Patron Saint of\u00a0<\/i><\/b>The environment, animals, and birds.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
We humans erroneously believe that the happiness we desire can come from outside of us. It cannot. So a luxurious life assures nothing, especially happiness.<\/span><\/p>\n In fact, there is nothing we can accumulate or own or love\u00a0 or even achieve for that matter,\u00a0 that will change how we feel in a positive for more than a short period. In each case when we get what we want, we experience a brief elevation in how we feel. Call it happiness, satisfaction, security, self-worth, etc. But then that subsides\u2026as much as we try desperately to hold onto it\u2026and we go back to feeling how we felt before.<\/span><\/p>\n The story we are discussing here is about\u00a0 Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone OFM, also known as Francis of Assisi, who was an Italian mystic and Catholic friar who founded the Franciscans. He was inspired to lead a life of poverty as an itinerant preacher.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Francis Bernardone was born the son of Pietro di Bernardone, a rich cloth merchant in Assisi in Italy. He led a wealthy and privileged life, wearing clothes made of the best materials and was well educated. With a future guaranteed in his father\u2019s business some of his youth was mis-spent. His experiences as a soldier, during which time he was a prisoner of war, led him to a more sombre and religious life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sometime after this, Francis was laid up in bed for many months on account of some serious disease. He was about to die. But the Lord saved him as he had to carry out a definite mission in his life. The nature of Francis was entirely changed. Francis prayed to the Lord for light and guidance as to his future. He had a vision of Lord Jesus. He made a strong determination to renounce his old way of living to tread a life of purity and to dedicate his life to the service of humanity<\/span><\/p>\n He undertook a pilgrimage to Rome and returned to Assisi following spiritual visions and mystical experiences. He decided to devote his life to the Christian faith and renounced all of his wealth preferring to lead a life of poverty. His evangelical preaching inspired others to follow him and in 1209 Francis and his first followers went to Rome to ask permission from Pope Innocent III to found a new religious order. The Pope agreed and Francis d\u2019Assisi became the founder of the Franciscan Order of Preaching Friars. He was said to have preached to birds and animals which explains his association with nature and all of God\u2019s creatures.<\/span><\/p>\n Francis was humble. He loved God\u2019s creatures. He loved birds and beasts. He loved the depressed and the outcastes. He treated the birds, the beasts and all beings as brothers and sisters.<\/span><\/p>\n Francis went from village to village preaching the love of God. He invited people to join him in his life of service if they were willing. Bernard, a rich man of Assisi, was very much attracted by the saintliness of Francis. He joined Francis. He was the first follower of Francis. He placed all his wealth at the altar of God. Eleven others also joined Francis. They distributed all their wealth to the poor. Francis and his followers went all over Italy preaching, teaching, healing and blessing wherever they went.<\/span><\/p>\n The gospel of kindness and love of Francis soon spread all over Europe and earned for him the name of St. Francis. People called him the little poor man of Assisi. He lived for ever in the hearts of all men.<\/span><\/p>\n The simple prayer of St. Francis of Assisi provides for us a mould in which to cast our own life\u2019s conduct and character. It provides a blueprint upon which to pattern our living in our thoughts, speech and actions within our day to day relationships with our fellow beings and with all life around us.<\/span><\/p>\n The Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cO Lord, make me an instrument of Thy Peace!<\/i><\/b> Therefore, the prayer of St. Francis is a precious document for us, an indispensable, invaluable frame of reference by which to judge our own lives, and referring to which we can do the necessary to bring about the needed alterations and modifications for the upliftment and purification of our own daily life.<\/span><\/p>\n With my Spiritual salutation and warmest regards to the Parishioners of Aquem.<\/span><\/p>\n Adapted from the Book of Saints<\/b><\/p>\n By :Agnello A. S. Fernandes<\/i><\/b> Patron Saint of\u00a0The environment, animals, and birds. We humans erroneously believe that the happiness we desire can come from outside of us. It cannot. So a luxurious life assures nothing, especially happiness. In fact, there is nothing we can accumulate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pormoll"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2598"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2600,"href":"http:\/\/www.stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598\/revisions\/2600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/i><\/b>Where there is hatred, let me sow love;<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>Where there is injury, pardon;<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>Where there is discord, harmony;<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>Where there is doubt, faith;<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>Where there is despair, hope;<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>Where there is darkness, light, and<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>Where there is sorrow, joy.<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>Oh Divine Master, grant that I may not<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>so much seek to be consoled as to console;<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>to be understood as to understand; to be loved<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>as to love; for it is in giving that we receive;<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
\n<\/i><\/b> Ward: 12<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"