Rio de Janeiro Welcomes Papa Francesco & 3 million Youth to Copacabana Beach Mass

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Under the ever watchful eye of the Christ the Redeemer statue looking down from the mountains surrounding Rio de Janeiro Papa Francesco, Pope Francis, ended World Youth Day with over 3 million of the faithful on the Copacabana Beach.

 

As far as the eye could see there was a mass of humanity, many who camped out on the beach overnight to share this moment with Papa.

 

 

Finally even the western media in the US had to cover the story, I mean three million peaceful people in one place is quite a story in this day and age.  The fact the vast majority were youth makes it a better story.

 

Here in America we get a daily dosage of money, murder, drugs and demons it seems but during his stay in Brazil the past few days  the Pope actually defined the false gods of today and told the youth they must work to stop edifying such idols of evil.

 

 

Pope Francis led his first large mass on Wednesday since returning to his native Latin America, decrying "ephemeral idols" like money and power at Brazil's most revered shrine.

 

"It is true that nowadays, to some extent, everyone, including our young people, feels attracted by the many idols which take the place of God and appear to offer hope: money, success, power, pleasure," he said at the Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida basilica.

 

 

"Often a growing sense of loneliness and emptiness in the hearts of many people leads them to seek satisfaction in these ephemeral idols," he said.

 

 

In a meeting with bishops and cardinals from South America he talked about the loss of Catholics in Brazil.

"At times we lose people because they don't understand what we are saying, because we have forgotten the language of simplicity and import an intellectualism foreign to our people," he said. "For ordinary people the mystery enters through the heart."

The pope also warned the bishops against assimilating fashionable values of secular culture.

"People today are attracted by things that are faster and faster: rapid Internet connections, speedy cars and planes, instant relationships," he asked. "Is the church herself caught up in the frantic pursuit of efficiency? Dear brothers, let us recover the calm to be able to walk at the same pace as our pilgrims, keeping alongside them, remaining close to them, enabling them to speak of the disappointments present in their hearts and to let us address them."

Among the pope's specific recommendations for the church in Brazil were deeper engagement by bishops in national debates on such "pressing concerns" as "education, health and social harmony"; and more attention to collegiality within the episcopate, downplaying "central bureaucracy" in favor of "local and regional elements."

He gave special attention to the needs of the Amazon basin, in terms of both ecological protection and the training of indigenous clergy to serve indigenous peoples there.

"'Pastoral care' is nothing other than the exercise of the church's motherhood," the pope said. "She gives birth, suckles, gives growth, corrects, nourishes and leads by the hand.

"So we need a church capable of rediscovering the maternal womb of mercy," he said. "Without mercy we have little chance nowadays of becoming part of a world of 'wounded' persons in need of understanding, forgiveness and love."
 

Pope Francis told leading Latin American bishops that all Catholics must renew the Church with a “missionary spirit,” acknowledging that he and other bishops are “lagging somewhat” in spiritual renewal.

 

“Bishops must be pastors, close to people, fathers and brothers, and gentle, patient and merciful. Men who love poverty,” the Pope said.

 

He praised bishops with “simplicity and austerity of life,” urging them not to act like “princes” or to be “ambitious” in seeking to lead another diocese.

 

Rather, bishops should be “pointing the way” for their people, preventing them from “being scattered” while “ensuring that no one is left behind.” They should be men capable of guarding and protecting their congregation while also instilling hope “so that light will shine in people’s hearts,” the Pope said July 28.

 

 

The Pope criticized pastoral plans that “clearly lack nearness, tenderness, a warm touch” and are incapable of sparking “an encounter with Jesus Christ” and with other people.

 

“Christ’s followers are not individuals caught up in a privatized spirituality, but persons in community, devoting themselves to others,” the Pope said.

 

Pope Francis focused on two challenges to missionary discipleship: the “inner renewal” of the Church and dialogue with the world. He noted the Second Vatican Council’s guidance in engaging modern life.

 

“Responding to the existential issues of people today, especially the young, listening to the language they speak, can lead to a fruitful change, which must take place with the help of the Gospel, the magisterium, and the Church’s social doctrine,” the Pope said.

 

 

He noted the need to engage the many subcultures of the modern city on their own terms.

