Our Stories
Francesca's Story
Follow Francesca as she shares her spiritual journey as a follower of Saint
Francis of Assisi, inspiring her devotion to uplifting others around her while
spreading love.
Julia: “What person or entity in your life has been the most influential for you?” Francesca: “For me, I grew up in a difficult family, but a friend invited me to go to church with
her and they taught us how to become followers of Saint Francis of Assisi, and he became the
most important and most influential person to me. It was fortunate that I had that happen to me,
just by chance it seemed like.” Julia: “Do you want to talk a little bit more about the process of finding him as that
influential person or kind of what he meant to you?” Francesca: “Well I had already had my first communion. I had gone through all the training and
the catechism and everything, but none of it meant anything in my heart. And after my first
communion I was attending a church that was a national monument, that was gorgeous. You
walk in and there’s paintings all over the ceiling, and everybody went because it was such a beautiful church and everybody went to show off their clothes. And I didn’t know what I was
doing there, you know? And then my girlfriend said, you know, come to my church you’re gonna
like my church, it’s fun, we have the beat music, guitars and everything. So I decided start going
over to her church. And when I went, at first I said why are there no paintings, there was nothing,
you know, there was nothing. And they said ‘It’s a Franciscan church and Saint Francis wanted
the churches to be simple.’ And then they said ‘You can come on Friday afternoon, we teach all
about Saint Francis.’ So I went on Friday afternoon, and they would teach us all about Saint
Francis, and then they would teach us about the problems we were facing today - how would he
tackle that? And we would have to go home and do homework and bring it back the next Friday.
And then after we worked all together as a group, after we worked, then we would have time in
the courtyard and it was a beautiful, beautiful courtyard. And we would have time to play. And
they were teaching me, then I understood finally. So Saint Francis became my ladder to God,
because before I hadn’t gotten any of it, you know? It was all up here, but it wasn’t in my heart. I
couldn’t find a consistent church near me, so I go to a Congregational church. It's important to
me to be able to serve and to be able to belong. So I started going, and I started serving, and it's
important to me, and it's also important that Saint Francis always had to uplift the least of the
least, you know, always make sure that you can help them. Like if they’re homeless, whatever.
Help them. Help them. Help them, you know? Don’t leave people stranded behind, you know? So that was really important to him, and it was important that we stop reading the Bible, stop reading all the books, and do it. Get out there and do it. So that was really big for him. So I try to be as active as I can. Whether its part of my church or not, I try to. If I see someone who is
homeless, I stop and talk about whatever they want to talk about. Saint Francis became really
meaningful to me, he made sense to me, for love to exist. For love to be the most important part
of living your life."