February 16, 2024

Hello John,

As we approach the conclusion of our "Invest in Inspiration" matching gift week, I pause to express my deepest gratitude for the outpouring of generosity from our beloved supporters. Your commitment has illuminated our path and strengthened our mission to spread faith, hope, and love to all corners of the world. As we enter the final day of this extraordinary initiative, I invite you to join the Franciscan community once again in igniting inspiration and doubling the impact of your generosity.

Your Lenten donation today will be a beacon of light in the lives of countless individuals seeking solace and spiritual nourishment. Together, let's make this final day of giving a testament to the power of compassion and grace. God bless you!

With profound gratitude, 

Christopher Meyer
Director of Development 

Saint of the Day for February 16: Gilbert of Sempringham

(c. 1083 – February 4, 1189)

Gilbert was born in Sempringham, England, into a wealthy family, but he followed a path quite different from that expected of him as the son of a Norman knight. Sent to France for his higher education, he decided to pursue seminary studies.

He returned to England not yet ordained a priest, and inherited several estates from his father. But Gilbert avoided the easy life he could have led under the circumstances. Instead he lived a simple life at a parish, sharing as much as possible with the poor. Following his ordination to the priesthood he served as parish priest at Sempringham.

Among the congregation were seven young women who had expressed to him their desire to live in religious life. In response, Gilbert had a house built for them adjacent to the Church. There they lived an austere life, but one which attracted ever more numbers; eventually lay sisters and lay brothers were added to work the land. The religious order formed eventually became known as the Gilbertines, though Gilbert had hoped the Cistercians or some other existing order would take on the responsibility of establishing a rule of life for the new order. The Gilbertines, the only religious order of English origin founded during the Middle Ages, continued to thrive. But the order came to an end when King Henry VIII suppressed all Catholic monasteries.

Over the years a special custom grew up in the houses of the order called “the plate of the Lord Jesus.” The best portions of the dinner were put on a special plate and shared with the poor, reflecting Gilbert’s lifelong concern for less fortunate people.

Throughout his life, Gilbert lived simply, consumed little food, and spent a good portion of many nights in prayer. Despite the rigors of such a life he died at well over age 100.

Reflection

When he came into his father’s wealth, Gilbert could have lived a life of luxury, as many of his fellow priests did at the time. Instead, he chose to share his wealth with the poor. The charming habit of filling “the plate of the Lord Jesus” in the monasteries he established reflected his concern. Today’s Operation Rice Bowl echoes that habit: eating a simpler meal and letting the difference in the grocery bill help feed the hungry.

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Heaven and Earth

Francis, Clare, and Bonaventure believed that God was relational, incarnational, and companionable. You could gaze upon God, as Clare counseled, and see God suffering on the cross and feel your own pain and joy, and the pain and joy of the human and nonhuman world. You could feel God’s own pain at the suffering of all creation, human and nonhuman.

More than that, the first Franciscans believed that God was in the world, actively shaping human experience, and inspiring birds’ songs and wolves’ howls. Francis’s stigmata reflected the interplay of divine and human empathy and revealed the intimacy of a suffering God who invites us to share in his sacrificial love, transforming self-interest into selflessness, to incarnate God’s realm “on earth as it is in heaven.”

—from the book Simplicity, Spirituality, Service: The Timeless Wisdom of Francis, Clare, and Bonaventureby Bruce G. Epperly

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