 

“If we remain within the parameters of our ‘traditional culture,’ which was essentially rural, we will end up nullifying the power of the Holy Spirit,” he warned. “God is everywhere: we have to know how to find him in order to be able to proclaim him in the language of each and every culture; every reality, every language, has its own rhythm.”

 

Pope Francis praised the spread of Bible groups, ecclesial base communities and pastoral councils. He said these advance the responsibility of the laity and help overcome “clericalism.” He particularly praised expressions of popular piety as a “healthy thing” that shows greater lay autonomy.

 

He also warned against several temptations that are false visions of the missionary spirit.

 

He said clericalism, an excessive lay dependence on or privileging of priests, is “a temptation very present in Latin America.”

 

 

“The phenomenon of clericalism explains, in great part, the lack of maturity and Christian freedom in a good part of the Latin American laity,” he said.

 

Both laity and priests take refuge in clericalism “because it is easier,” he lamented. This causes some Catholics to fail to grow in Christian life or to take refuge in ideology.

 

The Pope warned against turning the message of the Gospel into an “ideology,” whether it is “market liberalism” or Marxism.

 

He said the psychology-focused tendencies of some spirituality courses and spiritual retreats reduce the encounter with Jesus Christ to “self-awareness,” a “self-centered approach” that “has nothing to do with the missionary spirit.” He mentioned the new age practice of the Enneagram as one example.

 

 

He criticized the “gnostic solution” of elite groups of “enlightened Catholics” who offer a “higher spirituality.” He said some advocates of ordaining nuns to the priesthood or of giving communion to the divorced and remarried fall into this error.

 

He also warned against the “Pelagian solution” that seeks a “purely disciplinary solution” through “the restoration of outdated manners and forms which, even on the cultural level, are no longer meaningful.”

 

 

Repeating his previous criticisms, he warned against reducing the Church to “the structure of an NGO” focused on quantifiable results, statistics, and a business-like organization. He said some bishops’ conferences open more and more departments that do not help the mission of Church.

 

Concerning the inner renewal of the Church, Pope Francis stressed the need for “pastoral conversion” focused on “Jesus Christ as the bearer of God’s Kingdom” and trust in the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

 

He posed many questions to the bishops for their own self-examination.

 

He said bishops should ask whether they and their priests are working to ensure that their work is “more pastoral than administrative” and whether they serve “the People of God as a whole” rather than “the Church as an organization.”

 

 

He asked the bishops to examine whether they “manipulate” or “infantilize” the laity.

 

“In practice, do we make the lay faithful sharers in the mission?” he asked.

 

He said bishops should not simply react to complex problems, but should promote opportunities to “manifest God’s mercy.”

 

The Pope concluded with an exhortation: “I beg that we take seriously our calling as servants of the holy and faithful people of God, for this is where authority is exercised and demonstrated: in the ability to serve.”

 

Pope Francis addressed the bishops hours after celebrating Sunday Mass for millions of World Youth Day pilgrims gathered on Rio’s Copacabana Beach.

 

 

In spite of security concerns Papa Francesco has safely returned to Rome.

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Pope Francis reaches Rock Star status in Historic Brazilian Gig

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1.5 million youth ignore heavy rains to rock with Pope at Copacabana beach Mass - The Man they call Papa!

 

The American media seems adverse to covering "feel good" stories but at least the rest of the world can learn with amazement the incredible journey Pope Francis is making to Brazil where millions of faithful are showing him how much they love his compassionate approach to leading the world to the light.

 

 

Check out the video from The Telegraph in the UK.  At least the rest of the world see the news value.

 

Barely a word was mentioned about the Pope's first international trip on network or cable news and that is a sad testament to the nature of stories that reach the people.  Oh our news media showed the Pope in the ghettos of Rio and tried to say the story was all about the failure of the rich to help the poor.

 

 

 

But the message had nothing to do with failure and everything to do with faith, and a Catholic Pope's plea to have faith in God and Jesus Christ is the last thing you will hear from a liberal media in America still intent on driving God from everything in our nation.

 

 

How sad but how typical.  The Pope is in South America pleading the cause for ALL poor and rich people, the need for faith in a higher cause, from a loving God, while in America our politicians are holding a Conference on Violent Crime in Chicago, where 226 deaths have rocked the local landscape already this year.

