Francis...

...of Assisi...the real man behind the statue-looking-cute-by-the-bird-table, was the subject of our  first parish study evening of 2017 here.   Evensong, Mass, and then a light supper, and a DVD: Bishop Robert Barron, talking about the Pivotal Players in Church history. Among the things to think about: St Francis' life didn't involve a single bolt-from-the-blue conversion moment. Rather, it was a series of calls from God, each one deepening the relationship and taking the adventure further. The call to radical poverty, the call to rebuild the Church, the gathering of a band of brothers...and all along, it is a challenge and with plenty of human difficulties, even while the essential message is joyful.  After learning the story - it's all filmed in the lavish countryside and sunshine in the places where St Francis prayed and  lived and laboured, and its pace and beat are just right, for thinking and pondering it all - there are study-guides for some further pondering, to be used with the Scriptures and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, copies of which were handed round by Fr C...

Among the things to study were the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy.  Plenty to challenge us all there... not just the feel-good stuff about feeding the hungry and visiting the imprisoned, but  "to bear wrong patiently..."

We finished by praying the popular "Instrument of they peace" prayer, and took copies home to pray again silently at the end of the day...