I have just finished reading an incredible book called ‘Chasing Francis’ by Ian Morgan Cron.

It is an allegorical type story about a mega church pastor, Chase Falson, who has a bit of a crisis of faith and is forced to take a temporary leave of absence from his church. He ends up with his uncle Kenny in Italy, a Franciscan monk who starts him on a pilgrimage looking at the life and words of St Francis of Assisi.

This book has jumped on to my top books of all time list and I imagine even those who don’t follow the Christian faith would find it quite enchanting. It is not so much preachy as invitational. As the reader you are invited to spy on this life transforming journey and be affected by it as it plays out.

The real in the not real

I was a little disappointed to find out that the story was not true although the lead character being Chase and the author being Ian made me suspect that might be the case. But it reads as a true story and the journey is so authentically captured that it doesn’t feel like such a big thing in the larger picture.

From journeying through a very different faith practice and style, Chase is able to see some of the things that were terribly out of shape with his own faith and church which leads to a bit of a showdown in the final pages.

Faith in art

There is a section where Chase meets a world-renowned cellist named Carla Mellini who left church a while back but is drawn towards it again through encountering Chase’s pilgrimage.

The two of them are having a conversation with a British Musicologist Liam Cudder, who also happens to be an ordained priest:

Her expression became pensive. “So maybe I should go back to church?” she asked.

“Now would be the time,” he replied.

“Why now?” I asked.

“The church is realising there is an awareness of God sleeping in the basement of the postmodern imagination and they have to awaken it. The arts can do this. All beauty is subversive; it flies under the radar of people’s critical filters and points them to God. As a friend of mine says, ‘When the front door of the intellect is shut, the back door of the imagination is open.’ Our neglect of the power of beauty and the arts helps explain why so many people have lost interest in church. Our coming back to the arts will help renew that interest.”

Carla was spellbound. I tried to imagine what she was thinking. Liam was confirming something she’d probably known all along: her parents were wrong. It was a moment of exoneration. 

A lightbulb seemed to go off in Carla’s head. “It’s like speaking in tongues,” she said.

Liam’s fork froze halfway between his plate and his mouth. “I’m sorry?” he asked.

Carka sat up straight. “Art, music, dance, theater, literature, film – they’re all a way of speaking in tongues.”‘

“Of course!” I said. “They’re spiritual languages that communicate truths about God that human language doesn’t have words to express. That’s why the church needs to rediscover them.”

“What a brilliant way to put it,” Cudder said. 

Chase Francis for yourself

Catholicism is often a label that scares people off and I think one of the purposes of this book is probably to encourage us to seek truth in places we don’t expect to find it.

For Christians in particular, many will discard the whole thing if they suspect there is a Catholic flavour to it. But this book deals with that well as Chase comes from a very non-Catholic background and so the whole step from one world to the next starts as a massive leap for him, but as he starts to learn and enjoy and listen and grow, so it becomes a world he finds difficult to leave.

Francis of Assisi is an amazing historic figure and this book does well in terms of introducing us to him but also leaves us wanting to research more. I know my older sister’s favourite movie used to be ‘Brother Son, Sister Moon’ which dealt with his life and I have never watched it in its entirety, but I definitely plan to do so now.

This is a book you definitely want to add to your Must list. You will not be disappointed.