Last year, Tammy and I went to Assisi and spent a week there. We saw all the regular sites, of course, but we also walked up the hill to the old hermitage, and a site where St. Francis spent time in prayer - and this is something I hadn't done in years because it's a hike up the hill, and usually only going to Assisi for a day doesn't leave enough time. So while there we wrote down some prayers, and left them in a box, and gave a little money, and filled out a card, and now I get these emails from the friars saying they are praying for me - the messages are in Italian, and as much as I don't trust robots, they are ok for translating from Italian - so here is one of the latest messages that I thought was too good not to share it:

James
may the Lord give you peace!

We are at the Portiuncula, the house that welcomes forgiven and saved children. In this time where contentions and discord tell of division and fatigue, the Pardon of Assisi still comes as a wide-open door that opens to hope. It is necessary to return to the heart and to that greater love for all.
It is not enough to know how to forgive ourselves: it is necessary daily to give up that hidden root in us called self-sufficiency.
Until we open up this possibility of an authentic relationship with God, the risk is that we will have big dreams of forgiveness and love for all, but with small fruits and small results. So for each of us, for our family and ecclesial realities, in this world so restless and sometimes tired of superficial things, a good feast of forgiveness means a feast of the depths to remove every root that limits us in that greater love that we all desire.

From the Portiuncula we friars continue to welcome and give God's mercy, and from this place come to you an authentic wish for a feast of Forgiveness, a feast of the depths and of God's mercy in us.