 

 

Pope Francis focuses attention on prayer and faith for all while American politicians focus attention on gangs and murder on the streets of our cities.  In Brazil 1.5 million youth, yes the same age as those in gangs and committing murder in America, joined the Pope on that rain driven beach in his journey to bring us closer to God.

 

How strange for the media to not notice such a massive movement in our Southern Hemisphere.  How odd to not cover a story that affects over 1.2 billion Catholics around the world, the largest single religious denomination in the world and in America.

 

 

When it comes to media coverage the Pope is truly a voice in the wilderness because the networks have not figured out how to make God or faith into a reality show so they can make money.

 

 

People of all faiths have a right to know there is one world leader walking the walk and talking the talk when it comes to laying his life on the line for his love of all people and belief in the power of prayer and faith.

 

 

There are rare times in the history of mankind when one solitary voice can make a difference.  Pope Francis may very well be one of those people whose genuine love, compassion and empathy for giving transcend ego, power and greed for taking.

 

 

Politicians and people from Wall Street to Main Street could benefit from his example and may very well find salvation in his gentler and kinder message.

 

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If Taylor Swift fell in Love, got married & lived happily ever after, would her songwriting end?

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America's most popular teenager, even at age 23, has created a phenomenal music machine in the six short years since she exploded on the scene.  A singing and songwriting prodigy if ever there was one, Taylor took about the hardest path possible in her "swift" ascent foregoing the huge Nashville record labels and opting for an independent label, Big Machine Records.

 

Though her label was just a start up it had a solid platinum 16 year old in young Taylor Swift.  She probably does not remember but I exchanged several emails with her before she had the record deal and was famous, and interestingly enough we discussed what she would have to give up to sign with a major label.

 

 

At the time she insisted she would never sign with a major label because she intended to write and perform her own songs and they would never let her at her young age.  She was far wiser than her years.

 

Today, six years later, she has sold over 26 million albums and over 75 million digital downloads worldwide and Forbes magazine says the 23 year old is now worth over $220 million.  So far in 2013 her income this year exceeds $55 million.

 

 

She has a penthouse in midtown Nashville, Tennessee, a cottage in Beverly Hills, California and an eight bedroom vacation home in coastal Watch Hill, Rhode Island.

 

She recently made several hundred thousand dollars profit selling a million dollar mansion she bought in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts next door to the most famous political royalty in America, the Kennedy family.  She bought it to be close to one of the Kennedy boys she was dating.

 

 

And that brings us to the subject of this story.  Taylor Swift sells millions of records to teens telling the tragic stories of her lost loves of life, what she acknowledges is the source of her often heartbreaking compositions.

 

Since becoming a super star her romances read like a celebrity whose who and have made extremely good material for the tearful tales she tells in song.  Just look at this partial list from Swiftipedia of the more public mates she has dated.

 

 

The song Tim McGraw was inspired by an ex-boyfriend named Brandon Borello. Their relationship ended because he had to go to college. She told USA today, "He bought the album and said he really loved it, which is sweet. His current girlfriend isn't too pleased with it, though." It was named after a musician whose songs she liked. He was going away to college so she wanted to write him something to remember her by.

 

Picture to Burn was written about an ex-boyfriend, whom she calls a redneck, and says he never let her drive his pick-up truck.

 

Teardrops on My Guitar was written about a boy she liked, whom she never actually dated. "Drew was a real person!" she tells. Drew was surprised when he heard his name in the song. "I never knew she liked me" Drew says. Taylor stated that two years after the song came out Drew showed up at her house and asked her on a date. She declined. "It was the perfect fairytale ending but a little too late."

 

 Should've Said No was about an ex-boyfriend that cheated on her. The boyfriend's name was Sam Armstrong, and, in the CD booklet, every S, A, and M was capitalized if it was in the correct order.

 

Joe Jonas broke up with her over the phone, which is something she has complained about on Ellen Degeneres' show and elsewhere. She got her record company to let her record a song about it, to add at the last minute to her album. Forever & Always is the name of that song. She also wrote 'Last Kiss' about him and 'Better than Revenge' is about his ex-girlfriend, Camila Belle.

