"God forbid that I should glory in anything, save in
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Francis Bernadone, the spoiled son of a wealthy cloth merchant., knew little what it meant to suffer. Everything he had ever wanted had been handed to him on a silver platter. His clothes were made of the finest materials; he threw incredibly lively and decadent parties; and, wasted a good deal of his youth dreaming of worldly fame and glory.

Above all else, Francis was disgusted by lepers. There mere sight of their sore covered skin and shrunken, shriveled bodies was enough to send him reeling.  It was not until the Lord intervened in the life of the young Francesco, after he had taken the first stumbling steps on the path of conversion, that he was able to face his fear.

One day, while riding horseback, he encountered a leper. Though he felt the familiar repulsion and  the desire to flee, he withstood his natural disgust and dismounted. Drawing near the leper, he embraced him and kissed  the wounds he had once found so vile. Then, says Francis, what was once so bitter was now filled with sweetness. While riding away, Francis looked back and the leper was nowhere in sight.

The intense love found amid excruciating sufferings, this mysterious paradox of the Cross, was to become the cornerstone of Francis' religious life and spirituality. The Incarnation and the Cross were a constant source of awe for Francis. He could not fathom that the all-powerful and eternal God would make himself so little as to become a human infant. or more still, that he would allow himself to be beaten, mocked, and nailed to a cross! The Crucified Christ became Francis' constant meditation and only model.  Indeed, says Capuchin Fr. Gratien Badin, "No one since St. Paul has more constantly or ardently contemplated the mystery of the Cross than Francis; no one has ever been so deeply moved by it to the extent of bearing in his flesh the visible Stigmata; nor has there been anyone who pushed its practical consequences so far."

"Habitual contemplation of the Cross and love of Christ crucified, the sources of an ideal of perfect imitation of Christ, are the dominating ideas and leading sentiments in Franciscan spirituality."1

Francis is very often recognized as the saint who lived poverty to the fullest extreme. He is wondered at for his incredible austerity and his life of strict  bodily mortification. There have been many who have been perplexed by his self-abnegation and the humiliating penances he would impose upon himself and his brothers. What must be understood is that none of these were merely superfluous. Francis esteemed poverty, humiliations, and suffering in imitation of his model, Christ Crucified. Francis did not merely seek to imitate Christ, but to imitate him in that most supreme act of self-emptying love. Francis would have nothing, because Jesus on the Cross was deprived of everything. The Poverello sought sufferings and bodily mortifications because Christ hung for hours in agony on Golgotha.

"A legend recounts that Brother Leo, while traveling one day with Francis, saw before the face of his Seraphic Father, a crucifix of outstanding beauty. It stopped when Francis stopped, advanced when Francis continued on his way and preceded him wherever he went. Its brilliance was such that Francis' face with it and to  Brother Leo's eyes, everything nearby was transfigured in its lights. This was a striking symbol of the light which the Cross in the soul of Francis shed on the invisible realities of faith and on the wonders of the material world."

In imitation of St. Francis, the Capuchin friars are called to a continual contemplation of the Crucified. He is to be the model and exemplar for our entire way of life. Friars are called to be poor not merely as a social witness to solidarity , but above all because Christ Jesus was poor. The little brothers must lead a life of humility and meekness because Christ , "was silent and opened not his mouth."  

The Friars love the Scriptures because the voice of the Crucified speaks in them. The brothers serve the poor because Christ went amid the destitute and came to save the lowly and the humble. The sons of St. Francis follow the Church with loving obedience because Christ was obedient, even unto death. Capuchins love our Blessed Lady because Christ loved her so fervently and gave her to us as a Mother upon the Cross. The Friars Minor adore the Eucharist because it is the presence of the humble Lord - crucified no more, but humbling himself yet again to hide beneath the appearance of fragile bread. All is done in imitation of Christ, all is done for the glory of Christ. This is why St. Francis was able to say so truly, "My God and my everything!"

"Burning with love of Christ, let us contemplate Him in the self-emptying of His Incarnation and Cross that we might be ever more conformed to Him."
- Capuchin Constitutions