When Francis stripped himself naked at Santa Maria Maggiore, he was reaching for the heart of God. The undressing of his body was merely a symbolic gesture of the undressing of his heart. Most or all of us will never have reason to do what Francis did. Perhaps, though, we can hear in this holy place the call to have the courage to undress our hearts with another and to deepen that grand mystery of intimacy that leads us into the tender heart of God and the wonder of life with him.
—from the book In the Footsteps of Francis and Clare
by Roch Niemier, OFM
