Customer Reviews

Saint Francis of Assisi (Package of 10)

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Lawrence Lovasik's booklet "Saint Francis of Assisi" is 32 pages long and colourfully illustrated. It tells the story of Francis's life from his birth to well-to-do Italian merchant parents in the late twelfth century AD, his wild youth, his time in the military, his illness and healing, his eventual renunciation of materialism to follow Christ, his preaching and teaching, his start of a missionary movement, and his death at a relatively young age. It is meant to be a children's book, but can also be equally inspiring to adults. I was moved by it even though I have studied the life and mission of Francis from an academic and missiological viewpoint. The numerous illustrations were well done and portrayed the rough and tumble times of Francis. But, there were a few aspects to the booklet I found disappointing. For instance, the term "saint" is applied to Francis in the title and several times throughout the book. Although I know this is standard Roman Catholic practice, technically ALL believers in Jesus Christ are referred to as "saints" in the New Testament (1 Cor 6:2, 16:1; 2 Cor 13:13; Philip 4:21-22), not just some special people. Also, for example, there was no mention of the fact that Francis eventually resigned from leading his own movement because he could not stop the distortions that were brought in. Some of its more ambitious and bureaucratic leaders eventually took over and changed the direction of the mission. Francis later wrote his last "Testament" to try to sway the Franciscan movement back to its first pure principles. Overall, this is a well done booklet that can be a nice gift to children and even some adults who are new to the Christian faith.

RAD ZDERO, author of LETTERS TO THE HOUSE CHURCH MOVEMENT and THE GLOBAL HOUSE CHURCH MOVEMENT