, all are your benefactors, and no one does you harm. You have no enemy except yourselves.
16. Sanctify yourself and you will sanctify society.
17. We should seek not so much to pray but to become prayer.
18. Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where these is hatred, let me sow love.
19. What we are looking for is what is looking.
20. Nor did demons crucify Him; it is you who have crucified Him and crucify Him still, when you delight in your vices and sins.
21. Go into all the world and preach the gospel, and if necessary, use words.
22. You wanderer on the path! There is no path, only wandering
23. First do the necessary, then do the feasible, then you will be able to achieve the impossible.
24. And St. Francis said: ‘My dear son, be patient, because the weaknesses of the body are given to us in this world by God for the salvation of the soul. So they are of great merit when they are borne patiently.
25. O Divine Master, grant that I may not seek to be consoled, as to console. To be understood, as to understand. To be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned. It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
26. A man who works with his hands is a labourer. A man who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. A man who works with his haands, his head, and his heart is an artist.
27. I have sinned against my brother the ass.
28. Preach the Gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.
29. Preach always. If necessary, use words.
30. Every day He humbles Himself just as He did when from from His heavenly throne into the Virgin’s womb; every day He comes to us and lets us see Him in lowliness, when He descends from the bosom of the Father into the hands of the priest at the altar.
31. What you are looking for is what is looking.
32. Preach the Gospels everyday & only if you have to…use words.
33. Don’t canonize me too soon. I’m perfectly capable of fathering a child.
34. Start by doing what’s necessary, then what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.
35. Preach the Gospel, use words when necessary.
36. Praised be my Lord, for our sister water.
37. Spread the Gospel. If necessary, use words.
38. Blessed is the servant who esteems himself no better when he is praised and exalted by people than when he is considered worthless, simple, and despicable; for what a man is before God, that he is and nothing more.
39. Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.
40. Tuhan…tolonglah kami, agar berusaha lebih keras untuk memahami daripada dipahami.
41. Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.
42. What each man is in Your eyes, thus he is, and no more.
43. Where there is charity and wisdom there is neither fear nor ignorance. Where there is patience and humility there is neither anger nor worry.
44. There is no use in walking anywhere to preach if your walking isn’t your preaching.
45. Upon this, Bernard went and sold all that he had. Now he was very rich, and with great joy he distributed his wealth to widows, to orphans, to prisoners, to monasteries, to hospitals, and to pilgrims, in all which St Francis assisted him with prudence and fidelity.
46. Start doing what is necessary, then do what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.
47. 195. “God, enlighten the darkness of my heart and give me a right faith, a sure hope, a perfect charity, sense and knowledge, so that I may carry out your holy command.
48. A man sins who wishes to receive more from his neighbor than he is himself willing to give to the Lord God.
49. A man has only so much knowledge as he puts to work.
50. Preach the Gospel, if necessary use words
