Yesterday, I came across a beautiful blog post that, for me, captures the essence of Francis, whose very being was a prayer. The sentiment in the post duplicates the sentiment that is needed when one approaches conflict. The views expressed were so powerful that I have reposted the material in its entirety.
Brother Charles authors frequent posts that demonstrate the humility of Francis, not as theory but as lived experience. I highly recommend visiting his blog, a minor friar.
Being a Prayer from a minor friar by Brother Charles
A word from my confessor:
“The life of a religious or a priest is only possible as a life of prayer. What does it mean to live a life of prayer? It means to abide in a constant, habitual awareness of God. Therefore it is also a habitual awareness of grace, the grace which is our strength in trial and temptation.”His words reminded me of one of the most challenging questions we friars are asked when we present ourselves for perpetual profession of vows:
Do you wish to serve the Lord and to love, adore, and pray to Him with a pure heart and a pure mind and to be a man of prayer or, better yet, to be made, like Saint Francis, a prayer?
It’s startling to imagine that if we still imagine ourselves as people who pray, as if prayer was an activity beside other activities of daily life, we have not yet fully surrendered to the mystery and gift of our baptism. To be caught up completely in the Spirit, drawn up into the overflowing Love and creative Delight of the Blessed Trinity, this is where prayer is going; it is to become ourselves, in Christ, a prayer.
“I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.“(Galatians 2:20)And yet, it’s also a dangerous idea; it can be pretended to far too early. Once when I was on retreat I met an old priest. I was talking to him about prayer. He said,
“When I was young, I used to say that my work was my prayer. And it might have been, had I been praying.“