Hello,
My name is Lou Redmond.
Thank you so much for listening.
I grew up a Roman Catholic.
I went to church every week and participated in all the rites of initiation.
Overall,
My experience of church was neutral.
I never had the fear of God instilled in me like many who end up disavowing their roots.
Father Richard Rohr quips,
The only group larger than Catholics are former Catholics.
For me,
Church was just boring.
Maybe they were speaking of the sins of the flesh,
But I couldn't hear them,
Literally.
Often the priests had a thick Italian accent that got drowned out in the cathedral.
I just sat there counting the seconds until it was over,
Or looking forward to having a normally forbidden sip of wine during communion.
My mom,
Who is still a devout churchgoer to this day,
Dangled the carrot of confirmation as my path out.
She told me that if I got confirmed,
I could choose whether I go to church or not.
When the time came,
I had to choose a confirmation name.
I don't have an official middle name,
So I was excited to pick something I liked.
I went with Francis because of St.
Francis of Assisi.
Thinking back,
I don't know why I chose it.
It was not that I was an animal lover.
I just liked the name.
Now,
I think the name chose me.
To my mom's disappointment,
I stopped attending church after being confirmed.
However,
Francis stayed with me.
In 2015,
I had a spiritual awakening and on the same day,
Quit my job and proposed to my ex-girlfriend,
Now wife.
That's a story for another day.
At the end of that day,
I ended up at my neighbor's house,
An older,
Devout Catholic woman named Eva.
After hearing my story,
She said,
I have something for you and handed me a figurine of none other than St.
Francis of Assisi.
After,
St.
Francis popped up everywhere.
I visited the ashram of Paramahansa Yogananda and I found a shrine to St.
Francis where I would meditate.
Shortly after,
I came across the prayer of St.
Francis and hung it up in my bathroom to remind myself of it daily.
20 years after my confirmation,
I have a new relationship with my Catholic roots.
I have a greater appreciation of the spiritual foundation of my ancestors,
Thanks in part to teachers like Father Richard Rohr,
Cynthia Bourgeault,
And even Carl Jung.
Jung believed that one's cultural and religious background wasn't something to be casually discarded,
But rather deeply understood and integrated into one's psychological development.
He saw religious traditions as reservoirs of profound psychological wisdom and symbolic meaning.
In his view,
Completely rejecting the tradition you were raised in could lead to a kind of spiritual and psychological impoverishment.
I hope how and what I share helps build a bridge back for people who may have disavowed their Western religion.
I've been encanting the prayer of St.
Francis for nearly 10 years.
He is a beloved spiritual role model.
No matter what your religious background,
I trust that you will find some connection to this prayer.
If you want to deepen and embody the prayer of St.
Francis and meditate to it,
I have a few options for you.
I have a free meditation on here called The Prayer of St.
Francis and you can go check that out.
It's about a 10-minute practice.
And I have a course on Insight Timer called Living the Prayer of St.
Francis where we will break down different elements and also add in other wisdom and poetry from St.
Francis throughout.
It's really a powerful offer and it's going to help you cultivate your connection to St.
Francis and your connection to the divine.
And so if that interests you,
Go check out that course and I will see you in there.
