Collect for St. Francis of Assisi.

In another time and with another belief, we, who on this day reverently honour the memory of this eminent Saint of the older dispensation, St Francis of Assisi, pray that his example may not be lost upon us, but that his seraphic love for the object of his devotion may teach us a like love for the suffering and wounded Humanity, whom we preach and serve; that in the force of that love we may catch some portion of this Saint's great humility, of the richness of his spirit of renunciation, of his unfunded simple affection for all his fellow-men, for all living beings, for all outward objects; lastly, of his patient and loving resignation—so by our lives glorifying our service, as he glorified his—so spreading, as he spread his faith, the nobler and more enduring faith into which that of mediaeval Europe has in our times been transfigured. Amen.