Franciscan Meditative Thoughts
May I ask you to spend some time with God by meditating on a few of the following thoughts in silence each day:
1. Live with God; make him your all in all.
2. Be an example of faith, go from the Gospel to life then from life to the Gospel (then you become God’s word through your actions).
3. Your life can become prayer itself (offered up to God).
4. The Franciscan spiritual calling is to poverty, charity and obedience. POVERTY is a humble lifestyle in need of God.
CHASITY is a pure desire to be separated from too
much worldly fixations & excesses. OBEDIENCE is a
sincere lifestyle to follow God’s will and respect authority.
5. God and poverty have always been bounded together. To choose love for God is to choose love for those in poverty (physical or spiritual poverty).
6. The sacraments represent stages in your life where God had a special invitation to be with you. May you make each day like a new sacrament… where you live within the beauty of God.
7. Can you turn away from a life of ego building to enter a life of loving others (more than yourself)?
8. Because we all were created in God’s image, every person has a right to all that is needed to receive human dignity.
9. Francis of Assisi gave himself (with all longing) to searching for, finding, and embracing LADY POVERTY. Can you do the same? May you be in great need of God (always).
10. Can you create within your heart a small hermitage where you can find God, where you can find your true self, and where you can take a first step on a long and steep climb to be with God (with peace of mind).
11. Hear silence within your meditation, for it is who you are. It is all that you are. You are the silence of your heart
(You are prayer in need of the ear of God).
12. It is not easy to let prayer become your identity. It is not easy to replace your talking ego with loving actions. It is not easy to reshape your loving actions into physical messages of love to God … but you can.
13. When you create love around yourself, you share in
God’s creativity. When you destroy love around yourself, you destroy
a part of God in your world. For God is Love.
14. May you love God more than just with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? May you also love your neighbor too (by being the physical arms, feet and heart of Christ here on earth to comfort those in need).
15. May you listen to scripture and apply what it says to your life (without twisting it to fit any of your pre-conceived ideas).
16. What matters the most when meditating in prayer is how you pray without words. When your noisy thoughts fill your heart, you must learn to live silently with God (just as God loves silently with you).
17. You become fully alive when the mystery of God is no longer buried deep inside of you, but openly celebrated. You become fully alive as you pray with all your life’s deeds & thoughts (not any fancy words).
18. It is God who answers your prayers, who is the answer to your prayers.
19. Brother Francis can show you the path he took. Mentally take his hand along the road to peace with Christ.
20. May you go forward securely, joyfully, and swiftly on a path of happiness, believing nothing and agreeing with nothing that turns you away from your commitment to God.
21. Nothing is worth having if you cannot give it away when necessary.
22. Charity goes beyond justice because to love is to give and to have plenty is to distribute out fairly. Charity and justice is inseparable.
23. May you seek out ways of unity and harmony through dialogue. May you trust in the presence of God’s seed in everyone and the transforming power of love and forgiveness.
24. Franciscans spirituality is not a devotional society buried in prayer. You live a humble prayerful lifestyle of loving actions. Your daily life itself is your major devotionals,
without self-righteousness or pious pretenses. You submit yourself to the Lord as prayer.
25. There must be no doubt, that you simply live and speak the message of God for peace, justice, hope and love.
26. May you have a gentle and courteous spirit; seeing and accepting all people as gifts to the Lord and a part of the image of Christ.
27. The spirituality of Francis is upon you as you address all of creation as “brothers and sisters”.
28. May you seek to create peace, communion, and joy in your world. May you seek to free yourself from the domination of excessive things. May you find the treasures
of your heart by opening the doors of hospitality and compassion to LADY POVERTY.
29. Your journey with Christ is the road (the only road) to the peace of God, the peace that you so desperately seek but which only God can provide.
30. Be a person of faith who (in both the silent and busy corners of your life), must remember to pray. You need to pray lest you forget.
31. The peace which surpasses all understanding is that peace that you desire more than anything else, but which only God can give.
32. You must choose to see, hear, praise, love, worship, glorify, and honor the God who is alive in all creatures.
33. Jesus said, “Do not worry over what you eat” … Francis didn’t. Jesus said, “Whoever wishes to follow me must deny
yourself” … Francis did. Jesus said, “Take nothing with
you
on your way” … Francis didn’t. May you at least, not let
your possessions take ownership of your time & being.
May you recognize God as your true provider; therefore,
not feed your ego with self-pride.
34. May you integrate your life with the gospel, reality, Jesus, love, joy, peace, and the cross (to create a Franciscan spiritual heart within you).
35. If you listen, if you open your heart, you will discover that God is there to be seen and heard.
36. Wherever you are, God is.
37. God shines forth in all of creation (for the beauty of all creation reflects God’s glory & wonder).
38. God is the God of your heart, the God who is your portion for eternity.
39. God is not where you most expect to find him.
40. To journey into peace, may you first go from light into darkness, from knowing to not knowing, from the cares of your day to the silent world of your God. You then will be doing God’s work.
41. There is an unbreakable bond between love of God and love of neighbor.
42. May you be called to be spiritual in this material world.
May you be called to be a model of love. May the Gospel be your
guide (for the way) and may God be who you seek to
serve.
43. God’s idea of answering your prayers and your idea may not coincide. God’s ways can create puzzlement in your mind, but trust God and praise him with amazement. Then all things can work out for the good.
44. “The peace of God” is a journey of prayer.
45. For Christ, you live simply. You can do it to be a person of peace. You see a world with darkness and cold but you sit it afire with truth and charity (through your actions).
46. Francis’ simplicity was and still is a spiritual revolution.
47. Let your presence be not just an occasional happy moment, but instead the very air a soul breathes.
48. I beg of you, to light up your darkness with God’s joy, to spread it into every corner, to permeate and color your world.
49 As your prayer develops … your behavior changes.
Prejudice changes to acceptance. Hatred turns
to forgiveness. Anger is transformed into the power to love. Your
life itself gives an indication that your prayer is real and effective.
50. A few (simple) material things should bring you joy without becoming a lot of clutter and confusion.
51. When you give a gift of love to another, the recipient is free to receive it then maybe pass it on. Otherwise this love is not a gift but an imposition.
52. Franciscan spirituality can change your life. You can
change the world by embracing peace for Christ.
53. Franciscan spirituality is the opposite of proving to God that you are good. It is accepting and embracing the extraordinary. It is a truth that all people are loved by God (a God who only wants to embrace us through our actions of love).
54. God’s love is a pure and endless gift. God’s peace has to be learned but not his love.
55. Without God’s peace in your hearts, the word of God goes unheard. Without God’s peace in your life, the word of
God cannot take root (it cannot grow).
56. Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance.
57. Where there is patience and humility, there is neither anger nor disturbance.
58. Where there is poverty with joy, there is neither anxiety nor restlessness.
59 Where there is true respect for God’s will (to guard your life), evil ways will not consume you.
60. Where there is a heart full of mercy and discernment, there is neither excess nor hardness of heart.
61. May you live in God’s image instead of God in your image.
QUESTIONS:
1 Is there any of the above that truly touches your heart?
2 Has any of these statements help to change your life?
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