FRANCIS OF ASSISI: Messenger for Today's World

Waldron offers us a Francis of Assisi who speaks to us of the 21st century, with whom modern people can identify. He explores the saint from three perspectives - biographical, psychological and aesthetic. He understands Francis through our new science of psychology and through the beauty of Bellini's masterpiece St. Francis in the Desert, the painting shown on the front cover of this book. He employs Carl Jung's theory of individuation - the steps taken by Francis to become his True Self. He employs the painting to shed light on St. Francis the mystic, he who was gifted by God with the Stigmata. Waldron also addresses Francis's poem 'The Canticle of the Creatures', offering an exegesis of the poem providing insights into the saint's life as a Christian and as a mystic. As a study guide we are encouraged to go more deeply to discover the source of the light St. Francis shines not only on his contemporaries but also on us today. We are involved in a journey of close reading of events and written sources as well as the interpretation of artists in an adventure into how God illuminates those who do God's will. 108 page paperback.