Reluctant Saint: The Life of Francis of Assisi

p.3 Assisi was frequently referred to as a new Babylon, a place of wild debauchery, where murder and street fights to the death were commonplace. Revenge was considered a right, vendetta almost a sacred duty.

p.39 Now in his 22nd year, Francis found nothing to be of much consequence and, as his earliest chronicler records, "began to regardr himself as worthless."

p.41 Then, not quite conscious, Francis heard a voice asking him where he intended to go. Francis described his plans for battle and knighthood, and then he heard the question " Who can do more good for you-- the master, or the servant?
"The master," Francis replied.
"Then why are you abandoning the master for the servant, the patron for the client?"

p.47 [a short Prayer Before a Crucifix]: " Most High, glorious God: enlighten the darkness of my heart and give me true faith, certain hope and perfect charity, sense and knowledge, Lord-- that I may carry out Your holy and true command."

p.54 At the moment of disrobing, Francis was in fact engaging in the ars concionandi, the craft and skill of oratory-- the popular medieval method of argument and persuasion in the public assembly, or concione, where citizens discussed and decided matters of importance to the commune. This technique aimed to persuade not so much by rational discourse or verbal rhetoric alone but by a dramatic manner, by the physical actions that accompanied the words and finally by some gesture that would attract an audience's attention.

p.57 Precisely at this time, money was becoming more than simply a social convention, a medium of economic exchange. People were beginning to pursue money as a primary goal; and the amount of money one acquired determined one's status in the community. Society in the 21st century, in fact operates on the same tacit assumption that began in the 13th-- namely, that money can indeed buy happiness, or at least rent it.

p.59 His care, in other words, meant more than merely not showing revulsion. It meant a willingness to be with them precisely because they were outcast. It meant taking with grave literalness the standard of the Gospel that to minister to the needy was to minister to the lonely, naked and dying Christ.

p.63 The letter T, found in both the Hebrew and Greek alphabets (as taw and tau, respectively), symbolized the fulfillment of the message of the patriarchs and prophets. Ezekiel the prophet had been commanded to place this mark on the foreheads of all those who hated iniquity...Quite naturally, Christians viewed T as the mark of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, which itself was believed to be the fulfillment of everything promised to Israel. By the time of the Middle Ages, the tau in the form of a cross appeared widely in manuscripts and was a popular motif in art...
Francis not only adopted this widely popular sign for his own emblem and signature, but often knelt with arms outstretched, consecrating himself in imitation of the crucified and offering himself entirely to God

p.65 Above everything, however, saints keep God firmly in sight.

p.69 He and his companions, he said, " must be careful not to be angry or disturbed at the sin of another, for anger and disturbance impede charity in [ourselves] and others."

p.71 The random opening of the Scriptures for spiritual advice was a common but not entirely sanctioned practice in the Middle Ages: called the sortes apostolorum, it was a custom based on the devout (if somewhat superstitious) belief that if one by chance turned to the same or similar passages three consecutive times, it was a clear sign of God's plan.

p.113 When Francis returned, Angelo prodly told him what had occurred. "You've behaved like a man with no religion at all," Francis responded, and gathering some of the bread and wine he had received as wages that day, gave the food to Angelo and told him to take it to the robbers." Serve unfortunate men with humility and good humor until they are satisfied. Then--and not until then-- tell them to stop robbing and killing."

p.140 He saw that those who suffer participate even more deepply in the lot of the poor and the castaways of the world.

p.141 Francis did not reject suffering as something undeserved or offensive, he went through the pain to a consideration of God's inscrutable and mysterious love. He did not try to intellectualize or theologize, to explain it away or to find a rational means of dealing with suffering. His model in this, as in all things, was Christ his Lord, who abandoned himself to the unimaginable mercy of God -- and who was finally vindicated and taken up forever into new life.