To fully love as Francis did, there is no compartmentalizing. Can I follow this example? Can I widen my arms to include the reality of death and still love with exuberance, as Francis did? Embrace everything on the path, meet whatever comes my way?
Francis lays out a blueprint to jubilation in the Rule of 1221, Chapter XXIII: “Let us love the Lord God with all our heart and all our soul, with all our mind and all our strength and with fortitude and with total understanding, with all of our power, with every effort, every affection, every emotion, every desire, and every wish.” It’s all-encompassing, perhaps overwhelming, but more manageable when we trust there are many possible entry points as we simply move through our lives.
—from St. Anthony Messenger‘s “St. Francis and the Gift of Love“
by Maureen O’Brien
