Readings

October 4: Francis of Assisi, Friar and Deacon, 1226

The Collect of the Day

Francis of Assisi

Most high, omnipotent, good Lord, grant your people grace to renounce gladly the vanities of this world; that, following the way of blessed Francis, we may, for love of you, delight in your whole creation with perfectness of joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Francis of Assisi

Most high, omnipotent, good Lord, grant thy people grace to renounce gladly the vanities of this world; that, following the way of blessed Francis, we may, for love of thee, delight in thy whole creation with perfectness of joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Francis, the son of a prosperous merchant of Assisi, was born in 1182. His early youth was spent in harmless revelry and fruitless attempts to win military glory. Various encounters with beggars and lepers pricked the young man’s conscience, however, and he decided to embrace a life devoted to Lady Poverty. Despite his father’s intense opposition, Francis totally renounced all material values and devoted himself to serve the poor. In 1210, Pope Innocent III confirmed the simple Rule for the Order of Friars Minor, a name Francis chose to emphasize his desire to be numbered among the “least” of God’s servants.

The order grew rapidly all over Europe. But, by 1221, Francis hadlost control of it, since his ideal of strict and absolute poverty, bothfor the individual friars and for the order as a whole, was found to be too difficult to maintain. His last years were spent in much suffering of body and spirit, but his unconquerable joy never failed. In his later years he was ordained as a deacon, but he resisted all efforts to persuade him to become a priest.

Not long before his death, during a retreat on Mount La Verna, Francis received, on September 14th, Holy Cross Day, the marks of the Lord’s wounds, the stigmata, in his own hands and feet and side. Pope Gregory IX, a former patron of the Franciscans, canonized Francisin 1228 and began the erection of the great basilica in Assisi where Francis is buried.

Of all the saints, Francis is perhaps the most popular and admired but probably the least imitated; few have attained to his total identification with the poverty and suffering of Christ. Francis left few writings;but, of these, his spirit of joyous faith comes through most truly inthe “Canticle of the Sun,” which he composed at Clare’s convent ofSt. Damian’s. The version in The Hymnal begins (The Hymnal 1982, #406; #407):

Most High, omnipotent, good Lord,

To thee be ceaseless praise outpoured, —

And blessing without measure.

Let creatures all give thanks to thee

And serve in great humility.

Lessons and Psalm

First Lesson

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Psalm

1I lift up my eyes to the hills; *from where is my help to come?

2My help comes from the Lord, *the maker of heaven and earth.

3He will not let your foot be moved *and he who watches over you will not fall asleep.

4Behold, he who keeps watch over Israel *shall neither slumber nor sleep;

5The Lord himself watches over you; *the Lord is your shade at your right hand,

6So that the sun shall not strike you by day, *nor the moon by night.

7The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; *it is he who shall keep you safe.

8The Lord shall watch over your going out and your coming in, *from this time forth for evermore.

Gospel

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Matthew 11:25–30

25 At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 28 “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Job 39:1–18

1 “Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the deer? 2 Can you number the months that they fulfill, and do you know the time when they give birth, 3 when they crouch to give birth to their offspring, and are delivered of their young? 4 Their young ones become strong, they grow up in the open; they go forth, and do not return to them. 5 “Who has let the wild ass go free? Who has loosed the bonds of the swift ass, 6 to which I have given the steppe for its home, the salt land for its dwelling place? 7 It scorns the tumult of the city; it does not hear the shouts of the driver. 8 It ranges the mountains as its pasture, and it searches after every green thing. 9 “Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will it spend the night at your crib? 10 Can you tie it in the furrow with ropes, or will it harrow the valleys after you? 11 Will you depend on it because its strength is great, and will you hand over your labor to it? 12 Do you have faith in it that it will return, and bring your grain to your threshing floor? 13 “The ostrich’s wings flap wildly, though its pinions lack plumage. 14 For it leaves its eggs to the earth, and lets them be warmed on the ground, 15 forgetting that a foot may crush them, and that a wild animal may trample them. 16 It deals cruelly with its young, as if they were not its own; though its labor should be in vain, yet it has no fear; 17 because God has made it forget wisdom, and given it no share in understanding. 18 When it spreads its plumes aloft, it laughs at the horse and its rider.