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Saint Francis bowed to the ground, adoring Christ, saying: "Oh! When I think of what Jesus has done for me!"

St. Francis of Assisi was fervent in love for God and for others, until the very end, speaking frankly about Heaven and Hell.

St. Francis de Sales is in Heaven, full of the bright cloud of Divine Love which now surrounds him. He breathed out that love, to surround me with it, long ago, as I was reading his 'Introduction to the Devout Life'. By his prayer for me, Divine love enfolded and enlightened me as I was reading.

As well as being fervent teachers, the Church's greatest sinners, when forgiven, have been the most lyrical in their expressions of gratitude to God for helping the weak and hopeless: for example, St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Ignatius Loyola, and St. Francis of Assisi.

The Lord asks us to deal with some injustices in the manner of Saint Francis, who was reported as saying: if he were to trudge for miles through a snowy landscape, in darkness, and hungry, only to be met with insults, picked up and thrown aside - and yet be able to bear all this with patience, without food and warmth, that would be perfect joy, because then he would have been found worthy to be treated like Christ, and to be able to imitate Him.