Murray Bodo, OFM

A simple map for living is why St. Francis is still listened to and followed today in our fractious and divided world. What he teaches, if lived out, brings joy, which is the result of union with God who lives with us and within all of creation. God lives in creation but is also apart from creation as its Creator who existed before the existence of the universe. St. Francis’s teachings, then, become both a theology and a way of living.

It was the very closeness of God that moved Francis to the depths of his being. He was no longer alone. God was with him and with the whole world. God was in him and God was in every creature, and all was blessing.

— from the book Surrounded by Love: Seven Teachings from Saint Francis