Burning Love
The Heart of Francis

Beloved Francesco
Moyalia Tokmak, Coordinator of Sychar House of Prayer and Spirituality, Diocese of Toowoomba.

Francis sits in the orchard of Love,
his body given over to the shaping hands of the Eternal.

He has emptied himself of striving,
of claim, of name,
until he is nothing but openness.

The earth cradles his feet, the air carries his breath,
the silence holds his gaze.

He is a dwelling place made of deep listening,
true seeing.

In him burns the secret fire that consumes nothing
but transforms all.

Each olive leaf adorned with radiance,
each birdcall a psalm, each stone is a fragment of light.

He sees not with eyes of flesh
but with the eyes of Love,
and thus all things
shine with the nearness of the Beloved.

His hands are open wounds of welcome.

He prays without speech,
for Love has claimed his tongue.

His prayer is the rising and falling,
the gentle surrender of being taken
wholly into Love’s embrace.

Here poverty is not deprivation but divine love.

To be stripped is to be clothed
in the garments of the Beloved,
to be emptied is to be filled with the inexhaustible
sacred wine of unquenchable desire.

Here Francis teaches that the soul is seized
by the tenderness of Love.

O disciple of the Beloved,
he whispers …
dare to give yourself away,
as I gave myself away,
until there is nothing left but Love.

Dare to descend into emptiness,
for in emptiness the inner kiss awakens
and the Beloved finds you.

Dare to walk barefoot upon the ground,
for the soil itself will sing to you
the hidden name of God.

To sit with him beneath the olive trees is to sense
your own soul stirred into a sweet longing.

It is to be undone
by the beauty
that asks nothing
but
everything.

It is to be drawn into the same fire
until you too
become flame,
until you too
become flame,
until you too become
Love’s own.