"How well I recall this feeling which came upon me in my embodiment as Francis Bernardone when I was slated to take over my earthly father’s business and make my way on the path of worldly glory and honor.

"To the consternation of my father and friends, I forsook this cup of earthly inheritance and a prosperous business in order to strive for a better reward from my heavenly Father. I talked to Brother Sun and Sister Mother-Earth as I sought to impress the tenderness of Jesus’ love and the love of God upon each grain of sand wherever I walked. I drew forth the flame of God and asked him to let the light within me flow forth to hallow each of my footsteps, that all generations to come might thereby be blessed.

"You see, your immortality is attained here and now, blessed ones of the Light. It is won in your joyous use of the shining hours, in your radiant, God-expressed harmony, in paeans of praise released to the heart of God from your own wonderfully charged, beating hearts, swelling with the love-tide of gratitude for Life."

"When I was embodied as Francis of Assisi, I came to realize through studying the birds and animals that my power of concentration, saturated as it was with the love of God and his love in man, would draw me into an understanding of the God-intelligence acting in Nature which earlier I had so studiously ignored. Oftentimes more concerned with pleasure-seeking than religious fervor, I had not formerly been aware of the great love of God and the joy which that love could bring, far exceeding any outer source. Then, too, my prior contemplation of the realm of Nature had led me to think of heaven as a place apart from earth.

"Imagine, if you can, the joy in my soul when I found that the lovely trees were endowed with spiritual beings, angelic overseers of great stature and beauty whose power guided the development of molecular form, pattern, luster of leaf, and inherent healing properties. I felt the radiant energy (life-force) reaching out from these silent sentinels capturing the heart —as did one majestic tree deva who inspired Joyce Kilmer * to write his heartfelt poem 'Trees.' I also found to my amazement that the tiny furry creatures of the forest had a life-intelligence all their own, reflective of the Creator; and I saw how the life in them responded to the Life in me.

"Oh, heaven was not apart from me! For I perceived all things visible to be but the hem of the garment of heaven. Touching just the physical hem, I was made whole! What would happen when I touched the whole robe? I longed to know.

"Thus, in order to reach this transcendent goal, which I firmly believed was attainable—for I knew in my heart that God had ordained it—I set my mind to the path of spiritual illumination. Day by day, my mind was made holier still through contact with the spiritual realms. My one-pointed dedication to the Path and my contemplation of the holiness of all Life—and of the holiness of the God who had created all things to his delight, including man —were the keys to my assimilation of that holiness, which clearly seemed to permeate myself and everything around me."

"God is come to earth and the Lord Christ has called his own. There is redemption. And the holy orders are instituted once again, based upon the Body and the Blood of Christ, based upon the true communion [of saints and the Holy Communion celebrating Christ’s Body and Blood manifest in his Church], based upon the living seraphim who appear once again to announce to each one, as they announced to Francis of old, the supreme initiation of the stigmata.

"Understand that this stigmata does occur in this hour at the etheric level in the etheric body that there might be a witness upon earth by the living saints of the perpetual crucifixion of the Lord until the hour of the return and the salvation of all who are the children of the Light. Therefore, behold flaming seraphim! Behold thy Saviour! Behold, thy Redeemer liveth!

" . . . Let us not only repair the Church but let us build the new Church! Let the gates of the temple open wide! Let us experience the New Jerusalem! And let all who are of the Light fear not to come inside, for it is prophesied, for it is the gift of God of the ages.

" . . . And this then must be the sign of the acceptable offering: the sign of the Holy Spirit's descent upon you.

"The Holy Spirit will stand with a great measuring rod and with a sacred fire! And only when the inner Light reaches that certain crescendo will the fullness of the Holy Ghost be poured out upon you as the sign of the approval of the Light and the approval of the presence of truth within the abode of the temple of God. Realize then that no mere mortal, whether the individual or the collective councils of church and state, may approve the heart that is pure before God.

" . . . And the holy orders are instituted once again based upon the Body and the Blood of Christ, based upon the true communion [of saints and the holy communion celebrating Christ's Body and Blood manifest in his Church], based upon the living seraphim who appear once again to announce to each one, as they announced to Francis of old, the supreme initiation of the stigmata."

