SFO International Council - Weekly edition
Volume: 4 - N. 1 - 1998 - January - I
From: Letter of the CFF
"Above all, seek the Spirit of the Lord and his holy operation"
(Part - I)
Brothers and Sisters,
1. "The year 1998, the second of the preparatory phase of the Jubilee, will be dedicated in a particular way to the Holy Spirit and to His sanctifying presence within the Church". So wrote Pope John Paul II in his Tertio millennio adveniente (n. 44). Following on the letter "Reconciled in Jesus Christ" which we sent you last year, we would like to take the opportunity offered to us Franciscans this year by this circumstance to become more conscious of the place taken by the Holy Spirit in the experience of Francis and Clare and of the place which He ought to take today in the lives of their followers. May it at the same time stimulate us to discover what is the original contribution which the great Franciscan Family can bring to the movement of re-discovery of the Spirit taking place throughout the Church.
The Holy Spirit in the experience of Francis and Clare
2. The Holy Spirit is the real secret which explains the life of Francis, the hidden spring from which flowed every intuition and initiative of his. Re-reading the first biographies of the Saint in this light, one remains impressed by a singular fact: every chapter of these, it can be said, begins with a formula of the type "moved by the Spirit", or "full of the grace of the Spirit", or "by divine inspiration" Francis said, went, did... All the great turning-points of his life are attributed to the specific action of the Spirit. It was "under the impulse of the Spirit" that Francis entered San Damiano and received the command "Go, Francis, repair my house", and it was the same Spirit that gradually revealed to him its meaning and significance 1.. It was again "by the grace of the Holy Spirit" that he later discovered that the Lord had not called him and his companions "only for their salvation, but also for that of many others". He discovered, in other words, also the apostolic and missionary dimension of his Order. 2.
In his work of "formation" of the other friars, too, he let himself be guided by the Spirit: "The blessed father Francis was being daily filled with the consolation and the grace of the Holy Spirit; and with all vigilance and solicitude he was forming his new sons...".3.
3. As has been said by eminent scholars, the movement set in motion by Francis was "the greatest charismatic movement in the history of the Church". The "charismatic" traits were the novelty, the spontaneity, the immediacy of his action. His discourses were "full of the power of the Holy Spirit"; he invoked the Spirit before he began to preach, and his words poured out in such a way as to make it evident to all that "it was not he who spoke, but the Spirit of the Lord". 4. Some of his typical gestures are of a clearly charismatic kind. Every time that "he was full of the ardour of the Holy Spirit, to express the exuberant warmth of his heart" he began to speak in French. 5. This was obviously his way of speaking "in tongues". He did not even shrink at times from asking God to reveal His will to him "at the first opening of the Bible".6.
All this brings us to understand where is to be found the ultimate explanation of Francis's "conformity" with Christ: not in a self-imposed programme of methodical imitation of Christ in this or that virtue, but in having in himself the Spirit of Christ and the same sentiments which were in Him. His was an imitation of Christ which was "pneumatic" before it was ascetic.
4. The Holy Spirit which is the secret of the life of Christ, his "inseparable companion" as St. Basil describes him, who inspires his every action and guides his every step, is also the intimate secret of the life of Francis... And what is said of Francis, must likewise be said of his "little plant" Clare, on whom one day the Holy Spirit was seen to descend under the form of two wings. 7. In fact it is "one and the same Spirit" which has called the brothers and sisters. 8. These have been "espoused with the Holy Spirit" in imitation of Mary, "Spouse of the Holy Spirit" (a title which Francis himself helped to introduce into the language of theology 9. ).
What Francis taught his followers regarding the Holy Spirit
5. Francis was not content with himself living the whole of his life "in the Spirit", but through his Rule and Admonitions tried to stamp upon the life of all his followers also this great opening to the Spirit. He once proclaimed the Holy Spirit to be "the Minister General of the Order", regretting the fact that he could not insert this idea into his Rule, because this had already been approved by papal bull. 10. What the friars should desire above all things is to have "the Spirit of God at work within them". 11. Both those who work with their hands and those who, like Antony, dedicate themselves to study and teaching, should strive "not to extinguish the spirit of holy prayer and devotion". 12.
