Reclaiming Francis

This is an inspiring book about how the Saint and the Pope are renewing the Church. The author had completed a manuscript about St Francis of Assisi before the election of Pope Francis, so this version is completely recast in the light of the events since that time. The Pope himself explains how he arrived at the decision on the name. The author draws on the original biography of St Francis by his follower St Bonaventure and then a series of chapters sets out his vision for renewing the church, which means a gospel way of life, loving God and the poorer, imitation of Jesus, love of the Earth and love of peace. At the end, we are reminded that some of his contemporaries regarded both Jesus and Francis as mad but they were deeply aligned with the spirit, a state totally foreign to most people in most epochs - the prophet is always a suspect figure and the prophetic stance is a dangerous and necessary one.