A sculpture at Gormanston College, Co Meath, marking the 800th anniversary of the birth of Saint Francis of Assisi in 1982 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and tomorrow is the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVI, 5 October). Today, the calendar of the Church of England in
Common Worship remembers (1182-1226), Friar, Deacon and founder of the Friars Minor (4 October).
Today is also the last day of Creationtide or the Season of Creation in the Church Calendar, which began on 1 September, the beginning of the Church Year in the Orthodox Church, and ends today on the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi.
Later today, I plan to drop in to Το Στεκι Μας (‘Our Place’), the ‘pop-up’ Greek Café at the Swinfen Harris Church Hall, beside the Greek Orthodox Church on London Road, Stony Stratford. This café opens every first Saturday of the month, between 10:30 am and 5 pm. Before today begins, however, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
A mediaeval carved statue of Saint Francis of Assisi in the ruins of the Franciscan Friary in Askeaton, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Luke 12: 22-34 (NRSVA):
22 He said to his disciples, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! 25 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 26 If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you – you of little faith! 29 And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. 30 For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.
32 ‘Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’
The former Saint Francis Church … once the most important church in the Venetian town and now the Archaeological Museum of Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Today’s Reflection:
A year ago, I was with former schoolfriends, celebrating 55 years since we left school at Gormanston College in Co Meath. Over 30 or more 70-somethings gathered together for a long and lingering lunch in Peploe’s restaurant at Saint Stephen’s Green, Dublin, at a lunch organised mainly by Frank Hunt and Russell Shannon.
We had last gathered for a previous lunch like that five years earlier, in 2019, when we marked 50 years since leaving Gormanston. There were sad but grateful memories last year of those who could not join us for lunch, and we remembered those we know who died in the previous year, including John McCarthy and Tom Lappin.
Since then, Father Louis Brennan, a former Rector of Gormanston and the most inspirational and encouraging teacher I had in my schooldays, has also died.
That afternoon was also filled with memories of what were largely happy school days, and how well we were prepared to go out into the world. Some of us also remembered, with gratitude, the Franciscan values that were shared with us by the friars at Gormanston in the 1960s.
Today is the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi. This day is popular for blessing the animals and also marks the end of ‘Creation Time’ in many parts of the Church.
I was reminded of Saint Francis and his values when I lived close to
the Friary in Wexford, and during my time at
Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, which was founded on the site of a Franciscan friary.
Throughout my five years when I lived in Askeaton, Co Limerick, as priest-in-charge of the Rathkeale Group of Parishes, I regularly visited the ruins of the Franciscan friary and its beautiful cloisters, with a mediaeval carved image of Saint Francis of Assisi. Earlier this year, during my Easter retreat or holiday in Crete, I visited again – as I have done so many times since the 1980s – the former Saint Francis Church, once the most important church in the Venetian town and now the Archaeological Museum of Rethymnon.
Apart from figures in the Biblical figures, Saint Francis may be the most popular saint in the Church, and he is loved in the all the churches. He inspired Pope Francis, who took the saint’s name when he was elected Pope in 2013. Like Saint Francis, Pope Francis washed the feet of women prisoners each year on Maundy Thursday and he visited a soup kitchen in Assisi.
Saint Francis was born in Assisi in Italy
ca 1181-1182, and he was baptised with the name Giovanni (for Saint John the Baptist). But his father changed the boy’s name to Francesco because he liked France.
As a young boy and a teenager, Francesco di Bernardone was a rebel. He dressed oddly, spent much of his time alone and quarrelled with his father.
His father expected him to take over the family business. But young Francis was too much of a rebel. All that began to change when he was taken prisoner in 1202 during a war. When he was freed, he was seriously ill, and while he was recovering he had a dream in which he was told ‘to follow the Master, not the man.’
He turned to prayer, penance and almsgiving. One day while praying, he said, God called him to ‘repair my house.’ In 1206, he sold some valuable cloth from his father’s shops to rebuild a run-down church of San Damiano.
His father dragged the young man before the religious authorities, and that was that, finally, for Francis and his father.
Francis turned his back on all that wealth, became a friar, put his complete trust in God, and made his home in an abandoned church. He wore simple clothes, looked after the lepers, made friends with social outcasts and embraced a life of no possessions.
