Magnificat Vol. LIX, No. 1 7 to charm our Heavenly Father, and eventually also to be pleasing to our neighbor. Be pleasing to our neighbor in order to attract him, without even speaking, towards this path of self-denial. Oh, may we have this thought of God! My yoke is sweet and My burden light7 for the one who does violence to himself. The Gospel is one. It cannot be divided, it cannot be separated. We try to overlook the pages that do not suit us. This one is all right, but that other one is too hard. No, we have to take the whole Gospel, without overlooking any pages. 8th centennial of the stigmata of Saint Francis We have just celebrated the 8th centennial of the representation of the manger inaugurated by Saint Francis of Assisi. In September of this year, 2024, we will be commemorating the 800th anniversary of the impression of his stigmata. Historians believe that it was on the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, September 14, 1224, that Saint Francis received the stigmata. The Church has established this feast on September 17. In the wild solitude of Mount La Verna, north of Assisi, Saint Francis and a few of his Brothers had built little huts out of branches to prepare for the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel by observing a Lent of fasting, prayer and penance. It was there that a Seraph appeared to him and im7. St. Matthew 11:30. printed the five wounds of Christ on his body: his hands and feet were pierced, along with his side. Before his conversion, young Francis was a pleasure-seeker. All of Assisi knew this worldly son of a wealthy cloth merchant. He was rolling in his father’s money and took advantage of it to party with his friends. And that boy was converted. He embraced a leper and even kissed his cheek. Now that is doing violence to oneself! But Francis did violence to himself so graciously that he attracted some of the youth of Assisi to follow him, and even a few older people. They followed Francis, who had adopted the Gospel in the purest, strictest, most austere spirit, the most violent, to employ Our Lord’s expression. By going against all that was worldly, Saint Francis caused a scandal, even among the clergy of his day. He embraced the spirit of the Gospel, following that path with all the perfection that God inspired in him. Holiness according to one’s state Holiness is the work of God. God does not intend the same path for every soul. All souls, however, must manifest within themselves a reflection of God’s holiness. And to attain this, He asks us to deny ourselves. Self-denial is synonymous with doing violence to oneself. Jesus says to us, If you would be My disciple, deny yourself, take up your cross each day and follow Me. To do violence to oneself, to deny oneself, to take up one’s cross, are all
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