 

 

Taylor Lautner became her boyfriend after they met on set for the film Valentine's Day. Their relationship was popularly known as Taylor Squared. They broke up in early 2010. She mentioned going to a hockey game with him during her October 29th 2009 appearance on the Ellen Show.

 

According to MTV he was more into her than she was into him, he going everywhere he could to see her, but it was not working out. They have apparently decided to just be friends.  The song, Back to December is suspected to be about Taylor Lautner. The song is an apology to him.

 

Some of the lyrics go..." Your guard is up and I know why. Because the last time you saw me is still burned in the back of your mind ...you gave me roses and I left them there to die. So this is me swallowing my pride, standing in front of you saying I'm sorry for that night. And I go back to December all the time. You gave me all your love and all I gave you was goodbye."

 

 

At the end of the song she asks for his forgiveness and hints to the fact she wants to be with him again. The couple hasn't reunited and at the recent American Music Awards Swift performed the song and at the end added "and he said it's too late to 'pologize" from popular song "Apologize" by the band One Republic. She is alluding to the parody video Taylor Lautner made for "Apologize".  Time magazine listed this is one of the top apologies of 2010.

 

Jake Gyllenhaal reported spent $160,000 to have her flown over on a private jet for a date. He later broke up with her through text. We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, State of Grace, All Too Well, Girl at Home and The Moment I Knew are rumored to be about him.

 

The songs Dear John and I Knew You Were Trouble are rumored to be about her ex-boyfriend John Mayer, whom she had a fling with at one time.

 

 

The song Enchanted is about Adam Young of Owl City but she never dated him, although he did state his interest in her.

 

Former beaus Harry Styles and Connor Kennedy are yet to be immortalized in Taylor's songs.

 

So, if Taylor were to fall in love, get married and live happily ever after would that signal the end of her songwriting and recording career?  What is a country queen, or should we say princess, to do with no new material for songs?

 

How could the hundreds of millions of teenagers around the world in love with Taylor and her music handle a happy married Taylor?  Feeling good, sharing happiness and being content are very un-teen like in this day and age.

 

How in the world will the big pharmaceutical companies keep making their insane profits if kids aren't depressed like their parents?  Nearly 50% of all Americans are now on prescription drugs for depression.

 

At the same time, can Taylor make the transition and actually write happy songs that teens will buy?  It would be yet another first in the bonnet of this young woman who shattered all kinds of glass ceilings in the country music and record industries doing things her way.

 

Let us hope teens today will not hold candle light vigils pleading with Taylor to "dump the chumps" so she can keep on writing country hits.

 

 

I say Taylor has given us an incredible slice of her life to share the intimacy of her relationships through her music.  She deserves to be happy too.

 

What do you say?

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Pope Francis follows chosen namesake - the enigmatic Francis of Assisi

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You should learn more about St. Francis of Assisi if you want to understand the rather radical and eye opening actions of this most unusual Pope.  Just 120 days into his historic election to be Pope, Francis has demonstrated a passion and devotion to one St. Francis of Assisi.

 

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina the new Pope Francis has electrified the somewhat complacent Catholics of the world while sending shock waves through the ancient "Curia" running the Vatican in Rome.

 

 

After four months as Pope he still refuses to move into the plush and private Pope's apartment in the Vatican.  Descriptions make it sound like a penthouse overlooking Central Park.  But our Francis chooses to stay in the Vatican Guesthouse rather than the Papal Residency, while dining with the mere mortals sharing the visitors quarters.

 

So that makes him the first American Pope.  The first Pope from the southern hemisphere.  The first Jesuit Pope.

 

 

BBC News

 

14 March 2013 Last updated at 05:16 ET

 

How many Roman Catholics are there in the world?

 

 

There are an estimated 1.2 billion Roman Catholics in the world, according to Vatican figures. More than 40% of the world's Catholics live in Latin America - but Africa has seen the biggest growth in Catholic congregations in recent years.

 

Latin America accounts for 483 million Catholics, or 41.3% of the total Catholic population. Of the 10 countries in the world with the most Catholics, four are in Latin America. Brazil has the highest Catholic population of any country. The figure was put at 123 million in the last Brazilian census and as high as 150 million in 2010 figures compiled by the World Christian Database. Italy has the most Catholics in Europe, with 57 million, while DR Congo has the biggest Catholic population in Africa, ranking ninth in the world with almost 36 million.

