St. Francis of Assisi wanted to be the hands and feet of Christ.
Charles Johnston on St. Francis of Assisi
Charles Johnston is a father and husband in Phoenix, Arizona. His conversion journey has taken years, as he felt God pulling him toward His Church but he resisted until he couldn’t take it anymore. He gave in and fell in love with His Church. He blogs for ‘Now that I’m catholic.wordpress.com’
In this episode, Charles tells us about popular saint, St. Francis of Assisi.
He explains:
-St. Francis of Assisi’s ability to love
-The vow of poverty
-His boldness for Christ
-St. Francis’ legacy of radical love
St. Francis of Assisi
What do you seek?
One of the things that I learned from this podcast was asking the question Jesus asks, “Who do you seek?” What is it that you seek? I’ve asked myself this now over the last few days after Charles suggested it and it grounds me. Especially, if I’m frustrated that something’s not happening or things aren’t going according to my plan, all I ask is “Pam, what is it you seek?” in the voice of Jesus. And oftentimes, it’s something material. When it isn’t the eternal I’m seeking, those frustrations tend to melt away.
Things eternal! That’s what our goal should be and we’ve talked about this extensively in other podcasts.
What is Radical Love?
Also Charles mentions, Jesus doesn’t say, “Hey guys, when you have the opportunity love other people!” He commands us to go out and love other people even if it’s going to cost us. One of the saints who came up in conversation related to this is St. Maximilian Kolbe. We discussed him in another podcast how it cost him his life..
The Good Samaritan story also featured in our podcast this week. I always believed this to be one of the most radical gospel parables myself. I mean, this Samaritan probably had a schedule, places to go, work to get done and to spend all this time on a stranger, I ask myself would I have done it? Probably not. The Good Samaritan story and St. Francis reiterate that loving our neighbor can inconvenience us.
St. Francis showed us not only are we failing but it is humanly possible to love everyone unconditionally. In fact here’s one of his quotes.
Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.
St. Francis of Assisi
In all things He saw the image of our Creator. And therefore he is the patron of the environment and ecology. I guess this is where our podcast turned hilarious. I’m not judging Eastern practices, but here where I live there’s a lot of zany eastern practices that people are now craving and we ended up discussing them around the 37 minute mark. It was quite funny.
ENJOYED THIS PODCAST?
We hope you enjoyed this podcast. Check out our podcasts on St Augustine and Mother Teresa. If you liked this podcast, like us, leave us a comment and share our episodes on social media with those who may benefit from it. If there is a particular saint that you would like to hear about us, tell us and we’ll add him or her to our future episodes.
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ANNIVERSARY GIVEAWAY
As mentioned, for our 50th episode anniversary in June we’re giving away a free Christian Book Bundle. One of the books is Charles book, the Beauty of the Mass. For our anniversary event, we’ll announce our celebration plans along with a book giveaway.
