Respectfully Yours: Signed and Sealed, Francis of Assisi

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Introduction

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pp. 1-19

Francis of Assisi appeals to many people. That is how it was in his own days and that is how it has remained ever since. What is so fascinating about him that people from such different eras are unanimous in their . . .

Part I - Francis's Biblical Spritiuality in His Writings

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p. 21-21

Chapter 1 Encounter for Life

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pp. 23-53

Francis’s Testament, well known though it is, remains an intriguing testimony. It would be a mistake to see it as Francis’s last endeavor, at the very end of his life, to give a systematic exposition of his life’s vision or to . . .

Chapter 2 - Francis's Sermon on the Mount: The Collection of Admonitions

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pp. 55-90

In our search for the power lines of Francis’s spirituality we tracked down how he translated, in different places of his writings, the twin concepts of “penance” and “faith,” which he had borrowed from Jesus’ . . .

Chapter 3 - Yours Respectfully in Bearing, Thanking, Serving

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pp. 91-133

The remarkable place which “bearing” and “rendering” or “returning” have in the collection of Admonitions makes the question about their deeper meaning in Francis’s writings even more important. It also makes the . . .

Chapter 4 - A Didactic Poem on the Art of Living: Salutation of the Virtues

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pp. 135-173

In Chapter 3 we paid a great deal of attention to the basic attitudes which Francis sees incarnate in the person who has converted to Christ. Admonition 18 concisely characterizes these attitudes. Apparently, it was to . . .

Chapter 5 - The Risk of the Road: at Home with the Homeless

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pp. 175-209

In his Testament, Francis briefly touches on the subject of his conversion: “I left the world” (exivi). Speaking about it in terms of an “exodus,” he places himself within the tradition of Jewish and Christian wisdom, the . . .

Part II - Francis's Awareness of the Mystery of God: Gauging His Sayings about the Vision on Mount LaVerna

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p. 211-211

Chapter 6 - Signed and Sealed: The Vision of the Crucified One

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pp. 213-260

Among the pictures and images of Francis made soon after his death, there is one type which is found rather often. It shows him marked with Christ’s wounds. That Francis carried these marks in his hands, feet, and side in the . . .

Chapter 7 - Re verence towards the New Person: Admonition 27

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pp. 261-307

In the preceding chapters we have repeatedly mentioned our interpretation of Admonition 27. To sum it up, this text, like the Praises of God, echoes what happened to Francis on Mount La Verna in September 1224. In it, as . . .

Chapter 8 - The Vision on Mount LaVerna: The New Person

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pp. 309-355

Until he received the stigmata, Francis had kept his inner life mostly hidden. After he received the stigmata, was it his intention to speak about his inner life in new ways? In the preceding chapters we examined the . . .

Chapter 9 - Open-ended Finale

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pp. 357-427

In the first days of October 1226, when Francis bade his last farewell to his brothers and friends, he was marked by the afflictions that for several years he had had to struggle with. He was especially a man marked by the . . .

Index

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pp. 429-435