Post by cato on Sept 17, 2019 12:11:25 GMT
St Francis never gave us the wonderful prayer Make me a channel of your peace .... The prayer Mrs Thatcher used on her arrival in Downing St to the fury of liberals and leftists. She had been handed the prayer by an aide a few minutes before and knew very little about this much loved medieval Italian saint.
I got into a frightful row once with a young "conservative" priest who accused me of heresy when I privately told him there is not a shred of historical proof Francis said this. No critical edition of his works includes this prayer.
Neither do they include the silly quote that Pope Francis unfortunately used in one of his aircraft speeches recently. "Preach the Gospel always and if necessary with words". St Francis loved preaching with words. He was ordained a deacon so he could preach in church but refused priestly ordination out of his profound humility and respect for that office. He preached in every town he went to. He went to preach to the Sultan to convert him and save his soul. In this he was following St Paul and those sent out by Christ to convert the world. Francis explicitly believed in the power of the word and would abhor this pathetic and insidious undermining of the need for and the power of good orthodox preaching and teaching.
Franciscans traditionally had a powerful pastoral mission of personal witness and preaching , the two were not in contradiction as the alleged quote implies.
I got into a frightful row once with a young "conservative" priest who accused me of heresy when I privately told him there is not a shred of historical proof Francis said this. No critical edition of his works includes this prayer.
Neither do they include the silly quote that Pope Francis unfortunately used in one of his aircraft speeches recently. "Preach the Gospel always and if necessary with words". St Francis loved preaching with words. He was ordained a deacon so he could preach in church but refused priestly ordination out of his profound humility and respect for that office. He preached in every town he went to. He went to preach to the Sultan to convert him and save his soul. In this he was following St Paul and those sent out by Christ to convert the world. Francis explicitly believed in the power of the word and would abhor this pathetic and insidious undermining of the need for and the power of good orthodox preaching and teaching.
Franciscans traditionally had a powerful pastoral mission of personal witness and preaching , the two were not in contradiction as the alleged quote implies.
