As a young man St. Francis had a great enthusiasm for life.

He was passionate and

poetic. He reached out to others cheerfully and they enjoyed his company. He was
always ready to laugh at himself, as one can do with their friends, and in this spirit
of fraternity he was a rather boisterous leader of the youth of Assisi. He was
naturally generous and his warmth reached out not only to his friends, but also to
the poor.
His father Pietro Bernadone was a wealthy Italian cloth merchant who was very
proud of his riches and his sons' Francis and Angelo. His mother who was born in
France was a loving and devout person. Everyone endearingly called her "Pica" a
nick name.
As the son of a wealthy family, Francis learned to enjoy life. His cheerfulness, love
of fun and his pocket money, made him popular among the young people. With the
encouragement of his father, Francis dreamed of becoming a noble knight who
would accomplish fantastic deeds and bring honour to his family. He attended the
church school of St. George and was no doubt entranced with the story of this saint
who is one of the patron saints of knighthood. It was an age of chivalry and Francis
too wanted to find his own dragons to slay.
Finally when the cities of Assisi and Perugia went to war against each other,
Francis had his chance at glory. The reality of war however, was not what he
dreamed. The fierce fighting, vicious hatred, horrible mutilation and death were a
shock to his spirit of nobility. Being captured and held as a hostage in a stinking
dungeon held no glory, only insult, sickness and death for many of the soldiers.
Francis himself came home very ill after his imprisonment and then, as he slowly
returned to health, he began to yearn for a better purpose in life.
In the months ahead he tried to put the feeling aside by taking up his old ways of
enjoying himself with his friends.
He was soon offered a chance to go to another war. This time it was to fight with
the Papal army. Perhaps this was the chance he was waiting for, the purpose of his
life. His father happily provided him with a splendid suit of armour. However, as
they were setting out to join the army, Francis met a knight in very poor armour.
With his usual impulsive generosity he insisted that the knight had more right to
wear his beautiful armour than he did, because he himself had not yet won his
spurs, sword and shield.
That night as he lay down to sleep with the rest of the army under the stars,
Francis had a very vivid dream. He was in a hall full of armour with coloured
banners hanging from the walls. He heard a voice ask him, "Francis, who is it better
to serve, the Master or the Servant?" He answered, "The Master". The voice then
said, "Go back to Assisi and all this will be yours." It was such a powerful dream
that Francis acted on it and went back home. However, it was quite some time
before he heard the voice again.
One day as he was praying in the little old church of San Damiano, the voice spoke
to him again. This time it came right out of a large painted crucifix hanging on the
wall. The voice said, "Francis, go repair my Church, which, as you see, is falling
completely to ruin." Impulsively Francis rushed home, grabbed
some expensive bales of his father's cloth, sold them and took the money to the
priest of the church. When Pietro Bernadone heard about it he lost his temper
completely and went searching for his son. Francis was so scared that he left St.
Damiano and hid in a cave up in the woods. After about a month he got up enough
courage and went back home to face his father. Pietro was so furious that he
screamed at him, beat him, put chains on him and locked him in the cellar.
However, while Pietro was out of the house Lady Pica set her son free. When Pietro
arrived home, he upbraided her and then went searching for his son again.
In the confrontation that followed, Francis gave back the money he had made on
the cloth. Then before the bishop of Assisi, he even gave back to his father the
clothes he was wearing. He declared that he no longer would call Pietro Bernadone
his father, but would say,"Our Father who is in heaven."
Soon after, Francis could be seen trying to rebuild the little church of San Damiano
all by himself. He would go into the town to beg for food and stones. He worked
cheerfully at this until he had finished.
All alone he began to go from place to place, sleeping on the ground, begging for
food, and preaching about the Father's loving care and the sacrifice of the crucified
Christ. He urged everyone to repent and turn back to the way of the Lord. He tried
to convince the rich to live a simpler lifestyle and care for the poor, who were their
brothers and sisters in Christ. He went among the poor and sick and he even went
and cared for the lepers who used to make him sick just to think about them. He
treated them as if they were his own brothers and cared for them tenderly. He
cheered them with his bright hope and gave them back their dignity by loving them
and sharing with them the love of God. He was
not a forceful speaker like St. Anthony, who joined him later on, but he spoke gently
and
sincerely and his genuine love for others touched their hearts because he was
prepared to
share his life with them.
Francis' joyfulness showed the love of God, his gentleness became the kind touch
of
God, his compassion was like the eyes of God seeing all, his good humour was like
the
heart of God intimate and secure. All this was contagious and awoke true humanity
in
others and they began to reach out to each other and care for each other. Francis
became
for those he met, an instrument of God's pure grace.
Soon others attracted by him and his way of life began to join him, living in
poverty
and travelling with him, preaching the Good News. So many started to come and
join him
Christ, and to love the Church, their way of life was looked upon by some with
concern.
At that time there were groups of heretics who were causing great confusion among
the
people. Because Francis did not want his friars confused with the heretics, he took
his
Rule of Life, which he had written down in few and simple words, to Pope Innocent
III to
assure him that all of his friars would respect and obey the Church. The Pope then
gave
Francis approval for his way of life.
Francis related that if, they, when wet, cold, and muddy, knocked on a convent
door,

