Category: Assisi

April 11th, 2018

4/11/2018

If I were a nun I would join the Order of the Poor Clare’s and live at San Damiano, where Clare lived for some time before Francis’s death in 1226 to her death in 1260. It was in this rundown monastery that Francis, while praying in front of a crucifix, heard: “Go Francis and repair my house, which as you can see is falling into ruin.”. Francis rebuilt San Damiano for Clare and her sisters. Today the complex is inhabited by the Order of Friars Minor.
My pilgrim’s walk began as I began the steep descent from the town at the top of the hill to San Damiano nestled among the olive groves in the valley. The section open to the public is self-contained, sparse, offering only what one needs to lead a prayerful life, which is what Clare embodied.

I plan to write more extensively about San Damiano, but for now I want to give you a visual tour of my prayerful time there.

Staying in monasteries in Italy

3/31/2018

     My pilgrimage to Italy starts April 4th. I’ll spend four nights in Rome, three in Assisi, one in Cortona and six in Florence. Unlike my usual two week stay in an apartment in Florence, I’ll be staying in monasteries-turned-guesthouses run by nuns. The bedrooms are simple, but thankfully ensuite. The public rooms are quiet, but thankfully without TV. Thankfully, the nuns are servants of Christ.
I’ll still be writing and walking around with God, but this trip feels different. What can I anticipate? What can I plan so I don’t treat these convents as just an inexpensive place to stay?
    Let me start with a theological question. What does God want me to hear on this pilgrimage and what might I do to listen? Asking what God wants me to hear is a big shift for me. I’d rather set the agenda and tell God the kinds of things I want God to tell me. To listen I need to be silent; to be silent I need to quiet my mind.
    Of course the practical response never changes: pray and walk, pray and sit, pray and meditate, pray and gaze, pray and be in the moment. Nothing new here, just a reminder to practice, practice, practice listening to God no matter where I am.
    How very grateful I am to be going on a pilgrimage in these places, at this time in my life. How very grateful for help with arrangements through www.monasterystays.

'God is still speaking,' around the world~

10/6/2013

I go to one of those UCC ‘God is still speaking,’ churches, Memorial Congregational Church. And yes, God was speaking there today, as God always does. World Wide Communion Sunday, bread from many cultures, the youth helping the deacons serve communion. The message always at my church is God loves everyone, lead your life for Christ, and feed the poor.

This past week I have been to Assisi and so has Pope Francis. Assisi, the epicenter of the Christian message—love, care for the earth and all of God’s creatures. It warms my heart that the message I heard at my church today is the same one that Pope Francis proclaimed in Assisi. I am hopeful.

Pope Francis in Assisi~

10/4/2013

A few days ago I posted about Assisi but I have more to say because today, October 4th is the Feast Day of St. Francis and this year Pope Francis, the first pope to have chosen that name, is there to celebrate. The citizens of Assisi must be particularly elated as plans were made, satisfying hopes and dreams.

I was in Assisi in 2004 on the very day that Pope Benedict was elected. It was early evening and my friend and I stepped into a bar to see if the white smoke had risen from the Sistine Chapel. Indeed it had, and the TV was just announcing that Cardinal Ratzinger, a German, was the new pope. The owners of the bar, husband and wife, looked disgusted, turned off the TV, and went about closing up for the night. On the street outside a little nun, all by herself in the middle of the street, clasped her hands in gratitude. She had a ‘papa’.

Although my daughter and I only spent twenty-four hours in Assisi, I find that with each visit I feel a closer affinity to this little town on the hill, this hometown of St. Francis, this town that calls out to us to care for the earth, the animals, the poor. I sense that everyone who visits here, everyone who lives here, loves St. Francis. Many are Roman Catholic and of course one sees many Franciscan monks and nuns. But there are also the rest of us who, with our own thoughts about saints, know that St. Francis energy can only benefit us and the world. It’s already affected Pope Francis.

S. Damiano in Assisi~

10/1/2013

S. Damiano is one of my favorite prayer spots. While sitting in front of this cross, St. Francis heard God tell him to mend God’s church. Much later the cross was moved to the Church of St. Clair, where I took this picture.

     If you follow my cottage by the sea blog, you’ll find the following entry.

I said goodbye to Florence yesterday and now I am saying goodbye to Assisi. We had a magical twenty-four hours in this little Umbrian hill town. You have walk the streets and look out at the vista to feel the magic. Best I can do is offer a few photographs. Suffice to say, I’m dreaming of returning.

     I love the energy in Assisi. Alive but peaceful. For one reason or another everyone is bustling up and down the steep streets and stairways because of St. Francis. To add to the energy, October 4th is St. Francis’ Feast Day, and yes, Pope Francis, the first pope to claim the name Francis, is coming to celebrate.

     Yesterday we walked beyond the city gates and down the hill to the Convent of S. Damiano, founded by St. Clare and where she lived for twenty-five years after the death of her soul mate St. Francis. S. Damiano is also where St. Francis heard the voice of God to ‘mend my church’ and where he wrote the Canticle of the Creatures.

       It was a lovely stroll as thunder clouds formed, and we felt the first drop of rain just as we reached the portico. It poured and thundered for a good hour as we wandered through the convent before sitting in the cloister waiting for it to clear. The monks and nuns offered us umbrellas. A lovely moment. When the rain abated, we headed up the hill, feeling the last drop just as we reached the Church of St. Clair.

Pope Francis and Saint Francis~

3/14/2013

I’m hopeful that Pope Francis will bring a spirit of peace and love to our world. He asked for prayers for himself, and being a prayer person, I’m doing just that. He has placed the image of Saint Francis on the front page of the world’s newspapers and that just has to be a good thing. After all St. Francis was calling out and acting out Jesus’ message to feed the poor and care for the earth. And now the voice of Saint Francis is singing out through the voice of Pope Francis.

Feast Day of St. Francis

10/4/2012

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

St. Francis Prayer~

6/6/2012

View from the Basilica di San Francesco

On my acottagebythesea.net I just posted a little summary of the churches dedicated to St. Francis and St. Clare here in Assisi. As I mentioned, in this hill town I am in awe of the balance of the masculine and the feminine, which clearly manifests St. Francis’ wisdom that we need both energies. Need? What does that mean?

St. Francis life was about light, about peace, about doing God’s will, about renouncing material things as a need. I could go on, but instead here is his Simple Prayer. At first glance if seems that he is rejecting the masculine energy and embracing the feminine. But I think not. It’s not that simple. I’m going to try to read it every day and see what begins to enter my heart.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

Assisi, where St. Francis talked with God~

6/5/2012

After a few days in Rome, I sometimes found it a challenge to be prayerful--traffic, people, Baroque churches, Roman/male statuary….Rome became a little too Roman Catholic for me. God seemed to be so immersed in the dogma of the church that my God was hard to find. I experienced a final example of this yesterday when I paid 5 Euro to take an audio guide tour of St. Peter’s. The commentary was more about church dogma than about the pieces of art that I was seeing. I gave up listening.

I understand that if it weren’t for the church throughout history, how would we know about Christ? But my God is a God who is still speaking, and so it is right that I am on my way to Assisi, where St. Francis literally spoke with a God, and where I can speak with God, too.
I arrived this morning and have been out and about. How beautiful is this? Very grateful. I feel like I'm walking the way of the pilgrim.