ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI 4th OCTOBER

 

Today, at the Hospital Chapel of St. Mary and St. Thomas of Canterbury, Ilford I celebrated the Mass for St. Francis of Assisi and offered the Ministry of Healing with the Laying-on-of-Hands with Prayer and Holy Anointing. In the Homily I focussed on how St. Francis received the message, from the figure on the Byzantine Cross which he believed spoke to him saying “rebuild my church” and how he initially understood this to mean the actual building of St. Damiano. Later he came to understand that it meant not a building but the People of God, the church Jesus came to build. St. Francis bore the marks of the Cross on his body when he received the Stigmata.

 

 

THE CROSS OF ST. DAMIANO

 

 

 

 

THE PRAYER ATTRIBUTED TO ST. FRANCIS

 

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console;

to be understood as to understand;

to be loved as to love;

For it is in giving that we receive;

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.

St. Francis of Assisi: Pray for us.