Room for Everyone

“…he saw and believed.”
—John 20:8

There is a story of Saint Francis eating with his friars one Easter. The friars had prepared a fancy table setting, with linens and glassware. When Francis saw it, he chose instead to sneak outside and disguise himself. When dinner started he knocked, pleaded for food, in the name of God, and was admitted: “Come in, man, for love of him whom you have invoked!”

Sitting alone, he put his dish in the ashes. “Now I am sitting as a Friar Minor should sit,” he said. Francis, like Jesus, made the hearts of the disciples burn when he spoke to them. He showed them that our Risen Lord comes to us dressed in, as Blessed Teresa of Calcutta said, “the distressing disguise of the poor.”

Pray with Saint Francis

Lord God, all good.
You are Good, all Good, supreme Good,
Lord God, living and true.
Amen.