James Twyman: Saint Francis Goes to Broadway
The story went through my mind for about six years, and I finally sat and wrote it down. After 16 books, I feel like I’ve written one that’s for ages, one people might read for decades to come since it touches on universal themes and relates the stories from St. Francis’s life in a simple but profound way.
OMTimes: How does it compare with other books you’ve written in the past? For example, one of your best-known books, The Moses Code, was made into a movie, and The Barn Dance was about the loss of your former wife. Did they have the same impact on you that Giovanni has had?
James Twyman: Nothing has had more impact on me than The Barn Dance. Linda was murdered in 2005 and the book was a major part of my healing. I was so filled with grief and after three years, I couldn’t shake the guilt I felt like I should have been able to stop it from happening. It’s very difficult to describe what happened, but basically, I was drawn to a remote area of eastern Oregon where my daughter and I almost died in a car accident on the way back from Linda’s funeral in Chicago. I ended up meeting a man in the woods who took me to meet a very unusual group of people in a huge barn in the middle of nowhere, and what I encountered in that barn healed my heart. It’s definitely my personal favorite of all the books I’ve written because I needed to write it so badly.
And The Moses Code was different again. I was inspired to write it after I saw the movie The Secret for the first time. I thought it was a very well made film, but I also felt it was very dangerous because it was all about using spiritual laws to get what we don’t have, or attracting cars and houses and more money. I literally stood up after watching the film and began writing, trying to bring what I saw as the ego’s Law of Attraction, the way it was presented in The Secret, back to the soul. The soul and ego have a mantra. The ego’s mantra is “I Want,” while the soul’s mantra is “I AM.”
Then something really interesting happened. We were nearly finished with the movie, and I showed it to three friends in LA. One of them was the late Debbie Ford and the other two men were filmmakers. Of course, I wanted them to say it was brilliant and I didn’t need to change a thing, but they didn’t. One of the men said that if I wanted him to, he would work with me for two weeks and would help me pull it together. It was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make but I said yes, and in the end, we re-shot 70 percent of the film and re-edited 100 percent. It was a different film, all in two weeks. And it was so much better – even brilliant. And the funny thing about that is that the man who helped me was Drew Heriot – the director of The Secret. The whole project started with my distress over The Secret and in the end, the man who directed that movie saved mine.
OMTimes: Your bio says that you received a profession as a Franciscan hermit recently. Tell us what that means and how it’s impacting your life.
James Twyman: The two years I spent as a Franciscan when I was young had a big impact on me. There’s a saying I heard a long time ago – Once a Franciscan always a Franciscan – and I think it’s true. Saint Francis gets inside you. He’s very compelling and never let’s go. It’s his humility and simplicity that keeps drawing me back. So a couple of years ago, I asked a friend who is a Catholic bishop to allow me to take private vows and he accepted, but as much as I would love to meditate all day like a hermit, the world keeps pulling me back, just as it did Saint Francis. His strongest desire was to stay in his cave near the top of Mt. Subasio, but the responsibilities of the order kept calling him away. Maybe one day after I finish this tour I’ll be able to be a better hermit.
OMTimes: You still seem very Catholic in your approach. Is that true?
James Twyman: Yes and no. The majority of the dogma of the Catholic Church means nothing to me, but there is a deep mysticism there that always calls me. In the fourth century, St. Augustine famously said: “The Church is a whore, but she’s my mother.” I can relate to that. Even if I don’t agree with my mother, I still love her. But I also love the way everyone approaches God, just as Saint Francis did. That’s why I think he’s still so popular today and offers the world such a powerful opportunity.
OMTimes: You seem to believe he holds the answer to many of our problems today.
James Twyman: I do. Saint Francis lived at the end of what we now call the Dark Ages, and yet he was a major inspiration for the age that came next – the Renaissance. He sparked the imagination of all the great artists and poets who came after him. Today it seems we’re living in a new kind of dark age, one where we’re more polarized than ever before. It makes me wonder if Lenin was right. Maybe what we need is a small group of people who are as committed to peace and transformation as Saint Francis was 800 years ago. That’s why he’s so universally loved, and it is hopefully why people will come out to see this show when it’s on tour or in New York.
OMTimes: If St. Francis was here right now, what would his final message be?
James Twyman: I think he would remind us of how simple the truth is. He would say that we just have to surrender and trust, and maybe be like children again – in awe of everything. It sounds cliché, but I don’t think it is. That’s why stories of his life live on from century to century. Hopefully, we can learn the same lessons he learned, and a new fire will engulf the world just as it did in his time.
To get more information on James Twyman, his latest book, or to watch the first twenty minutes of the Brother Sun, Sister Moon musical shot in Assisi, go to JimmyTwyman.com