and the porter refused to let them in but drove them away like a couple of thieves,
beating

them with clubs until they nearly died, "and if we endure all this so patiently, and
think of
the sufferings of Christ, the All-praised One, and of how much we ought to suffer
for the

sake of our love of him - O Brother Leo, mark thou, that in this is perfect joy."
Perhaps

the teachings of Francis are best conveyed by the simple prayer which he lived so
well.

He gave up leadership of the Order and went to the mountains to live in secluded
prayer.

There he received the Stigmata, the wounds of Christ. In the last year of his life
Francis,

though ill, helped to make peace between the Bishop and the podesta who were
feuding

in Assisi.He returned to visit the Franciscans, and Clara and her sisters, and a few
of his

followers remained with him. He died at the Porziuncula on October 3, 1226.Francis

called for simplicity of life, poverty, and humility before God. He worked to care

for the poor, and one of his first actions after his conversion was to care for lepers.
Thousands were drawn to his sincerity, piety, and joy. In all his actions, Francis
sought to

follow fully and literally the way of life demonstrated by Christ in the Gospels.And
no wonder--they can’t even agree about where to look for it. Some think we can find
happiness by seeking pleasure. Others claim that to be happy, we have to look out
for Number One. Still others insist that we need to own more and more "stuff" if we
ever want to find true happiness.
Amid so much confusion, one voice pierces through the clamor about the pursuit of
happiness and speaks instead about finding "perfect joy"--St. Francis of Assisi. This
thirteenth-century Italian friar sought for contentment as a restless youth, but for
years he sought in vain. When at last he uncovered the path to joy, it lay in a
direction he had never dreamed of. What did this saint discover? Here are thirty
reflections on what Francis has to teach us all about living joyfully. Each reflection
includes an anecdote from his life, a thought expressed in his own words, a
confirming insight from another spiritual teacher, and questions to help you apply it
all to your own life. St. Francis’ radiant joy was so contagious that it turned his
world upside down and won countless men and women to a new way of living. Join
him in the search for true happiness--the only kind that can last--and your world,
too, will never again be the same. True happiness is found in believing the truth
about Jesus Christ. A crucial truth to understand is that Christ is sufficient for you
in all things. You can rest your hope in Christ, and find your assurance in Jesus
because of who He is, and what He has done. It is on this foundation that a happy
life will flow continually, even through the most difficult trials in life. The disclaimer
that needs to be made is that God does not guarantee a life without trials or
hardships. In fact, He says that we will experience trials. In spite of our trials, we
can still stand strong in the joy and happiness that comes from Christ.
Even though it was the most humiliating experience for the savior, there is much
happiness to be found in the atoning sacrifice that Jesus offered on our behalf.
There is much happiness to be found here because of what Christ accomplished for
us and freed us from. Knowing that the atonement of Jesus Christ is sufficient for
you can free you up to rejoice in the fact that your eternal life is completely secured
through the work of Christ; all your sins are paid for, past, present, and future the
righteous requirement of the law is met in Christ and eternal life is freely given to
those who believe Knowing these things will give you true happiness because these
things are guaranteed by the infinite and eternal God, the rock of salvation,
unchanging, and all wise.
Can you be truly happy if you are worrying about whether or not you've done
enough to be worthy before God "...does not mean any one thing; it means all
things. It is the fullness of obedience: it is living by every word that proceeds from
the mouth of God
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written,
Cursed is every one that continue not in all the things which are written in the book
of the law to do them.
The way you can be truly happy is to know that Christ is absolutely sufficient for
you in all things. Christ didn’t just die so you can be resurrected and have the power
to live an obedient life. Jesus Christ completely fulfilled the law on our behalf
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who
walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not
do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
It is futile to try to fulfill the curse of the law because if you break one law, it’s as if
you’ve broken them all Entrust Christ to be sufficient for you in all respects of your
life. Hand over your futile works of righteousness, and ask Christ to fulfill your
righteousness for you. Ask Him to forgive you of trying to accomplish that which is
intended for Christ to do. He wants you to be happy, but you won’t be happy unless
you give up your attempts to secure your eternal life through the law. Ask Christ to
give you eternal life, and he will. He is sufficient and able to. To learn more about
the sufficiency of Christ , please visit the eternal life.
 Ville St.John Academy

Reflection paper
In
C.L
Submitted by:
Abbey V. Ingreso
Submitted to:
Sis. Emily Magdaraog