Looking at the Rule - Paragraph 3

Looking at the Rule

 

This year Franciscans are celebrating the 800^th anniversary of the Later Rule. Our own Rule was revised in 1978. This is the fifth of a series of articles looking at that Rule.   

 

3. The present rule, succeeding Memoriale propositi (1221) and the rules approved by the Supreme Pontiffs Nicholas IV and Leo XIII, adapts the Secular Franciscan Order to the needs and expectations of the Holy Church in the conditions of changing times. Its interpretation belongs to the Holy See and its application will be made by the General Constitutions and particular statutes.

 

Comments: Our current Rule is the fourth expression of the Rule. While the language is updated, the principle of Franciscan gospel living remains unchanged. It is applied to the “changing times” to keep it relevant. At the same time, the Rule recognizes the authority of the Church – the Holy See. This fidelity to and faithful relationship with Church authorities has been one of the strengths of the Order, helping to sustain it for 800 years.  

Pax et bonum

Looking at the Rule - Paragraph 2

Looking at the Rule

 

This year Franciscans are celebrating the 800^th anniversary of the Later Rule. Our own Rule was revised in 1978. This is the fourth of a series of articles looking at that Rule.   

 

2. The Secular Franciscan Order holds a special place in this family circle. It is an organic union of all Catholic fraternities scattered throughout the world and open to every group of the faithful. In these fraternities the brothers and sisters, led by the Spirit, strive for perfect charity in their own secular state. By their profession they pledge themselves to live the gospel in the manner of St. Francis by means of this rule approved by the Church.

 

Comments: The “family circle” is, of course, the Franciscan family – the First Order (friars), the Second Order (women religious), and the “Third Order,” the Secular Franciscans.

 

As Seculars we support and encourage the first two orders, as well as each other. But we also have a special call to “strive for perfect charity in their own secular state.” We seek to put the Franciscan charism into practice in world.

 

Although “secular,” we are professed members of an official order in the Church. We are more than just a group of lay people who get together regularly.

Pax et bonum

Looking at the Rule - Paragraph 1

Looking at the Rule

 

This year Franciscans are celebrating the 800^th anniversary of the Later Rule. Our own Rule was revised in 1978. This is the third of a series of articles looking at that Rule.   

 

Chapter 1 THE SECULAR FRANCISCAN ORDER (OFS)

 

The Franciscan family, as one among many spiritual families raised up by the Holy Spirit in the Church , unites all members of the people of God — laity, religious, and priests — who recognize that they are called to follow Christ in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi .

 

In various ways and forms but in life-giving union with each other, they intend to make present the charism of their common Seraphic Father in the life and mission of the Church.

 

Comments: There are many spiritual families in the Church raised up by the Holy Spirit. One of those families is our own Franciscan family, which binds together laity, religious, and clergy. All Franciscans work to live out the charism of Father Francis in serving the Church.

 

Those of us who are Secular Franciscans have a vital role to play in the Franciscan Family. We are in community with the other two orders – the friars and the Poor Clares – and with each other. All three parts of the Franciscan family support and complement each other.

 

But we also have a special call to make the spirit of St. Francis present in the world through marriage and raising families, through our work, through our participation in parishes and various ministries, and so on. In doing so, we advance the life and mission of the Church.

Pax et bonum

Looking at the Rule - Prologue 2

Looking at the Rule

 

This year Franciscans are celebrating the 800^th anniversary of the Later Rule. Our own Rule was revised in 1978. This is the second of a series of articles looking at that Rule.   

 

Prologue

Exhortation of Saint Francis to the Brothers and Sisters in Penance

In the name of the Lord!

 

Part Two:

 

Concerning Those Who Do Not Do Penance

 

But all those men and women who are not doing penance and do not receive the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and live in vices and sin and yield to evil concupiscence and to the wicked desires of the flesh, and do not observe what they have promised to the Lord, and are slaves to the world, in their bodies, by carnal desires and the anxieties and cares of this life (cf. Jn 8:41).

 

These are blind, because they do not see the true light, our Lord Jesus Christ; they do not have the Son of God who is the true wisdom of the Father. Concerning them, it is said "Their skill was swallowed up" (Ps 107:27) and "cursed are those who turn away from your commands" (Ps 119:21). "They see and acknowledge, they know and do bad things and knowingly destroy their own souls.

 

See, you who are blind, deceived by your enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil, for it is pleasant to the body to commit sin and it is bitter to make it serve God because all vices and sins come out and "proceed from the heart of man" as the Lord says in the gospel (cf. Mt 7:21). And you have nothing in this world you would possess the vanities of this world for a long time.

 

But you have been deceived, for the day and the hour will come to which you give no thought and which you do not know and of which you are ignorant. The body grows infirm, death approaches, and so it dies a bitter death, and no matter where or when or how man dies, in the guilt of sin, without penance or satisfaction but does not do it.

