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Detailed in the book by topic are the simple virtues that this 13th-century son of a wealthy merchant embraced when, in his 20s, he renounced his wealth to follow Jesus.
His virtues include simplicity, joy, humility, peace, community, prayer, creation and service. "Francis remains a reminder of what devotion to God is," Talbot and Rabey write.
Talbot, using examples from his own life in the monastic community he founded in the Arkansas Ozarks, describes how the reader can obtain greater peace, joy and spirituality in day-to-day living.
Each chapter includes excerpts from St. Francis' writings, and those of his followers and biographers. Black-and-white photographs taken at Talbot's Little Portion Hermitage add inspiration and opportunity for further reflection.
Talbot, who has written 14 books on spiituality and produced 35 albums, has practiced Franciscan traditions since 1978. He lists simplicity as one of St. Francis' key messages.
"St. Francis and his followers didn't view simplicity as a specialized discipline for monks or other unusual individuals seeking advanced degrees in enlightenment," Talbot writes. "Instead, they saw it as the garden from which all other spiritual virtues grow, and as a prerequisite to our being both fully human and fully spiritual."
To begin incorporating simplicity into daily life, Talbot and Rabey reccomend that people distinguish between wants and needs. "Simplicity is God's grand antidote to a culture of money and madness," the book says. Rabey, the author of five books on religion and pop culture, calls St. Francis a "universal saint." "He has wide appeal to all people, Catholics, other Christians, as well as the spiritually hungry and religiously non-aligned soul." In the book the authors describe St. Francis as "saintly without being sanctimonious."
"St. Francis knew sin firsthand, not merely as an abstract theological dogma," they write. "And unlike other saints, whose lives are often obscured by halos and hagiography, St. Francis had his feet firmly planted on the ground.
This item is an edited version of an article by Debbie Warhola of the Catholic News Service which appeared in The Monitor, October 16, 1997. J. Laufer.
