Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi
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Globally recognized as an ecumenical teacher, Richard Rohr started out--and remains--a Franciscan friar. The loving, inclusive life and preaching of Francis of Assisi make him a recognizable and beloved saint across many faith traditions. He was, as Rohr notes, "a master of 'making room for it' and letting go of that which was tired or empty." Francis found an "alternative way" to follow Jesus, one that disregarded power and privilege and held fast to the narrow path of the Gospel. Rohr helps us look beyond the birdbath image of the saint to remind us of the long tradition founded on his revolutionary, radical, and life-changing embrace of the teachings of Jesus.
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Eager to Love is Richard Rohr's look at the amazing Francis of Assisi and what Francis brought to the world. It's brilliant and transformative, two qualities I've found in every book of Rohr's that I have read. And now I want to read and know more about Francis.
A few quotes from the book:
“You never become humble except through fully accepting humiliations—usually many times.”
“Once we can accept that God is in all situations, and can and will use even bad situations for good, then everything becomes an occasion for good and an occasion for God, and is thus at the heart of religion. The Center is everywhere.”
“But once we become practiced at a contemplative worldview, a “thisness” way of seeing, there is nothing trivial anymore and all is grace.”
“Jesus did not come to change the mind of God about humanity (it did not need changing)! Jesus came to change the mind of humanity about God.”
“Salvation is not a divine transaction that takes place because you are morally perfect, but much more it is an organic unfolding, a becoming who you already are, an inborn sympathy with and capacity for, the very One who created you.”
“Francis of Assisi was a master of making room for the new and letting go of that which was tired or empty.”
“In general, we taught that love and action were more important than intellect or speculative truth. Love is the highest category for the Franciscan School (the goal), and we believe that authentic love is not possible without true inner freedom of conscience, nor will love be real or tested unless we somehow live close to the disadvantaged (its method), who remind us about what is important.”
“I suppose there is no more counterintuitive spiritual idea than the possibility that God might actually use and find necessary what we fear, avoid, deny, and deem unworthy. This is what I mean by the ‘integration of the negative.' Yet I believe this is the core of Jesus's revolutionary Good News, Paul's deep experience, and the central insight that Francis and Clare lived out with such simple elegance.”