The devil snatches the soul from his body with such anguish and tribulation that no one can know it except he who endures it, and all the talents and power and "knowledge and wisdom" (2 Chr 1:17) which they thought they had will be taken away from them (cf. Lk 8:18; Mk 4:25), and they leave their goods to relatives and friends who take and divide them and say afterwards, "Curse be his soul because he could have given us more, he could have acquired more than he did." They worms eat up the body and so they have lost body and soul during this short earthly life and will go into the inferno where they will suffer torture without end.

 

 All those into whose hands this letter shall have come we ask in the charity that is God (cf.1 Jn 4:17) to accept kindly and with divine love the fragrant words of our Lord Jesus Christ quoted above. And let those who do not know how to read have them read to them.

 

And may they keep them in their mind and carry them out, in a holy manner of the end, because they are "spirit and life" (Jn 6:64). And those who will not do this will have to render "an account on the day of judgement" (cf. Mt 12:36) before the tribunal of our Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Rom 14:10).

 

Comments

 

The second part of the prologue deals with those who do not do penance – in effect, those who turn from God, and who do not receive His Body and Blood..

 

As a result, they are prone to “live in vices and sin and yield to evil concupiscence and to the wicked desires of the flesh.” They have been blinded, unable to hear the “voice of the Spirit,” and are enslaved by sin. They are warned that they will not know true happiness in this world or the next.

 

The call is to do penance!

Pax et bonum

Looking at the Rule - Prologue 1

Looking at the Rule

 

This year Franciscans are celebrating the 800^th anniversary of the Later Rule. Our own Rule was revised in 1978. This is the first of a series of articles looking at that Rule.   

 

Prologue

Exhortation of Saint Francis to the Brothers and Sisters in Penance

In the name of the Lord!

 

Chapter 1

Concerning Those Who Do Penance

 

All who love the Lord with their whole heart, with their whole soul and mind, with all their strength (cf. Mk 12:30), and love their neighbors as themselves (cf. Mt 22:39) and hate their bodies with their vices and sins, and receive the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and produce worthy fruits of penance.

 

Oh, how happy and blessed are these men and women when they do these things and persevere in doing them, because “the spirit of the Lord will rest upon them” (cf. Is 11:2) and he will make “his home and dwelling among them” (cf Jn 14:23), and they are the sons of the heavenly Father (cf. Mt 5:45), whose works they do, and they are the spouses, brothers, and mothers of our Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Mt 12:50).

 

We are spouses, when by the Holy Spirit the faithful soul is united with our Lord Jesus Christ; we are brothers to him when we fulfill “the will of the Father who is in heaven” (Mt 12:50).

 

We are mothers, when we carry him in our heart and body (cf. 1 Cor 6:20) through divine love and a pure and sincere conscience; we give birth to him through a holy life which must give life to others by example (cf. Mt 5:16).

 

Oh, how glorious it is to have a great and holy Father in heaven! Oh, how glorious it is to have such a beautiful and admirable Spouse, the Holy Paraclete.

 

Oh, how glorious it is to have such a Brother and such a Son, loved, beloved, humble, peaceful, sweet, lovable, and desirable above all: Our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave up his life for his sheep (cf. Jn 10:15) and prayed to the Father saying:

 

“Oh, holy Father, protect them with your name (cf. Jn 17:11) whom you gave me out of the world. I entrusted to them the message you entrusted to me and they received it. They have known that in truth I came from you; they have believed that it was you who sent me. For these I pray, not for the world (cf. Jn 17:9). Bless and consecrate them, and I consecrate myself for their sakes. I do not pray for them alone; I pray also for those who will believe in me through their word (cf. Jn 17:20) that they may be holy by being one, as we are (cf. Jn 17:11). And I desire, Father, to have them in my company where I am to see this glory of mine in your kingdom” (cf. Jn 17:6-24).

 

Observations:

 

In this prologue, Saint Francis begins by listing some key components of being one who does penance, by which he means a person who has turned toward God. Those are:

 

Love of God

Love of Neighbor

Hatred of Vice and Sin

Receiving the Eucharist

Producing Worthy Fruits of Penance

These are all part of our call as Christians, but as Franciscans we are called to give these elements added focus. He notes that those who love the Lord have a deep, familial relationship with Him. We become obedient sons and daughters, spouses, brothers and sisters, and mothers. Saint Francis asks the Father to protect all those “who do penance.”  And in being ones who do penance, we are called, in effect, to mirror Christ in our lives. St. Francis himself set an inspiring example, so mirroring Christ he even received the Stigmata.

Pax et bonum

Pat Cammarata, ofs

May Pat rest in peace.

Pax et bonum