Today is the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi. Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to visit Assisi and see the sites where St. Francis of Assisi began the Franciscan order. While it was a joy to be in Assisi and walk where Francis had walked hundreds of years earlier, I was thankful to be able to learn more about the faith of St. Francis. It is this faith, which propelled his actions, which so greatly impacts on our faith.

What does it mean for our lives to become wonderfully complicated in today’s world? We enjoy the good qualities of what we have been given. God wants us to appreciate our lives. Gratitude is a wonderful spiritual living value. Challenging the life that we believe in, the goodness, the securities, our faith in a loving God, our Pope Francis tells us the need for our lives to become “wonderfully complicated”.