Happy Feast of St. Francis!
I could write so much about the patron saint of my order (the Secular Franciscans) on his feast day, but this will have to do — check out this lovely post by Rocco Palmo and be to click and see the new brick-by-brick replica of the Portiuncula chapel in San Francisco!
The Portiunucula is the birthplace of the Franciscan movement, the place where St. Clare and St. Francis met, and the woods blazed with light, the place where the first Franciscan missionaries left for Germany, where Elizabeth would learn of them in her castle in Thuringia, and dedicate herself heart and soul to Francis and his apostolic movement and to the same love for the poor. The place were St. Francis died, on October 3, 1226.
I was in the real Portiuncula chapel a year ago — how I’d love to return!
Pray for us, Seraphic Father, along with St. Clare and St. Elizabeth.