Lord, that I may be free to live life in goodness, peace, and love.

St. Francis Novena | Day 9: May we be free of all fears and anxieties
Fr. David Kobak, OFM

Let us pray for all those suffering with mental illness and their families.

How often do we find ourselves fretting over the mistakes we have made in the past? Our fears and anxieties in life often seem to take control over us until they leave room for nothing else. The grace and goodness of life appear out of reach. A deep spiritual depression sets in. Feelings of hopelessness and distance from God creep into us. What can we do?

One of my favorite therapists, Dr. Daniel Amen, M.D., calls these feelings ANTS: Automatic Negative Thoughts. Fears and Anxieties have a way of taking over. They appear often and out of nowhere. The key to ridding yourself of them is to recognize them for what they are. When you feel one of these "ANTS" crawling on you, shake it off and squish it. That "ANT" has no right to enter your life. It has no right to "bite you." Yet those ANTS of fears and anxieties are persistent! I find myself "bitten" quite often. It is a never-ending struggle. The key is recognition. Our "guard" should always be on alert, ever vigilant. Sounds simple, doesn't it? It is not.

The power of prayer can be miraculous. Open yourself to the healing Grace of the Holy Spirit. As we celebrate this Novena to St. Francis so close to his feast day, pray that through his intercession you may be free of all fears and anxieties. Pray that you can be free at last to live your life in goodness, peace, and love; to live as the Holy Spirit meant you to live. May this novena help us to unburden ourselves and live in the light of Christ.

Fr. David

(Fr. David Kobak, OFM, serves at St. Anthony Shrine in Cincinnati, Ohio.)

https://www.stanthony.org/day-9-fr-david/#:~:text=St.%20Francis%20Novena,in%20Cincinnati%2C%20Ohio.) 

Lord, help us to prayerfully place our doubts before you.

St. Francis Novena | Day 8: Radical trust in God
Fr. Pat McCloskey, OFM

Pray we are guided by a radical trust in God just like St. Francis.

St. Francis, you had many moments of darkness, but you overcame them through how generously you accepted God's grace in your life. That grace always stretched you in ways you had not anticipated. For example, at one time you might have responded very differently when a friar cried out in the middle of the night, "I'm hungry." Instead of rebuking him, you ordered the other friars to get up and join the two of you in eating so that the hungry friar would not be embarrassed.

Your many hours of prayer in caves and in empty churches were not always moments of consolation. There you learned to accept God's idea of "normal" over the one with which you grew up and considered perfectly obvious. In such moments you learned what deserved to be called "a big deal" instead of situations that you had once described that way.

At one point you realized that the friars needed a type of leadership that you could no longer provide. You led by example, showing that grasping at an office was not what the Gospel requires.

Loving God, in all humility, help us to prayerfully place our doubts before you, asking that you show us the way we should go in whatever affects our family, local community, and the entire world.

Fr. Pat

(Fr. Pat McCloskey, OFM, is the Franciscan Editor for St. Anthony Messenger magazine published by Franciscan Media.)

https://www.stanthony.org/day-8-fr-pat/#:~:text=St.%20Francis%20Novena,by%20Franciscan%20Media.) 

May I live a Gospel-centered life that deepens while ever growing stronger.

St. Francis Novena | Day 7: Giving up wealth and privilege for the Gospel's sake
Br. Al Mascia, OFM

Please pray for the poor, forgotten, desperate and lonely around the world and in our neighborhoods.

Jesus says in the Gospels that the poor will always be with us. Some have understood this out-of-context statement to mean that addressing human poverty is an exercise in futility; that poverty is somehow part of God's plan. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth! There are over 2,000 references to the poor in the Bible and the vast majority make it abundantly clear that God's plan, if you will, is for us to take care of one another! Some scripture scholars suggest that Jesus might have been quoting from the Book of Deuteronomy at that time, where it says: There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore, I command you to be openhanded toward those who are poor and needy.

Sadly, these past eighteen months have only made matters worse for those already poor, while also adding to their ranks. So many people have lost their jobs, fallen behind on their rent, and fallen into despair. Where I live in Michigan, I've noticed an increased number of individuals holding signs on street corners asking for assistance. One of the friars I live with always keeps a stash of dollar bills in his glove box to give to these brothers and sisters in need, while some of us keep CarePax in our cars, filled with seasonal necessities, to give to them. My mother would never drive past someone asking for help without offering them a CarePax, never!

One of the reasons why I became a Franciscan was because of the example of St. Francis, whose love of Jesus filled him with compassion and mercy of biblical proportions! He never lost sight of the poverty experienced by the infant Jesus and—as an outgrowth of that—came to choose the virtue of voluntary poverty himself, even personifying it as a fair lady!

While all of us have surely suffered in one way or another this past year and a half, the unfortunate reality is that overall suffering has been and remains gravely disproportionate. St. Francis addressed the disproportionate suffering of his time by giving up his life of wealth and privilege to live a Gospel-centered life of caring for the poor and the abandoned. As we approach his feast day, may our desire to live Gospel-centered lives deepen while growing ever stronger.

Br. Al

(Br. Al Mascia, OFM, lives in the Detroit area. Follow his music ministry at: brotheral.org).

https://www.stanthony.org/day-7-br-al/#:~:text=St.%20Francis%20Novena,at%3A%20brotheral.org).