October 3, 2013

Our prayer

Tomorrow all of the teachers in the diocese will be attending a day of formation in Concord.  Since the students won't be here for tomorrow's feast of St. Francis of Assisi, our prayer this morning was dedicated to him.  I decided our prayer would be a quote from Pope Francis explaining why he chose the name Francis:

When things were looking dangerous, he encouraged me. And when the votes reached two thirds, there was the usual applause, because the Pope had been elected. And he gave me a hug and a kiss, and said: "Don't forget the poor!" And those words came to me: the poor, the poor. Then, right away, thinking of the poor, I thought of Francis of Assisi. Then I thought of all the wars, as the votes were still being counted, till the end. Francis is also the man of peace. That is how the name came into my heart: Francis of Assisi. For me, he is the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects creation; these days we do not have a very good relationship with creation, do we? He is the man who gives us this spirit of peace, the poor man … How I would like a Church which is poor and for the poor.

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