Happy feast day for St. Francis of Assisi!

September is already behind us and our October meeting is fast approaching. That will be on Tuesday, October 10 at 7:30 pm in classroom 3 at St. Stephen’s, after the evening Mass.

This month we are starting a new book, St. Francis of Assisi. And what a biography it promises to be – that most unique of writers (and lover of paradox) on the life and influence of that most unique and enigmatic of saints.

The first couple of chapters are, like the beginnings of most of Chesterton’s books, preparatory in the sense of setting the stage for the work proper.

In the first chapter (which we will read for the October meeting) he exposes the problem of the saint himself and the problem of writing about him. Its an exploration of the impossibility of finding the perfect point of view from which to write. And of what audience to write for.

The second chapter (which we’ll read for November) provides the historical context for the life of St. Francis. This chapter will remind us of the Chesterton’s writing to establish the historical settings of various historical eras in The Everlasting Man.

Not until chapter three will we start to reflect on the events of the life of St. Francis, although we will still read plenty about him in the first two chapters.

HERE is a link to the introduction to St. Francis from the American Chesterton Society

HERE is the short chapter on St. Francis from his early book Twelve Types

There’s plenty of reading here to enjoy, but not too much.

Happy reading, and I look forward to discussing it with you all at our meeting on October 10th!

Yours,

Spencer

“​There is a great man who makes every man feel small.

But the real great man is the man who makes every man feel great.​”

– G. K. Chesterton,​ Charles Dickens​