Leader:

We adore you,

most holy Lord Jesus Christ,
here and in all your churches
throughout the world,
and we bless you
because by your holy cross
you have redeemed the world.

O Lord make haste to help us.

OPENING HYMN

Francis, wholly catholic and apostolic, was sent to
herald the gospel of peace.

Psalm 91(92)

It is good to give thanks to the Lord *
to make music to your name, O Most High,
to proclaim your love in the morning *
and your truth in the watches of the night,
on the ten-stringed lyre and the lute, *
with the murmuring sound of the harp.

Your deeds, 0 Lord, have made me glad;*
for the work of your hands I shout with joy.
O Lord, how great are your works ! *
How deep are your designs !
The foolish one cannot know this *
and the foolish cannot understand.

Though the wicked spring up like grass *
and all who do evil thrive:
they are doomed to be eternally destroyed.*
But you, Lord, are eternally on high.
See how your enemies perish; *
all doers of evil are scattered.

To me you give the wild-ox’s strength;*
you anoint me with the purest oil.
My eyes looked in triumph on my foes;*
my ears heard gladly of their fall.
The just will flourish like the palm-tree*
and grow like a Lebanon cedar.

Planted in the house of the Lord,*
they will flourish in the courts of our God,
still bearing fruit when they are old,*
still full of sap, still green,
to proclaim that the Lord is just.*
In him, my rock, there is no wrong.

Francis, wholly catholic and apostolic, was sent to herald
the gospel of peace.

In his lifetime he supported the house of God, and in his day he
made safe the temple of the Lord.

Canticle

Listen, 0 heavens, and I will speak,*
let the earth hear the words on my lips.
May my teaching fall like the rain,*
my speech descend like the dew,
like rain drops on the young green, *
like showers falling on the grass.

For I shall praise the name of the Lord.*
O give glory to this God of ours !
The Rock – his deeds are perfect,*
and all his ways are just,
a faithful God, without deceit,*
a God who is right and just.

Those whom he begot unblemished *
have become crooked, false, perverse.
Is it thus you repay the Lord,*
O senseless and foolish people ?
Is he not your father who created you, *
he who made you, on whom you depend ?

Remember the days of old,*
consider the years that are past;
ask your father and he will show you,*
ask your elders and they will tell you.

When the Most High gave the nations their heritage *
and disposed them according to his plan,
in fixing the boundaries of the nations *
he thought first of Israel’s children.
For Israel was the Lord’s possession,*
Jacob the one he had chosen.

God found him in a wilderness,*
in fearful, desolate wastes;
he surrounded him, he lifted him up,*
he kept him as the apple of his eye.

Like an eagle that watches its nest,*
that hovers over its young,
so he spread his wings; he took him,*
placed him on his outstretched wings.
The Lord alone was his guide *
and no other god was with him.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.

Pause for quiet prayer & reflection on Psalm.

In his lifetime he supported the house of God, and in his day he
made safe the temple of the Lord.

Bring my soul out of this prison; the just await my coming
when you will reward me.

Psalm 8

How great is your name, 0 Lord our God,*
through all the earth !

Your majesty is praised above the heavens;
on the lips of children and of babes
you have found praise to foil your enemy,*
to silence the foe and the rebel.

When I see the heavens, the work of your hands, *
The moon and the stars which you arranged,
what are we that you should keep us in mind,*
mere mortals, that you care for us?

Yet you have made us little less than gods; *
with glory and honour you crowned us,
gave us power over the works of your hands,*
put all things under our feet.

All of them, sheep and cattle,*
yes, even the savage beasts,
birds of the air, and fish*
that make their way through the waters.

How great is your name, 0 Lord our God,*
through all the earth !

Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen

Pause for quiet prayer & reflection on Psalm.

Bring my soul out of this prison; the just await my coming
when you will reward me.

A Reading from the Book of Deuteronomy (Dt 6:4-9)

Listen then, Israel, keep and observe what will make you prosperous and numerous, as Yahweh, God of your ancestors, has promised you, in giving you a country flowing with milk and honey. ‘Listen, Israel: Yahweh our God is the one, the only Yahweh. You must love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. Let the words I enjoin on you today stay in your heart. You shall tell them to your children, and keep on telling them, when you are sitting at home, when you are out and about, when you are lying down and when
you are standing up; you must fasten them on your hand as a sign and on your forehead as a headband; you must write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

The word of the Lord.

Responsory:

With all our hearts and all our souls, all our minds and all our
strength.

A Reading from the Writings of Saint Francis
Rule of 1221 chapters 22-23

We must all keep close watch over ourselves or we will be lost and turn our minds from God, because we think there is something worth having or doing, or that we will gain some advantage.

In that love which is God, I entreat all my friars, ministers and subjects, to put away every attachment, all care and solicitude, and serve, love, honour, and adore our Lord and God with a pure heart and mind; this is what He seeks above all else. We should make a dwelling-place within ourselves where He can stay, He who is the Lord God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

He himself tells us: Watch, then, praying at all times, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that are to be, and to stand before the Son of Man. When you stand up to pray, say Our Father who art in heaven. Let us adore Him with a pure heart for we must always pray and never lose heart; it is such men as these the Father claims as His worshippers. God is spirit, and they who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.

We should turn to him as to the shepherd and guardian of our souls. He says, I am the good shepherd. I feed my sheep and I lay down my life for my sheep. All you are brothers. And call no one on earth your father; for one is your Father, who is in heaven.

With all our hearts and all our souls, all our minds and all our strength, with every faculty and every effort, with every affection and all our emotions, with every wish and desire, we should love our Lord and God who has given and gives us everything, body and soul, and all our life; it was He who created and redeemed us and of his mercy alone he will save us… He has provided us with every good and does not cease to provide for us.

Responsory

All:

Benedictus

Francis, totally submissive to the Creator, held sway over his
creatures, and was able to enjoy them to the glory of their Maker.

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel!
He has visited his people and redeemed them.

He has raised up for us a mighty saviour
in the house of David his servant,
as he promised by the lips of holy ones,
those who were his prophets from of old.

A saviour who would free us from our foes,
from the hands of all who hate us.
So his love for our ancestors is fulfilled
and his holy covenant remembered.

He swore to Abraham and Sarah to grant us,
that free from fear, and saved from the hands of
– our foes,
we might serve him in holiness and justice
all the days of our life in his presence.

As for you, little child,
you shall be called a prophet of God the Most High.
You shall go ahead of the Lord
to prepare his way before him,

To make known to his people their salvation
through forgiveness of all their sins,
the loving-kindness of the heart of our God
who visits us like the dawn from on high.

He will give light to those in darkness
those who dwell in the shadow of death,
and guide us into the way of peace.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.

Francis, totally submissive to the Creator, held sway over his creatures, and was able to enjoy them to the glory of their Maker.

INTERCESSIONS

Let us beg the Father, source of all holiness, to lead us to holiness of life through the
example and intercession of our blessed Father Francis. Let us pray, saying:

We beseech you, hear us.

We beseech you, hear us.

We beseech you, hear us.

We beseech you, hear us.

We beseech you, hear us.

Response:

We beseech you, hear us.

Our Father …..

CONCLUDING PRAYER

Father,
you helped our seraphic Father Francis
reflect the image of Christ
through a life of poverty and humility.
May we follow your Son
by walking in the footsteps of Francis of Assisi
and by imitating his joyful love.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen