The Writings of St. Francis of Assisi - + Saints' Works

THE WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI
to have a Holy and Great Father in Heaven! · O how holy, consoling, 103 beautiful and admirable,
to have such a Spouse! · O how holy and how beloved (dilectio), well pleasing, humble,
peaceable, sweet, lovable (amor) and desirable above all things, to have such a Brother and such
a Son: Our Lord Jesus Christ, · who laid down His life on behalf of His sheep (cf. Jn 10:15) and
prayed to His Father saying: "Holy Father, guard them in Thy Name" (Jn 17:11), "whom Thou
has given Me" in "the world; Thine they were and Thou has gave them to Me" (Jn 17:6). · And
"the words which Thou has given Me, I have given to them, and they have accepted (these) and"
have believed "truly, that I have come forth from Thee, and" they have known, "that Thou has
sent Me" (Jn 17:8). · I pray on their behalf and "not on behalf of the world" (cf. Jn 17:9). · Bless
and "sanctify" them (Jn 17:17) "and on their behalf I sanctify My very self" (Jn 17:19). · "Not on
their behalf only do I pray, but on behalf of those who are going to believe in Me through" their
"words" (cf. Jn 17:20), "so that all" may be sanctified "in one" (cf. Jn 17:23) even as We are" (Jn
17:11). · And I wish, Father, "that where I am, they also may be with Me, to see My splendor" 104
(Jn 17:24) "in Thy Kingdom" (Mt 20:21). Amen.
Chapter II
On those who do not do penance
However all those men and women, who are not in penance, · and do not receive the
Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, · and work vices and sins and who walk after wicked
concupiscence and the wicked desires of their flesh, · and do not observe, what they have
promised the Lord, 105 · and serve the world bodily by carnal desires and anxious concerns
(sollicitudo) for the world (saeculum) and by the cares of this life: · (these) held back by the
devil, whose sons they are and whose works they do (cf. Jn 8:41), 106 are blind, · because they do
not see the True Light, Our Lord Jesus Christ. · They do not have spiritual wisdom, because they
do not have the Son of God who is the True Wisdom of the Father, · of whom it is said: "Their
wisdom is swallowed up" (Ps 106:27 - Rom. Ps.); and "Cursed are they who turn away from Thy
mandates" (Ps 118:21). · They see and acknowledge, they know and work wicked things and
they themselves knowingly loose their souls. · See, blind ones, deceived by your enemies: by the
flesh, the world, and the devil; that it is sweet to the body to work sin and bitter to work to serve
God; · because all vices and sins come forth and "proceed from the heart of man," just as the
Lord says in the Gospel (cf. Mk 7:21). · And you shall have nothing in this age nor in the one to
come. · And you think you will posses the vanities of this generation (saeculum) for a long time,
but you have been deceived, since there shall come the day and hour, of which you do not think,
know or pay attention; the body weakens, death approaches and thus one dies a bitter death. ·
And wherever, whenever, however a man dies in culpable sin, without penance and satisfaction,
if he can make satisfaction and does not make satisfaction, the devil tears his soul from his body
with such anguish and tribulation, that no one can know it, except him who experiences it. · And
all the talents and power and "knowledge and wisdom" (2 Chron 1:12), which they thought they
had, is borne away from them (cf. Lk 8:18; Mk 4:25). · And he bequeathed (these) to neighbors
103 lit. paraclitum, an allusion to the Holy Spirit's Name.
104 lit. claritatem, "brightness, fame, glory;" a reference to the Beatific Vision.
105 i.e. the vows of Baptism, or of religious life; or votive promises.
106 cf. RegNB XXI,8.
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