O Saint Francis,

Little Poor One of Assisi:
your stunning simplicity
lights all my preconceptions of holiness
on fire
and reduces my half-hearted devotion
to ash.

Your loving kindness
is a lion's roar,
sweeping through the forest
of the human condition,
bringing the mighty to their knees.

Your harmlessness
is a brilliant beacon
guiding my path
to the crossroads where
all the weary and the broken
lay their heads in my lap
and I have nowhere to turn,
no choice but to bend down
and tend them.

Sweet Saint Francis,
teach me to love my adversary
as your brother Jesus taught you.
Show me how to release
self-righteousness
and leave the wicked
to look inside their own hearts.

O you helpless, hopeless lover of God,
show me how to release hope,
relinquish help,
and love God with utter abandon.

Brother of all creation,
let me lift my voice to mingle with yours
in praise of all God's creatures.
I want to claim this place as my place, at last,
include all beings as my family:
rain and rainbow;
mud and cloud,
and the sun breaking through the cloud
and turning the mud into fertile soil;
the tracks of seagulls in sand
and sand and seagulls;
sparrow, wolves;
wild mind and apple seeds;
the placenta of the newborn baby who will never know her father,
and the last breath of the grandmother who died alone.

Remind me,
wise fool of God,
how to embrace radical simplicity,
knowing that all wealth belongs to the Holy One.
Remind me
that he loves me even more than I love him,
and that he wants to give me everything,
everything.
Remind me
that the well-being of all humanity
is the most precious treasure
and give me the courage
to guard it with my life.

Friar Francis,
may your example
show me how to be an example.
May I teach
not through the words of my mind
but through the actions of my heart.
May my life be a light
to guide the lost back to themselves,
home to the loving arms
of the loving God,
to the place where sorrow
is alchemically transformed
by a single drop of wild joy.

Amen.

Mirabai Starr in Saint Francis of Assisi: Brother of Creation by Francis of Assisi , Mirabai Starr