True Reformation

Hundreds of years before any Protestant reformation took place, St. Francis was at the forefront of true reform – renewal of the mind and heart by embracing poverty was his message for each Christian he touched. Poverty he showed was at the core of the Gospel and at the heart of the Christ-like experience. It is also the guardian of humility – the opposite of the pride that has resigned many former angels and also humans to the unsettling reality of “hell.”

St. Francis explains the gift of poverty in this way to Brother Masseo . . . “My dear and beloved Brother, the treasure of blessed poverty is so very precious and divine that we are not worthy to posses it in our vile bodies. For poverty is that heavenly virtue by which all earthly and transitory things are trodden under foot, and by which every obstacle is removed from the soul so that it may be free to enter into union with the eternal Lord God. It is also the virtue which makes the soul, while still on earth, converse with the angels in Heaven. It is she who accompanied Christ on the Cross, was buried with Christ in the Tomb, and with Christ was raised and ascended into Heaven, for even in this life she gives to souls who loves her ability to fly to Heaven, and she alone guards the armor of true humility and charity. So let us pray to the very holy Apostles of Christ, who were perfect lovers of the pearl [poverty] of the Gospel of Christ, that they may procure this grace for us from Our Lord Jesus Christ: that he who was an observer and teacher of holy poverty may by His most holy mercy grant that we may be worthy to be true lovers and observers and humble followers of the most precious beloved poverty of the Gospel.” The Little Flowers of Saint Francis, chapter one, #13.
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