“All my intimate friends hold me in horror; those whom I loved have turned against me!  Pity me, pity me, O you my friends for the hand of Got has struck me!  Why do you hound me as though you were divine and insatiably prey upon me?”  Job 19:19, 21-22.

Have you ever been betrayed?  In his old age St. Francis’s body and his band of followers, his closest friends, betrayed him.  He was blind and in pain and his friends were arguing so much about how to live Francis’ Rule for the religious order he founded, that they were on the verge of dividing.  Indeed, they did divide soon after his death.

In essence, Francis was a failure.  But as author Amy Welborn points out today in Living Faith, “he bore the wounds of Love on his body, conforming himself to that Love, waiting to see with his own eyes.”

Amy Welborn. The Wounds of Love in Living Faith: Daily Catholic Devotions, Vol.28, No.3, Creative Communications for the Parish, 2012

 Photo is of a picture on a shelf in our house.