Responding to Criticism

This we have seen with our eyes who were with him as also he himself witnessed, that when some of the friars did not satisfy him in his requirements, or said to him some word with which a man would be disturbed, he immediately went to prayer and when he returned, he would remember nothing.  He would never say, “This one disturbed me,” or, “This one said this to me.”  In this way he persevered and so much more as he drew near to death, considering how he might live and die in all humility and poverty and in perfection of all the virtues.

                        -Mirror of Perfection Section IV, Chapter 46

Ah, I wish I could be as Francis in this area.  I, as well as many of us, brood over the negative input we receive, the criticisms and barbs that people throw at us.  Sometimes they keep us up at night, squeezing our sleep from us, wondering what we could say in response, wishing we had been wise enough to say a good thing, or quick enough to respond in kind. 

The true wisdom of Francis is evident, for he takes such matters to prayer.  Then, offering such negativity to the Lord, he then forgets about it.  For how can one, being in the glory of the Ever Loving One, remember such insignificant matters as destructive language that passes away like a leaf in autumn?  Only love remains forever.  Let us leave all bitterness and anger behind for what endures.