" . . . Remember, then, that the outer standards of the Franciscans, then and now, were not sufficient nor were they the epitome of that envisioned by Saint Francis. Thus that one passed from the screen of life [with a] broken heart [as did] his own Saviour. The breaking of the heart of the Son of God upon the cross of the crucifixion must not be in vain! It must be that those who follow [in his footsteps as disciples of the Word] recognize that first principles must be studied, they must be appropriated, [they must be embodied]. And all who walk truly after the Spirit must be of the independent sort that [Saint Francis] was, willing to reject anything and everything and all for that very present manifestation of Truth.

" . . . Thus we see the Mystical Body of God and the Church Universal as the composite of the saints and not of those who have failed in the path of sainthood. Let us distinguish, then. Let us go where the doves have flown! Let us go to the heart of the Blessed Virgin who holds undiluted the promise of the fulfillment of the Community of the Light!

" . . . Let there be the opening of the way! Let those who are disappointed in orthodoxy, both laymen and the priesthood, [come apart from] their disappointment and experience the new life and the new covenant! For the eighth covenant is upon us and it is the Light of the Ruby Ray."

"There are many people in the world today who have had little exposure to faith in God. They have had little contact with religious doctrine, and they have had little experience with the things of the Spirit. Yet their hearts are anhungered and they, too, are sheep of the Father's pasture. We turn, then, not in desperation but in deeper love, to those who have long lived in error and in the stain of moral sin. We turn to those who have been enmeshed in the gambling marts of the world, in prostitution, in crime, in narcotics traffic, and to those who dwell under the shadow of the wings of darkness.

"We call to the lame, the halt, the blind, and to all those who have need of our healing hands and we say, Come. The Spirit and the bride say, Come. Let all who are athirst say, Come. And let a new outreach go forth into the world bearing the tidings of truth. As Saint Francis taught the law of reembodiment in the public squares, so let us now have teachers who are willing to brave the censure of the merging orthodox movements that would unify all churches into one great church in order to intensify their power of religious control in the world."

"Saint Francis was outspoken in defense of the Christ light. By espousing Mother Poverty, he made the impoverished self the backdrop for the appearance of the Christ in an age fattened by self-satisfactions, indulgence in carnal pleasure and carnal treasure. Will you do the same? Will you be the fiery cross of the converging of Father-Mother God? Will you place yourself at the nexus to be the witness of the bursting-forth of the light and the identity of the eternal Christos? 'And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.' "

"Be ye therefore shepherds and shepherdesses. Be ye therefore disciples becoming the Word.

"Understand the meaning of the pillar. Look then: eight pillars in the sanctuary, signifying the path eightfold of the Buddha. Now, if I were to command, 'Remove them all in this instant!' you should not obey, for you understand the law: remove the pillars and the temple will fall. I say, ye are pillars in the temple of my God!

"Whose is the voice that shall speak to you and say, "Remove thyself from the temple. Thou art not needed. Thou shalt not be missed"? Thus, the Devil would make mist of thee —dispersing thy atoms, dispersing thy soul, and threatening the very spiritual life of the bride within thee.

"Pillars in the temple of my God, remember in this hour my hour of aloneness as Saint Francis. Remember when each of us in our turn has stood in the Church, the single Light here or there across the religious offerings of the world in all ages. Some of you are here in this hour because you and you alone have kept the Light—the Light of God in the community of the Buddha, the community of the called-out ones of the living Christ. You have stood, and by that strength you have earned an armor and a crown that has seen you through many difficult hours in the keeping of the flame for earth.

"Beloved ones, I greet you all as seasoned warriors for Christ, as Christian soldiers in the sense of being the instrument of The Faithful and True. I can tell you from my experience that you have never truly lived to know the work of God until you have stood alone, knowing that you alone were the solitary torch-bearer who could pass the flame of an age, of a nation, of a family, of a single soul, of an endeavor—sensing the aloneness of the desert where the saints have gone or the metropolis where they have also stood, sensing the aloneness of outer space, inner space, and knowing:

"All that I AM is God.
God is all that I AM and there is naught else.
I AM the aloneness of the All.
I AM the all-oneness of the All.
I AM THAT I AM, and God in me is the Victory-
Is the Victory of this star, this world, this child,
This single flower that will mean the turning of this life."

