Quotes from Jon M. Sweeney

In 1955, Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, "When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion—its message becomes meaningless.

well-meaning Christians almost killed the faith eight hundred years ago

We are to go throughout the world encouraging everyone, more by deeds than with words, to do penance for our sins and to live with the commandments of God fresh in our minds.

as to describe the impact of Francis on his era this way: " [His life] closed the reign of Byzantine art and of the thought of which it was the image. It is the end of dogmatism and authority. Uncertainty became permissible in some small measure. It marks a date in the history of the human conscience."3

When people tell me they don't believe in God, I usually ask, "What God don't you believe in?" They invariably go on to describe a God who is judgmental, vengeful, overbearing, unloving, or whimsical. "Oh, I don't believe in that God, either," I say.

Where Francis self-consciously modeled his actions after the Jesus he met in the Gospels, many later saints read accounts of earlier saints like Francis in order to chart their paths and make their decisions according to what the blessed are supposed to do.

One way to express Francis's approach is to say that his life was focused on orthopraxy (right action) over orthodoxy (right belief).... The Gospel was not something to believe as much it was a vocation to a changed life.

It is also instructive to pause and consider what Francis did not speak about. Nowhere in his writings does he ever mention his mother, for instance. Only directly does he ever speak of his father.... He was— at least at some level— a disrespectful son; he believed that he couldn't ultimately respect his earthly and heavenly fathers, both.

Francis wanted a new kind of spiritual life that was somewhat unpredictable and without guarantees, putting him in less contact with religion and more contact with the living God.

God's jugglers" would express a personal, emotional faith with joy and song that reminded the people of the troubadours they'd heard in the public square, as well as ancient Italian folk traditions of song, dance, and carnival. The earliest Franciscans were interested in passion, fervor, and ecstasy— an intimate approach to God that was both playful and unpredictable.

He responded to each person he met as if he were already a friend.

With the help of the Gospel, which he began to listen to carefully, Francis began to break down the barriers to friendship inherent in his old worldview. Every person, he began to see, was at the most basic root the same.

Francis's expressions of friendship came from his heart in an uncalculated way. We see Francis befriending without judging, noticing and responding to people's needs, and expressing love simply because that person has been created by a God who says that every created thing is good.

Under no circumstances should the brothers receive money when they go out begging, cause it to be received by others, seek it or cause it to be sought, for any house or place. Likewise, they should never go out with any person seeking money or coin for such places.

May the Lord give you peace," was Francis's most common remark to people. What a contrast this was to the apocalyptic fear-mongering of most other wandering spiritual groups in those days, and how different it was even from the doctrinaire preaching of the new Dominican Order.