Befriending Our Fears in the Way of Saint Francis

The Center for Spiritual Imagination welcomes Francis of Assisi expert Jon M. Sweeney to the Cathedral of the Incarnation. Join Jon on Saturday from 9:30am to 3:00pm for a day of conversation, meditation and spiritual practice. On Sunday, Jon will preach at all cathedral services and lead a forum on Saint Francis. Registration is required to attend in person on Saturday; no registration necessary for Sunday. You may also join us online Saturday by registering here.

St. Francis understood soldiers and fools, mothers and fathers, business people and rulers, poets and court entertainers, pastors and criminals. He was, at one time or another, in one way or another, all of these. And the spiritual path he discovered is the way of faith made tangible, and perhaps more relevant for our times than it was in his own day.

The overriding message of his life and teachings—which we’ll celebrate all weekend, since it is the weekend of the feast of St. Francis of Assisi—begins and ends with the story of Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio. Jon will open up this story to us with vivid, contemporary detail, and he’ll explain how the spiritual practice of Francis is an invitation to embrace the wolf: to consider another viewpoint, to befriend our fears, to see ourselves in another, and to discover something new.

Jon will encourage us, with examples from his own life, to touch what is frightening, refuse power, live as if we have nothing to lose, listen to our inner animal, pray with the moon, walk more lightly on the ground, and turn toward what is simple. Francis of Assisi is the world’s most popular saint, and this weekend you’ll discover how he illuminated a peaceful path forward for those of us navigating today’s precarious times.

Jon M. Sweeney is an award-winning spiritual writer. The author of thirty-five books including The Complete Francis of Assisi, Meister Eckhart’s Book of the Heart (with Mark S. Burrows), Thomas Merton, and Feed the Wolf: Befriending Our Fears in the Way of Saint Francis, he is considered an authoritative voice on the life and spirituality of Saint Francis. A Catholic, he is married to a rabbi, and their interfaith marriage has been profiled in national media. He lives in Milwaukee with his wife and daughters. Twitter: @jonmsweeney; Instagram: @jonm.sweeney.