 

 

There are currently an estimated 6.7 billion people on the planet Earth. Approximately 33% of those, or 2.2 billion, consider themselves Christian. That makes Christians the largest religion in the world by far. However, Islam is currently growing at a higher rate than Christianity. Just over half of those Christians, or about 1.2 billion, are Roman Catholic (with some additional 240 million Eastern Orthodox).

 

That makes Roman Catholics, by an overwhelming margin, the largest “denomination” of any religion on the planet. No other Christian “denomination” comes anywhere close to comparing. The only other religious entities that can even start to compare in size are the Sunni Muslims (estimated at 940 million) and the Vishnuism Hindus (580 million) , but neither compare in organization, unity, reach, and influence next to that of the Catholic Church.

 

 

So the Pope has a pretty sizeable flock to start with but there has been a lot of drifting by Catholics the past few decades.  There are a lot of Catholics who would like to find a reason to get more devoted to their faith and Francis may be the key to the return of the fallen faithful sons or daughters.

 

 

Today he travels to the Rio De Janeiro slums in Brazil while a crowd of one million people will join him on the beach to pray for the poor.  With a ready smile and a hand out to the people Pope Francis is well on his way to becoming one of the most popular and charismatic of the 266 Popes that have presided over the Roman Catholic Church.

 

But about his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, there is no mystery why he is so drawn to such a priest from nearly a thousand years ago when you know the story of St. Francis.  Here is a brief account of his remarkable and clearly inspiring life of St. Francis of Assisi.

 

 

Catholic Online

 

 

St. Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan Order who was born at Assisi in Umbria, in 1181.

 

In 1182, Pietro Bernardone returned from a trip to France to find out his wife had given birth to a son. Far from being excited or apologetic because he'd been gone, Pietro was furious because she'd had his new son baptized Giovanni after John the Baptist. The last thing Pietro wanted in his son was a man of God -- he wanted a man of business, a cloth merchant like he was, and he especially wanted a son who would reflect his infatuation with France. So he renamed his son Francesco -- which is the equivalent of calling him Frenchman.

 

Francis enjoyed a very rich easy life growing up because of his father's wealth and the permissiveness of the times. From the beginning everyone -- and I mean everyone -- loved Francis. He was constantly happy, charming, and a born leader. If he was picky, people excused him. If he was ill, people took care of him. If he was so much of a dreamer he did poorly in school, no one minded. In many ways he was too easy to like for his own good. No one tried to control him or teach him.

 

 

As he grew up, Francis became the leader of a crowd of young people who spent their nights in wild parties. Thomas of Celano, his biographer who knew him well, said, "In other respects an exquisite youth, he attracted to himself a whole retinue of young people addicted to evil and accustomed to vice." Francis himself said, "I lived in sin" during that time.

 

Francis fulfilled every hope of Pietro's -- even falling in love with France. He loved the songs of France, the romance of France, and especially the free adventurous troubadours of France who wandered through Europe. And despite his dreaming, Francis was also good at business. But Francis wanted more, than wealth. But not holiness! Francis wanted to be a noble, a knight. Battle was the best place to win the glory and prestige he longed for. He got his first chance when Assisi declared war on their longtime enemy, the nearby town of Perugia.

 

Most of the troops from Assisi were butchered in the fight. Only those wealthy enough to expect to be ransomed were taken prisoner. At last Francis was among the nobility like he always wanted to be...but chained in a harsh, dark dungeon. All accounts say that he never lost his happy manner in that horrible place. Finally, after a year in the dungeon, he was ransomed. Strangely, the experience didn't seem to change him. He gave himself to partying with as much joy and abandon as he had before the battle.

 

 

The experience didn't change what he wanted from life either: Glory. Finally a call for knights for the Fourth Crusade gave him a chance for his dream. But before he left Francis had to have a suit of armor and a horse -- no problem for the son of a wealthy father. And not just any suit of armor would do but one decorated with gold with a magnificent cloak. Any relief we feel in hearing that Francis gave the cloak to a poor knight will be destroyed by the boasts that Francis left behind that he would return a prince.

