OCTOBER 4, 2024 – ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI.

FIRST FRIDAY

• St. Francis of Assisi (1226). Abbot or Abbess, Founder or Foundress, Priest, Religious. (Current, Traditional)

ST. FRANCIS, the son of a merchant of Assisi, was born in that city A.D. 1182. Chosen by God to be a living manifestation to the world of Christ’s poor and suffering life on earth, he was early inspired with a high esteem and burning love of poverty and humiliation. The thought of the Man of Sorrows, who had not where to lay His head, filled him with holy envy of the poor, and constrained him to renounce the wealth and worldly station which he abhorred. The scorn and hard usage which he met with from his father and townsmen when he appeared among them in the garb of poverty were delightful to him. “Now,” he exclaimed, “I can say truly, ‘Our Father who art in heaven.’ “But divine love burned in him too mightily not to kindle like desires in other hearts. Many joined themselves to him, and were constituted by Pope Innocent III into a religious Order, which spread rapidly throughout Christendom. St. Francis, after visiting the East in the vain quest of martyrdom, spent his life like his Divine Master—now in preaching to the multitudes, now amid desert solitudes in fasting and contemplation. During one of these retreats he received on his hands, feet, and side the print of the five bleeding wounds of Jesus. With the cry, “Welcome, sister Death,” he passed to the glory of his God October 4th, 1226.

REFLECTION: “My God and my all,” St. Francis’s constant prayer, explains both his poverty and his wealth.

WORD OF THE DAY

CATHARI. A name applied to various Manichaean sects of the later Middle Ages. The essential tenet of their belief was philosophical dualism. There were two ultimate principles, really two creator gods, one of good and the other of evil. They denied the value of oaths and the right to punish, commended suicide, and rejected marriage. Their ideas tended to undermine the foundations of civil society, and for this reason they were opposed not only by the Church but also by the State. By the fourteenth century Catharism had practically disappeared in France, Germany, and England and by the next century in Italy and the Balkans, where it had previously flourished.

Modern Catholic Dictionary, Fr. John Hardon SJ (Get the real one at Eternal Life — don’t accept an abridged or edited version of this masterpiece!)

Octber, Month of the Rosary

Maria Magnificata. Short Meditations for October, the Month of the Rosary. 4th Day — God’s design in beautifying Mary.

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