The Mystical Poverello of Assisi

October 3, 2025

Jesus’ Thirst and the Heart of Prayer

“…Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said, ‘I thirst’” (John 19:28, RSV).

“Jesus thirsts. His asking arises from the depths of God’s desire for us. Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God’s thirst with our thirst. God thirsts that we may thirst for him, and prayer is a response of love to the thirst of the only Son of God.” (CCC #2560f).

The vivid, explicitly palatable language used by the Catechism is no mere coincidence. Clearly, in the life of prayer — especially in the life of St. Francis, the Poverello of Assisi — it is the whole man who prays; moreover, in naming the core source of prayer, Sacred Scripture speaks most often of the heart. The heart is our most hidden center. The heart is beyond the grasp of reason, for only the Spirit of God can fully fathom the mysterious drama continually engaged within the human heart. Thus, it is understandable that for all of mankind — though seemingly most strikingly unique for followers of St. Francis — prayer is and remains “Christian insofar as it is communion with Christ.” (CCC #2562f).

In reflecting on St. Francis’ spiritual practices, it is overtly heartfelt: “marked by a dramatically faithful following of the God-Man, whom he strove to imitate without reserve in self-denial and total self-emptying, making him, ‘that most Christian pauper’ par excellence” (cf. Legenda Maior, VIII, 5).

Prayer in Solitude

Since this little holy man of God felt acutely exiled from the Lord while in the body, he strove constantly to have his spirit present in heaven. As Jesus’ burning desire to do His Father’s will was most clearly — and prayerfully — revealed from the Cross (“I thirst”), Francis’ undivided soul thirsted after Christ, for he radically dedicated not only his whole heart, but his whole body as well to a just and fitting prayerful imitation of the Crucified One.

Such was St. Francis’ life of uninterrupted prayer that, “the world became tasteless to him who was fed with heavenly sweetness, and the delights he found in God ultimately made him too delicate for the gross concerns of men.” (cf. Omnibus of Sources).

Holy Father Francis had dramatic and radical allegiance to those glimpses of prayer in the Gospel: “And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone…” (Mt 14:23). Francis always sought hidden places where he could adapt not only his soul, but all his members to God: “He always put something between himself and the bystanders, lest they should become aware of the Bridegroom’s touch; thus, he could pray unseen even among many people. Because he was forgetful of himself, there were no sobs or sighs; because he was absorbed in God, there was no hard breathing or external movements.”

Nevertheless, when holy Father Francis prayed in the woods, mountains, and other solitary places, he would “fill the woods with sighs, water the places with his tears, constantly striking his breast with his hand; and, discovering there a kind of secret hiding place, he would often speak openly with his blessed Lord with heartfelt words.”

Union with Christ Crucified

In intimate, humble, and contrite communion with Christ Crucified, Francis would “rejoice with his heavenly Bridegroom, all his attention and affection — indeed, his whole being — directed to the Lord; not so much praying as becoming himself a prayer. Thus, filled with a glowing fervor of spirit, his whole appearance and his whole soul melted, already dwelling in the highest realms of the heavenly kingdom.” (cf. Omnibus of Sources).

St. Francis lived the Pauline mandate to “Pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit…” (1 Thess. 5:17-19). He had an unquenchable thirst for continual and contrite heartfelt prayer, never content unless he was contemplating his Divine Spouse. He habitually “tried to keep his spirit in the presence of God by praying to Him without intermission so that he might not be without some comfort from his Most Beloved. Whether the Poverello of Assisi was walking or sitting, at home or abroad, whether he was working or resting, he was so wholeheartedly intent on prayer that he seemed to have dedicated to it not only his heart and his soul, but all his efforts and all his time.” (cf. Omnibus of Sources).

The Seraph of Assisi experienced the peaceful rapture of contemplation, a drama of prayerful pain and love; a drama which, when played out in his heart and body, consummated the union of Francis’ whole being with the crucified Lord. Appropriately, it was on the very summit of Mount Alverna that Christ crucified crowned the Seraphic Father’s work and perfected the divine image in his body and soul by the gifts of divine contemplation: in his very flesh, by the sacred stigmata; in his heart, by the fire of divine love.

Mary, the Model of Prayer

“Who,” holy Father Francis would say, “was it who made the Lord of Majesty our brother?” It was She, the Blessed Virgin Mary — His Palace! His Tabernacle! His Home! His Robe! His Servant! His Mother!

His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, speaking on the Feast of the Stigmatization of St. Francis, had an especially relevant message regarding our Lady and the prayer of the Poverello: “St. Francis had an especially relevant message regarding our Lady and the indescribable love.” (cf. Legenda Maior, IX, 3).

“St. Francis imitated Mary in her meditative silence, especially after having been stamped by Christ, on the mountain (Alverna) with the signs of His passion, thus showing the greater the privileges God bestows, all the greater is the recipient’s duty to conceal them.” In noble imitation of our Blessed Lady, St. Bonaventure tells us that “the Seraph of Assisi came down from the mountain bearing with him the image of the Crucified One… engraved in the members of his body by the finger of the living God; aware that he had been given a royal secret, to the best of his powers he kept the sacred stigmata hidden.” (Legenda Maior, XIII, 5).

Following Francis’ Path

With sublime wisdom, the Seraphic Doctor tells us that to follow St. Francis’ life of complete and utter poverty of prayer — to live a radically undivided life in intimate communion with Christ Crucified — one must totally abandon the drama of the Egypt of this world. We can take consolation in knowing that “the Cross of Christ will part the waters of the sea for us like Moses’ rod, though we will have to traverse the desert of the promised land of the living, where we will eventually enter — solely by the miraculous power of the Cross — and after having crossed the Jordan of our human mortality, a new and heavenly Jerusalem. May our Savior and Leader, Jesus, bring us there, through the intercession of holy Father Francis. To him be all praise and honor and glory, with the Father and the Holy Spirit in perfect Trinity, forever and ever. Amen.” (cf. Bonaventure, Minor Life).