 

But Francis never got farther than one day's ride from Assisi. There he had a dream in which God told him he had it all wrong and told him to return home. And return home he did. What must it have been like to return without ever making it to battle -- the boy who wanted nothing more than to be liked was humiliated, laughed at, called a coward by the village and raged at by his father for the money wasted on armor.

 

Francis' conversion did not happen over night. God had waited for him for twenty-five years and now it was Francis' turn to wait. Francis started to spend more time in prayer. He went off to a cave and wept for his sins. Sometimes God's grace overwhelmed him with joy. But life couldn't just stop for God. There was a business to run, customers to wait on.

 

 

One day while riding through the countryside, Francis, the man who loved beauty, who was so picky about food, who hated deformity, came face to face with a leper. Repelled by the appearance and the smell of the leper, Francis nevertheless jumped down from his horse and kissed the hand of the leper. When his kiss of peace was returned, Francis was filled with joy. As he rode off, he turned around for a last wave, and saw that the leper had disappeared. He always looked upon it as a test from God...that he had passed.

 

His search for conversion led him to the ancient church at San Damiano. While he was praying there, he heard Christ on the crucifix speak to him, "Francis, repair my church." Francis assumed this meant church with a small c -- the crumbling building he was in. Acting again in his impetuous way, he took fabric from his father's shop and sold it to get money to repair the church. His father saw this as an act of theft -- and put together with Francis' cowardice, waste of money, and his growing disinterest in money made Francis seem more like a madman than his son. Pietro dragged Francis before the bishop and in front of the whole town demanded that Francis return the money and renounce all rights as his heir.

 

The bishop was very kind to Francis; he told him to return the money and said God would provide. That was all Francis needed to hear. He not only gave back the money but stripped off all his clothes -- the clothes his father had given him -- until he was wearing only a hair shirt. In front of the crowd that had gathered he said, "Pietro Bernardone is no longer my father. From now on I can say with complete freedom, 'Our Father who art in heaven.'" Wearing nothing but castoff rags, he went off into the freezing woods -- singing. And when robbers beat him later and took his clothes, he climbed out of the ditch and went off singing again. From then on Francis had nothing...and everything.

 

 

Francis went back to what he considered God's call. He begged for stones and rebuilt the San Damiano church with his own hands, not realizing that it was the Church with a capital C that God wanted repaired. Scandal and avarice were working on the Church from the inside while outside heresies flourished by appealing to those longing for something different or adventurous.

 

Soon Francis started to preach. (He was never a priest, though he was later ordained a deacon under his protest.) Francis was not a reformer; he preached about returning to God and obedience to the Church. Francis must have known about the decay in the Church, but he always showed the Church and its people his utmost respect. When someone told him of a priest living openly with a woman and asked him if that meant the Mass was polluted, Francis went to the priest, knelt before him, and kissed his hands -- because those hands had held God.

 

Slowly companions came to Francis, people who wanted to follow his life of sleeping in the open, begging for garbage to eat...and loving God. With companions, Francis knew he now had to have some kind of direction to this life so he opened the Bible in three places. He read the command to the rich young man to sell all his good and give to the poor, the order to the apostles to take nothing on their journey, and the demand to take up the cross daily. "Here is our rule," Francis said -- as simple, and as seemingly impossible, as that. He was going to do what no one thought possible any more -- live by the Gospel. Francis took these commands so literally that he made one brother run after the thief who stole his hood and offer him his robe!

 

 

Francis never wanted to found a religious order -- this former knight thought that sounded too military. He thought of what he was doing as expressing God's brotherhood. His companions came from all walks of life, from fields and towns, nobility and common people, universities, the Church, and the merchant class. Francis practiced true equality by showing honor, respect, and love to every person whether they were beggar or pope.

 

Francis' brotherhood included all of God's creation. Much has been written about Francis' love of nature but his relationship was deeper than that. We call someone a lover of nature if they spend their free time in the woods or admire its beauty. But Francis really felt that nature, all God's creations, were part of his brotherhood. The sparrow was as much his brother as the pope.

 

In one famous story, Francis preached to hundreds of birds about being thankful to God for their wonderful clothes, for their independence, and for God's care. The story tells us the birds stood still as he walked among him, only flying off when he said they could leave.

