In the long days and longer nights before the Dream came true, Francis wondered if the Journey he had set upon would really bring him to his destination. When he was a boy, every trip he took out beyond the walls of Assisi brought him to some place where he could say, “I’m here in this place; I have arrived.” But this Journey was different. It pointed to the very roots of Christ’s own life. Its end was somewhere in the real meaning of Jesus’ words. It was a trip backward to the literal gospel life and forward into the Kingdom and inward to the heart where dwelled the Trinity. And you could never say, “I have arrived.” It was a Journey of decisions as radical as the gospel itself. At every fork in the road, there was a narrow, difficult way and a wide, easy way to travel. And Francis was continually surprised with the paradoxical joy that the harder road would bring, time after time. Still, at every road the easier way attracted him with almost hypnotic persuasion.
—from the book Francis: The Journey and the Dream
by Murray Bodo, OFM, page
//Franciscan Media//