Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity Sr Mary Ann Spanjers, OSF offers some thoughtful insights about discerning your spiritual path drawing from the wisdom of a Franciscan Perspective. “The experience of God is an unexpected and totally free gift… it is God who desires us.” Find Jesus in every day encounters, and experiences. Missed Part 1 of this series? Click here. Since 1869, Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity have served in Catholic Health Care, Education, Campus Ministry and Parish-Community Service in Dioceses in Michigan, Wisconsin, the Midwest, Central and Southwest U.S. God Calls You. We Invite You Dios te llama. Te invitamos.
God the Father is always the focus of Jesus! One of the most important things Jesus wants us to “get” is that this life and the next is all about being in relationship. The source of Jesus’ motivation, actions, words, sacrifice, ministry, was the Father’s love for him and his love for his Father. Jesus’ entire life, death and resurrection was to help us discover that God is also Our Father who loves and cherishes us. God created us in his divine nature, to be part of His very life!
This understanding in one’s mind and heart is essential to Franciscan Discernment. Fr. Roch Niemier, OFM in his book, In the Footsteps of Francis and Clare, helps us know that the experience of God is an unexpected and totally free gift. It is not we who go in search of God: it is not we who try to make contact with God or pray to God. It always begins the other way around. It is God who desires us. Who longs for us. Usually when two persons meet and come to know each other, there are introductions and eventual revelations of one to the others. In the divine encounter it is always God who take the initiative who comes to meet us.
Francis had this experience in his youth with his friends. The story from The Legend of the Three Companions tells us “A few days after he returned to Assisi, one evening his friends chose him to be in charge so that, according to his whim, he would pay their expenses. He made arrangements for a sumptuous banquet, as he had done so often in the past.
When they left the house bloated, his friends walked ahead of him, singing throughout the city. Holding in his hand the scepter of his office as their leader, he fell slightly behind them. He was not singing, but deeply preoccupied. Suddenly he was visited by the Lord who filled his heart with so much tenderness that he was unable to speak or move. He could only feel and hear this marvelous tenderness; it left him so estranged from any sensation that, as he himself said later, even if he had been completely cut to pieces, he would not have been able to move.”
This is a moment of God introducing himself to Francis. It is an overwhelming experience of another capturing his heart. It might be helpful to note that this did not take place in a church. Nor while on a retreat or a pilgrimage or in adoration. It is not something Francis looked for. Rather it took place during a party, a celebration with his friends. It was something totally unexpected, a free gift. I pray each of you have had this experience of feeling the love of being in the presence of another or the joy of spending time with friends, or the beauty of gazing at the mountains. Perhaps you have felt the freedom of discovering your own goodness or your ability to make life better for someone. These are spontaneous gifts from God entering into your everyday life.
The account of Francis’ encounter with God is crucial. To discover how Francis found his direction in life is learning that the heart of Francis is his focus on God and his experience of God. Like Jesus, God the Father became the center of Francis’ world—not other people, not making peace, not the poor or the beauty of the created world, not being good or successful. Francis did, as each of us do, experienced each of these things. But he began to look at the source, the living God who entered his life and made all the difference. This grounded him and he awakened this hunger, longing and the possibility of experiencing God in the hearts of others.
Francis challenges me to be aware, to ask the question what does God desire for me, to look at the source of my daily experiences and encounters so as to discover the unique, personal intimate love God has for me in my everyday experiences. Like Francis I have come to know that this is God present in my life! I encourage you to trust that God is introducing himself to you each day!
Article Comments:
Sister Anne Marie Lom 09/22/2024 @ 6:12 am
Thank you, Sister Mary Ann, for this beautiful reflection and for your sharing of such a personal experience to God’s love.