From The Testament of St. Francis:
“…the Lord gave me, and gives me still, such faith in priests who live according to the rite of the holy Roman Church because of their orders that, were they to persecute me, I would still want to have recourse to them…..And I act in this way because, in this world, I see nothing physically of the most high Son of God except His most holy Body and Blood which they receive and they alone administer to others. I want to have these most holy mysteries honoured and venerated above all things and I want to reserve them in precious places.”
Amen. Happy feast of our holy father Francis!
Yes, Amen! Happy feast of St. Francis!
I wonder if St Francis, meant “substantially” here, when he said “physically”?
Or because “Transubstantiation” had not been defined as such, the Church referred to the Blessed Sacrament as “physical” during the great saints earthly pilgrimage ?
(Sigh) Thank you, dear St. Francis, and happy feast day!
@danphunter1: Here’s the Latin, which doesn’t really help. Francis was no theologian, as we say. ;)
…quia nihil video corporaliter in hoc saeculo de ipso altissimo Filio Dei, nisi sanctissimum corpus et sanctissimum sanguinem suum, quod ipsi recipiunt et ipsi soli aliis ministrant.
I really needed to hear this after yesterday. Happy Feast Day dear St. Francis.
The good saint’s not talking about the Presence being here physically. He’s talking about what he sees physically, with his own corporal eyes in his own body. Everything else of Jesus we can only make out with the eyes of the spirit; Communion we see with our own eyes.