"Thus the seven chohans with the Maha Chohan, the representative of the Holy Spirit, serve with the World Teachers Jesus Christ and Saint Francis, known today as the Ascended Master Kuthumi. Thus the Saviour has chosen to share his body and his blood with Francis on earth in the visitation of the seraph in the stigmata, supreme rite of Christ crucified in the body and soul and heart and mind, yea, in the flesh and blood of Francis. He who accorded him in my name the honor of the reenactment of the crucifixion, which was in him bodily, has so accorded him in heaven the same oneness bodily. "This oneness is earned by love, self-sacrificing love, selfless love, a love that walks daily in the order of Saint Francis the path of surrender and service through the vows of obedience of the heart, chastity of the mind, and poverty of the soul. Thus the east side of the City Foursquare and the three gates thereon are held by the ascended masters for and on behalf of their unascended chelas, the embodied disciples of Christhood, the pilgrims of peace and truth and freedom and enlightenment whose emblem is the Rose Cross." Sanat Kumara "Therefore, I invite you to Kashmir. I invite you to the temple of the [Order of the] Brothers and Sisters of the Golden Robe. I desire to see you become as Franciscan monks and the sisters of Clare in meditation upon the Word of God and his Law day and night so that [you will develop] the steel-like mind [that] nothing can enter. Therefore you will not be defeated. " . . . Know the Law. Know the Word. Build a chalice of the Second Ray for your compassionate heart. Resolve to pass your tests and do not weary in this intensity of the spirit. By it we have all won our victory. There is no other way." Kuthumi November 25, 1989 The Stigmatization of Saint Francis by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio 1573-1610 "Some of you will recall reading of my love for the birds and creatures and that they came to me without fear. Beloved hearts, in most animals fear is the result of mankind’s own feelings which are, or have been, projected to the animals through the mass mind. Man’s survival instincts retained from prehistoric times sustain a fierce desire to self-protect. Race memories of past encounters with savage beasts keep alive a record and an automatic reflex whereby man reverts to a defensive posture when sensing the presence of certain wild animals."

Kuthumi

In 1223 Brother Francis prepared a special Christmas celebration. His heart’s desire was to commemorate the birth of Christ in a way which would vividly portray the suffering and discomfort the Saviour had borne. He asked his devout friend Messer John Vellita to set up a real manger filled with hay in a grotto on a steep wooded hill in Greccio. An ox and ass were also brought to the spot, just as at Bethlehem.

At midnight on Christmas Eve, the brothers and neighboring people came bearing candles and lighted torches that brilliantly illumined the night. Together they celebrated a solemn Mass over the crèche; and Francis, with a countenance of supreme compassion and unspeakable joy, delivered a moving sermon on the 'Bethlehem Babe.' For a moment, his friend John saw a beautiful infant lying in the manger, appearing almost lifeless. Then he saw Francis step forward and lift the Child, who opened his eyes as if waking from a deep sleep and smiled. The vision signified that although Christ had been asleep and forgotten in the hearts of many, he was being brought to life again through the devotion of his servant Francis.

See Thomas of Celano, The First Life of St. Francis, and St. Bonaventure, Major Life of St. Francis, in Marion A. Habig, ed., St. Francis of Assisi, Writings and Early Biographies: English Omnibus of the Sources for the Life of St. Francis, 3rd ed. (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1973), pp. 299-302, 710-11; Omer Englebert, Saint Francis of Assisi: A Biography, 2nd ed., trans. Eve Marie Cooper (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Servant Books, 1979), pp. 232-34; Johannes Jörgensen, Saint Francis of Assisi, trans. T. O’Conor Sloane (1912; reprint, Garden City, N.Y.: Image Books, 1955), pp. 216-17; and Felix Timmermans, The Perfect Joy of St. Francis, trans. Raphael Brown (1952; reprint, Garden City, N.Y.: Image Books, 1955), pp. 228-31.