Franciscan Prayer Quotes

“Life in God should be a daring adventure of love—a continuous journey of putting aside our securities to enter more profoundly into the uncharted depths of God. Too often, however, we settle for mediocrity. We follow the rules and practices of prayer but we are unwilling or, for various reasons, unable to give ourselves totally to God. To settle on the plain of mediocrity is really to settle for something less than God that leaves the heart restless and unfulfilled. A story from the desert fathers reminds us that giving oneself wholly to God can make a difference: Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, “Abba, as far as I can I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?” Then the old man stood up and stretched his hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, “If you will, you can become all flame.”15”
― Ilia Delio, Franciscan Prayer

“Spiritual desire is the experience of God’s presence in us or it may be the absence of God as well, since a feeling of absence may stimulate a yearning for God. It is the experience of delightful love and fearful emptiness.”
― Ilia Delio, Franciscan Prayer

“Describing Francis as the truly humble person, Bonaventure writes: “As Christ’s disciple he strove to regard himself as worthless in his own eyes and those of others. He used to make this statement frequently: ‘What a person is before God, that he is and no more.’”34”
― Ilia Delio, Franciscan Prayer

“Contemplative vision is the vision that says “you are good as you are because you are the sacrament of God’s love.”
― Ilia Delio, Franciscan Prayer

“Francis became a man of peace because he was transformed in love and came to recognize that he was intimately related (pietas) to every person and creature.8”
― Ilia Delio, Franciscan Prayer

“Go, my dear brothers two by two through different parts of the word, announcing peace to the people and penance for the remission of sins.”5”
― Ilia Delio, Franciscan Prayer

“People who are reckless usually wind up in trouble because they do crazy things. Imagine being reckless for the kingdom of God. Just think what might happen. Friends of God loving one another around the earth. Heaven breaking open in our midst. We have the power to make this happen.”
― Ilia Delio, Franciscan Prayer

“As Francis deepened his relationship with Christ, the other became less outside Francis as object and more related to him as brother.”
― Ilia Delio, Franciscan Prayer

“God is Trinity because God is relationship in love. This God loves us totally and unconditionally to the extent that God shares with us the suffering of our lives.”
― Ilia Delio, Franciscan Prayer

“For the Franciscans, there is no such thing as “brute matter.”
― Ilia Delio, Franciscan Prayer

“What you hold, may you [always] hold,
What you do, may you [always] do and never abandon. But with swift pace, light step,
Unswerving feet,
So that even your steps stir up no dust,
May you go forward
Securely, joyfully, and swiftly,
On the path of prudent happiness,
Not believing anything,
Not agreeing with anything
That would dissuade you from this resolution
Or that would place a stumbling block for you on the way,
So that you may offer your vows to the Most High
In the pursuit of that perfection
To which the Spirit of the Lord has called you. —Clare of Assisi “The Second Letter to Agnes of Prague” Prayer”
― Ilia Delio, Franciscan Prayer