“[St.] Francis’ love for his Lord was so ecstatic,
creative, physical, and contagious that even though there are things I believe
I would die for, I feel, in comparison to this man, that I have hardly begun to
love at all. As far as I can see, Francis had no ‘average’ or ‘everyday’ sense
of things; for him every creature was a miracle, every moment a gift, every
breath a prayer in God’s Presence, and if we were sitting with him tonight
disbelieving in his miracles, gifts, and Presence completely, he’d go on
believing in them so much more powerfully than we bums know how to disbelieve
that we would have to run from the room to escape the great gravitational pull
of his love.”— American novelist and essayist David James
Duncan, “The French Guy,” originally published in Portland, August 2004,
reprinted in The Best American Spiritual Writing 2005, edited by Philip
Zaleski (2005)
The image accompanying this post, St. Francis
Preaching to the Birds, was painted from 1297 to 1299 by the Italian
Renaissance artist-architect Giotto di Bondone (1266-1337).
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