Saturday 4 October 2025
St Francis of Assisi
Baruch 4:5-12, 27-29. The Lord listens to the poor – Ps 68(69):33-37. Luke 10:17-24.
Live simply
There’s a social media meme asking, ‘Who is the patron saint of group emails?’ The answer is, of course, ‘Francis of a CC’. Even people with no religious background get the joke. St Francis is loved everywhere.
Francis chose a life of radical poverty, putting a promising career aside to side with the poor and be close to the earth. He lived at a time and in a place when there was money to be made but decided it was not worth making. His was a period, not unlike our own, when image and power walked hand in hand and trod the poor underfoot. He didn’t want any of that. The world of his time was becoming more and more complex. His response was a choice to live with disarming simplicity. Today’s Gospel is perfect: ‘I bless you Father for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children.’ It is an invitation to declutter our spirituality.
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