Admonition XXVII: Virtue puts vice to flight (4)
It is said of Francis that he never rested from doing good, either by spending time with God or by going to people. Bonaventure assures us that Francis divided the time given him by spending some of the time working for his neighbour's good, and he dedicated the remaining time 'to the tranquil excesses of contemplation'. Francis did far more than spend some part of each day in prayer. Now and then he also went away to a mountain retreat to pray for days on end. Still today the places where he went to pray are well-known shrines and sacred sites in Franciscan history. He prayed at the Carceri above Assisi, at Fonte Colombo, at Narni and above all on the mountain La Verna. When Francis found that he was exhausted from his preaching, he would look for the secrets of solitude and a place of quiet. It was in such a setting that he received the stigmata on La Verna. Time spent in prayer is private time between the person and God but we can say of Francis that in going away regularly to fast and pray he was still pursuing the Lord he had experienced in the leper. That experience outside Assisi inspired him to follow the Lord with total devotion. In his search for the Lord, his most intense encounters with this Lord would have taken place in the private days of rest and meditation. One can well imagine that when he received the stigmata, the marks identifying him with the crucified Christ, the intensity of that union with the Lord drove out any anxiety and restlessness.
