Chapter Two:
The Way of Life
8. As Jesus was the
true worshipper of the Father, so let prayer and contemplation be the soul of
all they are and do. Let them participate in the sacramental life of the
Church, above all the Eucharist. Let
them join in liturgical prayer in one of the forms proposed by the Church,
reliving the mysteries of the life of Christ.
Prayer, contemplation, Sacraments,
especially Eucharist, and liturgical prayer—these are the elements of Article 8
of our Rule— “…the soul of all [we] are
and do.” That gets right down to our
very nature, doesn’t it? Let’s take a
brief look at what this means in our daily lives as Franciscans.
We know that St. Francis spent much
time secluded from his friars immersed in prayer and contemplation. We know that in one of these sessions near
the end of his life, he was blessed with the Stigmata. We also know that St. Francis was just
following the example of Jesus who also would steal away from his Disciples and
go to a private place to spend time in prayer and contemplation, especially
before some other major event in his life. (CCC
2599 & 2602) The
most visible example of these prayer sessions is the glimpse that we get in the
garden on Holy Thursday. So, we have
excellent examples from St. Francis and Jesus of just what the results of
prayer and contemplation can accomplish.
Our Constitutions enlighten us
further.
Article 12, 3.
Rule 8 The brothers and sisters should
love meeting God as His children and they should let prayer and contemplation
be the soul of all they are and do. They should seek to discover the presence
of the Father in their own heart, in nature, and in the history of humanity in
which His plan of salvation is fulfilled.
The contemplation of this mystery will dispose them to collaborate in
this loving plan.
Here
we see that an essential aspect of our prayer and contemplation is to “discover the presence of the Father in [our]
own heart...” This kind of prayer is
much deeper than a few Rosaries or Our Fathers.
We spend time in quiet solitude contemplating how God works in our lives
and quiet the mind so that He can “talk” to us.
As we do this, we find the remainder of that second sentence becoming a
part of our awareness of who we are. We
find ourselves not only loving God, but really, truly loving our neighbor with
a deep agape and collaborating with God’s loving plan. One follows the other. (See Constitutions, Article 14.1 & 5)
The
Catechism of the Catholic Church explains the processes of contemplative prayer
and would be well worth your time to review.
Consult Part Four, Chapter Three, Article I, Section III, Articles
2709—2719. Incorporating this form of
prayer into our daily routine will take us well beyond our usual repetition of
formal prayers into a “state of being with God.” As we set aside these quiet moments, we experience
how the Holy Spirit works in our lives and changes us dramatically—like He did
the Apostles. In so doing, we discover
how to become holy as Pope Francis is calling us to do in his recent apostolic
Exhortation, Gaudete et exsultate,
which we are running in our Newsletter on page 3.
Article
8 of the Rule continues to encourage us to fully participate in the Sacramental
life of the Church, especially the Eucharist.
We already know how important the Eucharist is to Franciscans. St. Francis reminds us that the Eucharist is
“the bodily presence of the most high Son of God in the world.” In our prayer addendum to the
Liturgy of the Hours for Thursday we pray, “O
God, Francis and Clare had great awe and reverence for the Eucharist—may our
devotion to Jesus’ Body and Blood be an example to those who aspire to the
Franciscan life.” Even the document Lumen Gentium from the Second Vatican
Council tells us that the Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian
life.” (LG
11) Yes,
the Eucharist is important. But our Rule
does ask us to participate in the sacramental life of the church. That means the other six sacraments are
important too. Most of us will have
participated in at least six of them, a few will have been ordained Deacons as
well. What we realize is the we receive much
grace through all the Sacraments and, having received that grace, need to
witness our faith through a radical change in our daily lives. (See
Constitutions, Article 14, 2-3; Article 53.2)
Finally,
Article 8 of our Rule adjures us to “join in the liturgical prayer of the
Church.” Most months we begin our
Gatherings with the Liturgy of the Hours.
Once again, our Constitutions remind us that there are other options:
The brothers and sisters, as well as the
fraternities, should adhere to the indications of the Ritual with respect to
the different forms of participating in the liturgical prayer of the Church,
giving priority to the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours. (Article 14.4)
The
Ritual lists a number of these optional prayers which include, a shortened form
of the Liturgy of the Hours, The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, The
Office of the Passion, The Office of the Twelve our Fathers, other forms of
liturgical prayer approved by the Spiritual Assistant, and Spiritual Prayer
Forms for the liturgical seasons, e.g., The Way of the Cross and The Crown
Rosary. (pp. 103-104.) Utilizing these other
liturgical forms of prayer help to vary our talks with God and keep our prayer
life fresh. This variety helps us
“relive the mysteries of the life of Christ,” thus bringing us closer to Him
and his Way of Life. As we become closer to Christ, we imitate our
Seraphic Father and become better servants of our Lord, helping others who are
the less fortunate of the world, not only in physical things but in spiritual
things as well.
Pace et bene.
