After being Benedictine, I am a Franciscan at heart. When I think of Saint Francis of Assisi’s life, I realize how much his spirituality weaves through my life. His spirituality is deeply integrated into my own.

The heart of Francis lives in our current day. The Bishop of Rome is the first to take his name. Let’s take a look back as the pope explains why he chose the name Francis.

I have many fond memories of my life in San Francisco. I recall my childhood memories at grandma’s house in the Inner Sunset. I remember studying as a young teenager at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. I also think back to being a music major at San Francisco State University. I also have an immense bank of treasured memories of my time as a pastoral minister. I served as a musician in parishes up and down the Archdiocese. Most notable would be my time at the National Shrine of Saint Francis. This includes my visit to the coffee shop across the street. I spent a little time reflecting and doing a little writing. I also made music in this beautiful space that honors Assisi within the city.

Today, a miniature portrait of this saint sits in the corner of my office. It was a gift from a friend from the Archdiocese. Today, I feel connected to Francis through the Junior Retreats. I take my students to San Damiano Retreat Center in Danville. This place is the place for Franciscan spirituality in northern California. It is a place of tranquility and peace. We take the usual group picture in front of the campus where Saint Francis has his arms opened wide.

This statue is a replica in front of Saint Mary Major in Rome. It depicts the moment Francis arrives at the Pope’s Cathedral.

A significant moment in the young soldier’s life was his meeting with Christ in the Church of Saint Damian. Christ spoke to him three times, saying, “Go, Francis, and repair my Church in ruins.” Francis rebuilt the church building. Pope Benedict XVI gave an account of this moment:

“At that moment St Francis was called to repair the small Church, but the ruinous state of the building was a symbol of the dramatic and disquieting situation of the Church herself. At that time the Church had a superficial faith which did not shape or transform life, a scarcely zealous clergy, and a chilling of love. It was an interior destruction of the Church which also brought a decomposition of unity, with the birth of heretical movements. Yet, there at the centre of the Church in ruins was the Crucified Lord, and he spoke: he called for renewal, he called Francis to the manual labour of repairing the small Church of St Damian, the symbol of a much deeper call to renew Christ’s own Church, with her radicality of faith and her loving enthusiasm for Christ.”

Francis rebuilt the church building as a symbol of a more significant and radical renewal within the Church. Pope Innocent III dreamed of Francis rebuilding the Church. In his dream, he saw a friar upholding the Church building, preventing it from collapse. Pope Benedict XVI notes that Francis renewed the Church not as a renegade but in communion with the pope. The pope said:

“The two realities go together: the Successor of Peter, the Bishops, the Church founded on the succession of the Apostles and the new charism that the Holy Spirit brought to life at that time for the Church’s renewal. Authentic renewal grew from these together.”

This genuine renewal of the Church begins with each of us. It is not through our donations or talents. It is through our inner conversion and a renewed love for the Eucharist. Francis said:

“Let everyone be struck with fear, let the whole world tremble, and let the heavens exult, when Christ, the Son of the living God, is present on the altar in the hands of a priest. Oh stupendous dignity! O humble sublimity, that the Lord of the universe, God and the Son of God, so humbles himself that for our salvation he hides himself under an ordinary piece of bread.”

May Christ renew his Church through us as he once did through the Poverello of Assisi. In this renewal, the Church continues to be a light to the nations.