Feast of St Francis

Visitors from Bamenda.
Fr. Nivard, Abbot Raymond, Dom Charles, Abbot Elect of Bamenda.
Fr. Nivard has been 43 years in the monastery of Bamenda, Cameroon. At present he is working on the liturgical books for the communities of Nunraw, Bamenda and Nsugbe.
Dom Charles has been five years in Rome acting as a member of the Councillors of the Abbot General. He will receive the Abbatial Blessing in Bamenda on the 12th December.

Fwd from Abbot Raymond:
A Snippet for the feast of St Francis and his "Lady Poverty"

POVERTY AND THE LAWS OF PHYSICS

One of the laws of Physics which, like the law of Gravity itself, holds the world together, is the law which states that: To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

For example the harder you strike the table with your fist, the harder the table strikes your fist.

We might apply this analogy to Poverty on this feast of St Francis:

The Word of God struck the world, impinged on the world, with a great blow of Poverty, emptying himself of his glory and taking on himself the form of a servant.

The effect of that almighty blow on the human race is incalculable in the way it has shaped and formed our relationship with him.

Just imagine what a different idea we would have of Jesus if he had come as one born in a gilded palace with vast legions of servants to wait on his every need and unlimited riches at his disposal and the power of great armies at his command!

But no! It is his littleness and poverty that give us such intimate access to him and mould and shape our relationship with him.

So, just as this great force of his coming in poverty and littleness to us has such an effect on us, we can dare to hope that approaching him likewise in a spirit of littleness and poverty will have, in some way, an “equal and opposite effect” on him, drawing him irresistibly to us.