We are in Assisi, Italy, now, teaching and enjoying time with our wonderful Ananda family here. Located in the gentle, rolling hills of Umbria, Assisi is the birthplace of St. Francis, one of the most beloved saints of all times.
L’Eremo delle Carceri, on the hillside above Assisi.
Paramhansa Yogananda too loved St. Francis, calling him his “patron saint.” Master visited Assisi in 1935, on his way to India from America and found great inspiration here. Later he described his experience: “I felt Christ’s presence everywhere in Assisi, but on the little forest paths of L’Eremo [a remote area dotted with caves where St. Francis and his monks would seclude], I saw Christ walking by my side.”
Master’s beautiful poem, “God! God! God!,” was also written after he had received a vision of St. Francis, some time later. With this deep spiritual connection between our Guru and this great saint, it is entirely fitting that Ananda Europa is based near Assisi, doubly blessed and filled with God’s presence.
During a class at the retreat center here, one of the teachers told a story about Swami Kriyananda that I hadn’t heard before. Someone asked him a dramatic question: “If I were in a concentration camp, and a guard started beating the person next to me, what should I do? Is it right to do nothing? Or should I intervene, even if it costs me my life?”
Swamiji’s answer was wonderful: “What you are really asking is how to know God’s will. Maybe you could get the guard to stop. But maybe if you intervene, the guard will retaliate against all the prisoners and many people will be hurt or killed. You can’t figure it out logically. You need intuition.
“If you want to know God’s will in a moment of crisis, you have to practice when it is easier. You have to develop in all circumstances of your life the habit of listening for God’s will. Then, even in extreme conditions, you will know what to do.”
This counsel applies universally. In order to develop any virtue—altruism, let us say, or selflessness, or strength in the face of opposition—begin living it when the challenges are small.
What qualities would you like to strengthen in your own life? Greater devotion to God? More dedication to meditation? Greater kindness or forgiveness towards others? Decide for yourself what you would like to develop, and begin practicing these things now when you’re not forced to apply them under duress.
Master said, “The minutes are more important than the days, and the days are more important than the years.” Make each day count in your spiritual progress, and don’t think that later you’ll work on some quality you’re lacking. That “later” may never come. Steady steps in the right direction will produce inner changes in your consciousness that will come to the fore when you need them.
St. Francis lived his life with all-consuming love for God, and in service to Him. From his youth, when filled with exuberant vitality and energy, he gave Him his all. At the end, when he lay in a little hut blinded by eye disease and weakened by illness, he did not have to summon up devotion to the Lord in the face of his suffering. It poured forth from him in glorious expression, and from his deathbed he composed and sang the beautiful “Canticle of the Creatures.”
In it Francis sang praises of “Brother Sun” and “Sister Moon,” of “Brother Fire” and “Sister Water.” He sang of his love for all creatures and his vision of the unity of all creation. The song ends with these words: “Praise My Lord, thank Him, and serve Him with great humility.” (You can listen here to the beautiful melody to which Swami Kriyananda set St. Francis’s words in old Italian.)
The great saints walk before us not to show us their suffering, but to demonstrate how to live a life of daily self-offering that ultimately transcends suffering.
May we all follow in their footsteps.
Nayaswami Devi
Subscribe to the Touch of Light podcast. Download the audio recording of this week’s blog by right-clicking here. Or listen to it here (4:58):
19 Comments
“Steady steps in the right direction will produce inner changes in your consciousness that will come to the fore when you need them.” is exactly what I needed right now.
Thank you!!
with gratitude rom Denmark for your advise through this blog,
may you be blessed,
Sibila
Simply marvelous.
I liked the quote, ” he gave Him his all” .
This is beautiful. Thank you very much.
This is beautiful. Thank you very much.
Elevating post. Thanks
Thanks for this wonderful piece. It came just when I was striving to solve the puzzle of the choice between exerting one’s will power and submitting to God’s will; being unstoppable and knowing when to give up. It is indeed difficult because in trying to know his will , you start looking for an exact prediction! It is hard to learn God’s purpose some times as He apperantly seems so unjust.
Practicing to listen to Him in times of peace may show the way.
Thank you! I love you all! Sri Paramahansaji, Nayaswami Devi, St. Francis, Sri Kriyananda, Our Creator. Blessings to You!
Thank you for this beautiful reminder. I also loved the recording of Swamiji singing The Canticle of Creatures, his voice so devotional.
Francis is my patron saint too…it’s my middle name, I went to a Franciscan seminary for a while, I’ve written about him…
Bless you, Devi, for this wonderful message.
So beautiful and inspiring. Thank you?
Beautiful. Thank you for sharing. L’Eremo is my favorite St Francis place. I am missing being with you in Assisi this year but it is wonderful to be at Ananda Village!
Oh St. Francis, brother in Christ, devoted soul who inspired countless souls, you also offered us this –
The Peace Prayer
by
St. Francis of Assisi
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is error, the truth;
Where there is doubt, the 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.
Beautiful and inspiring guidance dearest Devi Ji.
Swami Kriyananda (in his book Paramhansa Yogananda, a Biography) wrote something fascinating about the “Peace Prayer” poem to which Jay referred below:
“Interestingly, the prayer for which St. Francis is best known, ‘Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace,’ has been discovered in recent years, in the archives of a monastery in Belgium, actually to have been written by William the Great (also called ‘the Conqueror’), who Yogananda himself said he had been [in a previous incarnation].”
I did a little research, and found these two corroborating links (among many others):
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/world/europe/23italy.html
https://www.jyotishanddevi.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Prayer-of-St.-Francis-SAM-Jan1999.pdf
So beautiful and inspiring, what a blessing you are in my life and what an inspiration these blogs are to us all.
Wonderful post as always. I especially appreciate the audio link and hope there will be more in the future! The music helps me feel what the words say.
Aum guru
Dear Nayaswami Devi Ji,
Thank you for this Inspiring blog. That’s a great guidance and way to start wroking when its small
In Master’s Love
Prem