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Sr.
Michael: "Francis loved God so much that he was willing to surrender his will, his life, his desires. He was willing to surrender everything for that love. That love was radical. It wanted to pull him into imitating Christ, following Christ.
"You imitate who you love. You follow who you love. You want to be with whom you love, and he loved Jesus. He loved him in the Blessed Sacrament. He loved him in the Catholic Church. He loved him in the poor. He loved Him in the sick. He loved Jesus everywhere. And his life was full of joy because of that. And people noticed that. They noticed something different about St. Francis."
A Portion of that Spirit
"After I discovered who St. Francis of Assisi was, I wanted to love like he loved. I wanted to love God like he loved God. I wanted a portion of that spirit.
"My favorite passage in the Gospel is Matthew 25, where Jesus is very clear – He is present in those who are hungry, in those who are sick, and those are imprisoned. He is living within them. And whatever we do to them, you do to Him. So we have a promise, we have a reality that is happening. He is very clear on that.
"The Daughters of St. Francis follow that lead. We minister to those who are hungry. We take care of those who are suffering. We want to join them, we want to be with them, as Mary joined Jesus under the cross. She could not take away his cross. She could not remove the nails, but she stayed there with him, she stayed in solidarity. She was praying. She was with him. And He knew that.
"That is a source of great strength for someone who is suffering. They are not alone. And this is what our presence means to these people."
 Vowed Life Is Forever
"Many things will happen in our lives. None of us are promised health forever. None of us can work forever. The one thing that you can count on as a religious, as a sister, as a bride of Christ, is that relationship with Christ
— that vowed life is forever. It’s here on earth, but it goes into eternity. It’s forever. You can count on that.
No matter what happens in your life, your vocation, your commitment and love, your spousal love for Christ is forever, forever."
A Bond that Follows into Eternity
"Let me tell you what it’s like to be in a community of sisters. It’s a mystery at first because you realize that there is a spiritual bond with each one of them. We all have a vocation to this congregation. We all come from different parts of the world and different parts of the country. Yet we all have that bond, that common bond. And that’s what links us together….
"That bond follows us into eternity. We will still have this family bond, even in eternity. And the joys are the appreciation of how God puts us together. He compliments our strengths. He gives us people that help us in ways that we need to grow. He provides people in our life that will help that process, too...."
The Next Step Toward a Vocation
"If I was a young girl and I was thinking about a vocation, but I was still uncertain where to go, what I was going to do…. I would seriously consider taking the next step and writing the order you feel most drawn to. Get the information that you need. Join them for a trial. There is a formation period that you take. It’s not that you have to have all the answers; you don’t have to make that decision within the first two or three years. But you will be formed; you will be helped; you will be aided.
"But you do need to take that next step. And that’s where the fear is. The person is hesitating to take that next step because they don’t have all the answers. You are not going to have all the answers, until you take that next step. And then the answers will come. God will not deny you those answers. He wants you. He is calling you. He is waiting for your response."
"Great
Admiration"
Most Rev. Daniel R. Jenky, Bishop of Peoria
 I am very happy to say I have great admiration for the zeal of the
Daughters of St. Francis of
Assisi. Not only do they serve
Christ so well in what they do
for the elderly. It is their
common life together that is an
inspiration to all of us.
"They
live common life, common work,
common prayer, common table.
They are true daughters of St.
Francis. They live the
Franciscan spirituality. They
are a gift to our diocese. I
pray every day for their good
work."
View "Living the Radical Love of St. Francis" above.
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