Francis and the San Damiano Cross: Meditations on Spiritual Transformation is an invaluable prayer resource that uses the cross of San Damiano--the cross that spoke to Francis of Assisi--as inspiration for personal reflection. Susan Saint Sing, a former resident of Assisi and follower of Francis, takes the reader on a journey to the place where Francis prayed before the San Damiano Cross. Not only does she recall her own personal journey to Assisi, she recounts the spiritual and physical transformation of Francis in his quest to "rebuild" the Church--a quest that began in the small, broken-down church of San Damiano but was the catalyst for a much broader reconstruction.

These meditations not only detail and explain the images on the cross itself, but they explain the powerful message of the cross--transformation: "It speaks to us still, beckoning us to repair our lives, our relationships, our failings--in honor of Him who gave his life there on the cross in order for us to become more in the fullness of his presence, to be instruments of peace. Christ's death and resurrection, celebrated on this gilded cross is a call to each of us, like it was to Francis, to become great through Him. We are called to live like Francis, to be like him and to be transformed."