What strikes us about the seventh reflection on the SERAPHIC spiritis that all the "I" words we wish to examine begin with the prefix "in. "That fact speaks volumes; for if we want to summarize our Father St. Francis' philosophy of life "in a nut shell," we would have to say that the Little Poor Man desired only one thing - - to live IN GOD.
And, living IN GOD, Francis lived IN JOY!

 

The  S*E*R*A*P*H*I*C  Order.

How to describe the spirit of our Franciscan charism? 
We can discover a whole range of life-imitable traits
contained in the letters of the title which
Holy Church herself has attributed to the spiritual family
of St. Francis of Assisi.

PART 7

INTENT

INTENT, INTIMATE, INTENSIFIED/INVOLVED, INTEREST

So INTENT was Francis on striving to live in union with God, that he could write to his followers, as he neared the end of his earthly pilgrimage: Nothing must keep us back; nothing must separate us from Him; nothing must come between us and Him.

Our Seraphic Father's intentness on seeking God ushered him into a life of INTIMATE union with our Lord Jesus Christ which flowered into an identification and imitation of the Son of God that was so far-reaching and so shiningly real that the Assisi townsfolk christened Francis "the Christ of Umbria."

That intimate life of love and union in prayer with the suffering Savior INTENSIFIED Francis' awareness of the love of God for the souls He had created.  It rendered Francis so utterly INVOLVED in the mysteries of the passion that the sight of a lamb being led to the market would bring to his mind the thought of the Son of God who was led like a lamb to the slaughter for our salvation.  The lowly worm on the roadside spoke to Francis of the suffering Christ who, in the words of the psalmist, had become in His Passion like a worm, and no man.
                                                                                  

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This involvement in the mysteries of our Redemption also kindled in Francis a burning INTEREST  in the eternal welfare of all the redeemed.  I want to send all to heaven! was more than an exuberant announcement by Francis of the granting of the famed Porziuncola indulgence.  I want to send you all to heaven summarizes St. Francis' life-work, - his prayer, his penance, his apostolic labors, his journeying, his sufferings.  I want to send you all to heaven!  It is the timeless work of the children of Francis in every age.  And, perhaps, most especially relevant in our time.

INTIMATE