Saint Francis dreams

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Francis, burning with enthusiasm, thinks of knighting himself and enlisting in the armies of His Holiness; once resolved, it is superbly outfitted, worthy of its ambitions.

When the day of departure arrived, he was greatly pleased with the unusual splendor of his bearing, when he came to discover a gentleman, whose threadbare dress indicated great poverty. It seemed to him then ignominious that a man of such high station should dress so wretchedly, and he resolutely stripped off his cloak, his sumptuous tunic, and all his expensive trappings, and handed them over to that unknown knight.

That night, Francis had a sweet dream: that he was in a beautiful palace adorned with chivalrous arms in which a beautiful bride lived and he heard a voice that told him: "All this is for you and for those who follow you".

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Francis sees that he has missed his way and returns to Assisi.

Encouraged by that dream, Francis takes the road to Espoleto, where he spends the night; and being already asleep, he hears again the mysterious voice that says to him: "Francisco, who is better to serve, the Master or the servant?" and as he answered: "The Master is certainly better," the voice continues: "Why, then, do you make the Master a servant?", whereupon his soul was enlightened and he said humbly: "Lord, what do you want? to do?" -"Return to the place of your birth", ordered the voice, "and there you will be told what you must do because it is convenient for you to give different meaning to this dream".

Fully awake, Francis, considering these words, renounces his dreams of human ambition, gets up at dawn, mounts his horse and returns to Assisi to wait for the enigma of his future to be clarified.

Waiting for this promised order, Francis returned to occupy himself with his father's business, although not with the same enthusiasm; he found his place again among the youth of the city whose banquets he again presided over and after which he wielded the baton and they went out through the streets of the city singing noisily. But he no longer shared in such heartfelt rejoicing as in times past.

One night, as he fell into silent meditation, his friends told him: "Have we love, Francis? Have you finally discovered the maiden who is to be your wife and do you spend the night and the day thinking about her beauty and her charms? " Francis, coming to himself, replied with unexpected gravity: "Yes, indeed, I am thinking of taking as my wife the noblest and richest maiden you have ever seen"; he was already referring to the one he would later call "his Lady Poverty".

When Francis returned from his trip to Rome, he brought with him a great desire to share his suffering with the poor and to know from his own experience what his life was like. Among the most unfortunate of them, lepers were distinguished.

One day when Francis was returning to Assisi on horseback, one of them asked him for alms. In another time he would have thrown a handful of coins at him and spurred his horse; but this time he dismounted, put his alms in the hands of that wretched man and, taking them in his own, imprinted a kiss on them.

From that moment the pact of a new life was sealed. Francis believed himself called especially to care for lepers, whose huts from then on he frequented no longer secretly, since at that time in Assisi it was frowned upon to give alms to the poor, but he did it in broad daylight and never forgot to kiss their hand when giving them your offering.

Francis finally finds his way to God.

The commentators of the Life of Saint Francis, see in the rebuilding of the 3 churches symbolized the restoration of the Church through the 3 Orders that Saint Francis was to establish.

After the reconstruction of the Porziuncola, Francis returns to his perplexity waiting for the Lord's orders that finally came unexpectedly.

This was the last day of February 1209. Holy Mass was celebrated in the Chapel of the Portiuncola. Francisco helped her. Arriving at the Gospel, the Priest read these words: Go and preach saying: the kingdom of heaven is drawing near... you do not carry gold or silver, nor any money in your pockets, nor a bag for the journey, nor more than one no dress, no spare shoes, no staff...

Francis listened attentively as always to the reading of the Gospel and this time the sacred text lifted the last veil that clouded his intelligence and immediately exclaimed without hesitation: "Here is what I was looking for; here is what my heart longed for"; and with his natural spontaneity, he threw the cane; he took off his shoes, undressed and because he looked like his crucified master, he cut a habit in the shape of a cross; instead of a leather strap, he wrapped a rope around his waist and thus felt armed as a knight, a Knight of Christ.

From that moment his dreams of chivalric adventures became realities; He firmly believes that there can be no Order of Chivalry more noble than his, which has Christ as its standard and poverty as the Lady of its thoughts.

In the future, he will travel the world in search of souls who wish to be helped. The powers of evil that sow enmity between God and men and between man and man, will be the rogues against whom he will fight. In every place he will proclaim the kingdom of God and his peace and in his love for the poor he will find strength and courage to follow Christ.

He greeted those he met on his way affectionately with these words: "Brothers, the Lord give you peace" and approached many of them and spoke to them simply, fervently, about the Kingdom of Christ, without actually preaching sermons to them. 

This is how the dream began.

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