Others joined him, and so began the story of the Franciscans.
Saint Francis is said to have once told his followers, ‘Preach the gospel, and if necessary, use words.’ In other words, people are more likely to see what we believe in what we do rather than believe us because of what we say.
The widely known ‘Prayer of Saint Francis’ has also been attributed to Saint Francis:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is discord, union;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
Saint Francis celebrated God’s creation, and his most famous poem is his ‘Canticle of the Sun.’ He also organised the first Crib to celebrate Christmas.
Two years before his death, the Franciscan friars first arrived in England in 1224, and they soon spread to Ireland.
Saint Francis was 44 when he died on the evening of 3 October 1226. By then, his order had spread throughout western Christendom. Next year marks the 800th anniversary of his death.
I recall 83 names from my school year in Gormanston in 1969, and since then 21 have died – almost 1 in 4 or 25 per cent. That class year, remembered fondly by all of us, are:
William Barrett, + Hillary Barry, Michael Bolger, Brian Brady, Aidan Brosnan, + Derek Browne, + Henry Browne, Peter Burke, + Patrick Cassidy, Seamus Claffey,
Patrick Comerford, Justin Connolly, Breen Coyne, Thomas Delaney, David Dennehy, Michael Dervan, Gerald Dick, Frank Domoney, Paul Egan, Sean Finn,
+ Donal Geaney, Michael Geraghty, John Grogan, Richard Hayes, Michael Hickey, Liam Holmes, John Horgan, Frank Hunt, Stephen Kane, + Paul Keatings,
Noel Keaveney, Thomas Keenan, Bernard Kelly, John Kelly, David Kerrigan, + Tom Lappin, Malachy Larkin, + Cyril Lynch, David Lynch, Liam Lynch,
Domhnall Mac a Bháird, + John McCarthy, Alfred McCrann, Brian McCutcheon, + Harold McGahern, Pat McGowan, + Donal McGrath, + Joe McGuinness, + Niall McMahon, Kieran McNamee,
James Madden, Seamus Moloney, Francis Moran, + James Moran, Peter Morgan, + Raymond Murphy, Paul Nolan, Kevin O’Brien, Dermot O’Callaghan, Einde O’Callaghan,
Derry O’Connor, Des O’Connor, William O’Connor, James O’Dea, Dermot O’Donoghue, + Tim O’Driscoll, Dermott O’Flanagan, Joseph O’Keeffe, Donal O’Mahony, + Michéal O Morain,
+ Sean O’Meara, + Joe O’Neill, John O’Reilly, + Cian O'Shea, George Pratt, Dermot Rainey, Sean Regan, Noel Reilly, Russell Shannon, Paul Smith,
+ Maurice Sweeney, Donagh Tierney, Michael Walsh.
Gormanston College, Co Meath … in among the 6C year on 27 June 1969, 56 years ago
Today’s Prayers (Saturday 4 October 2025):
The theme this week (28 September to 4 October) in
Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘One Faith: Many Voices’ (pp 42-43). This theme was introduced last Sunday with Reflections from Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 4 October 2025) invites us to pray:
Father, thank you that you are unbound by language and all people can come to know you.
The Collect:
O God, you ever delight to reveal yourself
to the childlike and lowly of heart:
grant that, following the example of the blessed Francis,
we may count the wisdom of this world as foolishness
and know only Jesus Christ and him crucified,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post Communion Prayer:
Merciful God,
who gave such grace to your servant Francis
that he served you with singleness of heart
and loved you above all things:
help us, whose communion with you
has been renewed in this sacrament,
to forsake all that holds us back from following Christ
and to grow into his likeness from glory to glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Collect on the Eve of Trinity XVI:
O Lord, we beseech you mercifully to hear the prayers
of your people who call upon you;
and grant that they may both perceive and know
what things they ought to do,
and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil them;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Yesterday’s Reflections
Continued Tomorrow
Saint Francis at the gates into Gormanston College, Co Meath (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Scripture quotations are from the
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
http://nrsvbibles.org
Updated 4 and 5 October 2025, with the addition of five names
