Episode Details

Episode 2: A Living Witness to Christ – St. Francis of Assisi: His Life and Spirituality with Dr. Anthony Lilles

In this second episode of St. Francis of Assisi: His Life and Spirituality, Dr. Anthony Lilles and Kris McGregor continue their exploration of St. Bonaventure’s Prologue to The Life of St. Francis. Bonaventure reveals St. Francis not simply as an extraordinary saint, but as a living witness who reflects the mystery of Jesus Christ. Through rich biblical imagery drawn from John the Baptist, the Prophet Elijah, the angels, and the Book of Revelation, Bonaventure presents Francis as God’s messenger of peace, repentance, and hope, whose life continues to illuminate the Church. Dr. Lilles explains how the saints preserve the fullness of the Gospel by drawing believers beyond intellectual arguments into a living encounter with Christ.

The conversation also explores the profoundly Eucharistic heart of St. Francis’ spirituality. Bonaventure portrays Francis as one who continually points others toward Christ crucified and present in the Eucharist, inviting every Christian to a life of repentance, humility, and loving penance. Dr. Lilles concludes by offering practical ways to begin walking with St. Francis through pilgrimage, prayerful reading of Bonaventure’s biography, Eucharistic adoration, and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This episode deepens our understanding of Francis as both a model of holiness and a guide who leads every soul more fully into the mystery of Jesus Christ.

Excerpts from the Prologue of The Life of St. Francis of Assisi by St. Bonaventure:

“Thus, first prepared by the gifts of heavenly grace, then enriched by the merits of unconquered virtue, filled with the spirit of prophecy and ordained to the angelic office of declaring good news, burning with seraphic fire and raised above all human things in the fiery chariot of Divine love, it may reasonably be affirmed from the clear testimony of his whole life that he came in the spirit and power of Elijah.

We may also say that he was truly foreshadowed by that other friend of Christ, the Apostle and Evangelist St. John, under the likeness of the angel whom he saw ascending from the east with the sign of the living God. Under this figure we may assuredly discern Francis, the servant, herald and messenger of God, the beloved of Christ, the pattern for our imitation, the wonder of the world, if we carefully observe and mark the excellence of his marvelous sanctity. During his life, he imitated the purity of the angels, so that he may be set forth as an example to all the perfect followers of Christ.

And we are moved not only to believe this firmly, but also to affirm it confidently by the office which he exercised in his own person, inviting all men to tears and penance, clothing himself in sackcloth, girding himsel