Francis of Assisi - Unfading Christ Experience

"Was it Saint Francis who said the saints did all the work and we get the credit by talking about them? Francis reformed the Church and society by living the Gospel Life in a radical way. He did not criticize the hierarchy, the nobilities, and the corrupt leaders. He lived a life of intense prayer, poverty and love and it was like a bomb dropped on the world. His idea of brotherhood led to a Christian pacifism in the secular Franciscans that brought many wars to a halt. He even held out an olive branch to Islam at a time when our ancestors where planting the seeds of an ageless enmity that is blossoming in terrorism today. [...] [f we embrace or institutionalize a comfortable, bourgeois life style, the Order will die out, no matter how much lip service we give to a liberal social agenda. Our way of life lived in all its radical renunciation is capable of producing men whose witness of prayer, poverty and love will help transform society by calling people back to God, calling them to come home to the Church, by helping people to have a sense of personal vocation and to be part of a common mission." TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgement Introduction 1. Paolo Martinelli, St Francis and Faith: Novel ty of a Christ-Experience 2. Dino Dozzi, The Rule of St Francis between Gospel and Life 3. Caesare Vaiani, The central Core of Regola Bollata for our Spiritual Journey 4. Thadee Matura, A spiritual Reading of the Regula Bullata ofFratrum Minorum 5. Costanzo Cargnoni ,The Rule ofSt Francis in the Capuchin Tradition. 6. Mauro Johri , Towards the Rediscovery of the specific .. Capuchin aspects of the Inspiration of St Francis 7. Sean Patrick O'Malley, Card., Reflections on the Revision of the Constitutions. 8. Pietro Maranesi, The Constitutions of the Friars Minor 9. Carlo Calloni, Various stages of the Capuchin Reform (1528-1596) 10. Benedict Vadakkekara, Evangelization in Franciscan-Capuchin Traditions: From Earlier Rule (1221) to Capuchin Constitutions (1990) 11. E.K. Joseph, Franciscan Elements in the Syro-Malabar (Oriental) Spirituality