I Quattro Evangelici
Francis left behind no learned treatise, only a life lived and a few burning words. Five threads run through everything he taught — and everything he was.
Francis called poverty "Lady Poverty" and wedded himself to her. He owned nothing — no house, no purse, no shoes when he could help it. He taught that the follower of Christ should leave every possession behind, trusting wholly in Providence. "If we had possessions," he said, "we should need arms to defend them."
Let us begin, brothers, to serve the Lord God, for up to now we have made little or no progress.
His greeting was Pace e Bene — Peace and All Good. He forbade his brothers to bear arms and sent them out as peacemakers among warring communes. In the Canticle he named peace among the virtues to be served: "Cuidate, Laudato si', mi Signore, per quelli che perdonano per lo tuo amore."
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Francis addressed fire and water, the moon and the wind, as Brother and Sister. He preached to the birds, tamed the wolf of Gubbio, and asked the friars to leave a corner of every garden for the wildflowers. He saw creation not as raw material but as a family that praises its common Father.
Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us.
His one ambition was to live the literal Gospel — the words of Christ without commentary or dilution. When he heard the passage of Christ sending his disciples barefoot and penniless, he leapt up: "This is what I want; this is what I seek; this is what I desire with all my heart."
The rule and life of the Minor Brothers is this: to observe the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Franciscan joy — letizia — is not the pleasure of the comfortable but the gladness of the free. He called his followers joculatores Dei, God's jongleurs, and told them never to look downcast. He kissed the leper and laughed among beggars: perfect joy, he said, is found not in success but in bearing every trial for love.
Above all the graces and gifts of the Holy Spirit, which Christ gives to his friends, is that of overcoming oneself and enduring willingly every suffering for love of Christ.
“Pace e Bene”
Peace and All Good — the Franciscan greeting to every soul