 

 

 

Another famous story involves a wolf that had been eating human beings. Francis intervened when the town wanted to kill the wolf and talked the wolf into never killing again. The wolf became a pet of the townspeople who made sure that he always had plenty to eat.

 

Following the Gospel literally, Francis and his companions went out to preach two by two. At first, listeners were understandably hostile to these men in rags trying to talk about God's love. People even ran from them for fear they'd catch this strange madness! And they were right. Because soon these same people noticed that these barefoot beggars wearing sacks seemed filled with constant joy. They celebrated life. And people had to ask themselves: Could one own nothing and be happy? Soon those who had met them with mud and rocks, greeted them with bells and smiles.

 

Francis did not try to abolish poverty, he tried to make it holy. When his friars met someone poorer than they, they would eagerly rip off the sleeve of their habit to give to the person. They worked for all necessities and only begged if they had to. But Francis would not let them accept any money. He told them to treat coins as if they were pebbles in the road. When the bishop showed horror at the friars' hard life, Francis said, "If we had any possessions we should need weapons and laws to defend them." Possessing something was the death of love for Francis. Also, Francis reasoned, what could you do to a man who owns nothing? You can't starve a fasting man, you can't steal from someone who has no money, you can't ruin someone who hates prestige. They were truly free.

 

 

Francis was a man of action. His simplicity of life extended to ideas and deeds. If there was a simple way, no matter how impossible it seemed, Francis would take it. So when Francis wanted approval for his brotherhood, he went straight to Rome to see Pope Innocent III. You can imagine what the pope thought when this beggar approached him! As a matter of fact he threw Francis out. But when he had a dream that this tiny man in rags held up the tilting Lateran basilica, he quickly called Francis back and gave him permission to preach.

 

Sometimes this direct approach led to mistakes that he corrected with the same spontaneity that he made them. Once he ordered a brother who hesitated to speak because he stuttered to go preach half-naked. When Francis realized how he had hurt someone he loved he ran to town, stopped the brother, took off his own clothes, and preached instead.

 

Francis acted quickly because he acted from the heart; he didn't have time to put on a role. Once he was so sick and exhausted, his companions borrowed a mule for him to ride. When the man who owned the mule recognized Francis he said, "Try to be as virtuous as everyone thinks you are because many have a lot of confidence in you." Francis dropped off the mule and knelt before the man to thank him for his advice.

 

 

Another example of his directness came when he decided to go to Syria to convert the Moslems while the Fifth Crusade was being fought. In the middle of a battle, Francis decided to do the simplest thing and go straight to the sultan to make peace. When he and his companion were captured, the real miracle was that they weren't killed. Instead Francis was taken to the sultan who was charmed by Francis and his preaching. He told Francis, "I would convert to your religion which is a beautiful one -- but both of us would be murdered."

 

Francis did find persecution and martyrdom of a kind -- not among the Moslems, but among his own brothers. When he returned to Italy, he came back to a brotherhood that had grown to 5000 in ten years. Pressure came from outside to control this great movement, to make them conform to the standards of others. His dream of radical poverty was too harsh, people said. Francis responded, "Lord, didn't I tell you they wouldn't trust you?"

 

He finally gave up authority in his order -- but he probably wasn't too upset about it. Now he was just another brother, like he'd always wanted.

 

Francis' final years were filled with suffering as well as humiliation. Praying to share in Christ's passion he had a vision received the stigmata, the marks of the nails and the lance wound that Christ suffered, in his own body.

 

 

Years of poverty and wandering had made Francis ill. When he began to go blind, the pope ordered that his eyes be operated on. This meant cauterizing his face with a hot iron. Francis spoke to "Brother Fire": "Brother Fire, the Most High has made you strong and beautiful and useful. Be courteous to me now in this hour, for I have always loved you, and temper your heat so that I can endure it." And Francis reported that Brother Fire had been so kind that he felt nothing at all.

 

How did Francis respond to blindness and suffering? That was when he wrote his beautiful Canticle of the Sun that expresses his brotherhood with creation in praising God.

 

Francis never recovered from this illness. He died on October 4, 1226 at the age of 45. Francis is considered the founder of all Franciscan orders and the patron saint of ecologists and merchants.

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