6. The Seraphic Father has also left us very valuable criteria, biblical in tone, for discerning on the one hand when a religious lives according to the Spirit and on the other when he follows the letter and the flesh: "A religious has been killed by the letter when he has no desire to follow the spirit of Sacred Scripture, but wants to know what it says only so that he can explain it to others. On the other hand, those have received life from the spirit of Sacred Scripture who, by their words and example, refer to the most high God, to whom belongs all good, all that they know or wish to know, and do not allow their knowledge to become a source of self-complacency". 13.
St. Bonaventure, faithful interpreter in this, too, of the thought of the Founder, has made of the anointing by the Spirit ("spiritual unction") the characteristic of the Franciscan Order. He distinguishes among the various religious Orders of his time, "those who pay attention primarily to speculation and secondarily to unction and those who pay attention primarily to unction and secondarily to speculation", placing the Seraphic Order among the latter. 14.
7. In our life as followers of Francis and Clare how are we to rediscover this powerful spiritual lymph which was there at our origin? Today's Church is aware of many and widely varying needs, but none of them is more urgent than this: to offer a genuine response to the world's thirst for spirituality. Well-known is the statement made by Paul VI: "Many times We have asked ourselves what is the first and last need that we see in this blessed and beloved Church of ours... And you know what it is: the Holy Spirit! The Church has need of a perennial Pentecost; has need of fire in her heart, the word on her lips, prophecy in her glance".15.
The world, if it does not find in Christian communities a spiritual alternative to the materialism and arid technologism which characterizes today's society especially in rich countries, will look elsewhere, at times in extremely doubtful places and forms. The attraction exercised especially on the young by such centres of spirituality as Taizé, for example, demonstrates the positive aspect of the same tendency. But where have the Christian faithful more right to find "dwellings of the Spirit" than in our Franciscan communities or fraternities? Many bishops want us in their local Churches expressly in order to respond to this need.
8. Saint Francis has indicated to us the guiding principle for carrying out this task: preserving the spirit of holy prayer and devotion. In other words, prayer. It is above all in prayer that the Holy Spirit creates "intimacy with God". We may note a constant fact in Scripture: the Holy Spirit comes to those whom he finds in prayer. He came to Jesus after he had received baptism when "he was in prayer" (cf. Lk 3:21); he came upon the apostles while they were "of one mind and persevering in prayer, with Mary, the mother of Jesus" (cf. Acts 1:14). And Jesus himself has said that the heavenly Father gives the Holy Spirit to "those who ask him" (Lk 11:13). St. Bonaventure says that the Holy Spirit comes "where he is loved, where he is invited, where he is expected". 16.
1. S. Bonaventure, Major Life, II, 1 (Omnibus p. 640)
2. Cf. Legend of the Three Companions , X, 36 ( Omnibus p. 925)
3. Celano, First Life I, XI, 26 ( Omnibus p. 249)
4. St. Bonaventure, Major Life, II, 2; XII, 7 ( Omnibus pp. 647, 725)
5. Celano, First Life, VII, 16 ( Omnibus p. 242); Second Life, VIII, 13 ( Omnibus p.373).
6. Cf. Celano, First Life, II, 92 ( Omnibus p. 307).
7. Cf. the Acts of the process of canonization (FF 3062).
8. Celano, Second Life, CXLV, 193 ( Omnibus p. 517)
9. Office of the Passion, Compline Antiphon (Omnibus p. 142).
10. Celano, Second Life, CXLV, 193 ( Omnibus p. 517).
11. Regula bullata, ch. X ( Omnibus p. 63)
12. Regula bullata, ch. V ( Omnibus p. 61).
13. Admonitions VII ( Omnibus p. 81) and XII ( Omnibus p. 83).
14. St. Bonaventure, Collationes in Hexaemeron, XXII, 21 (ed. Quaracchi, IX, p. 269).
15. Discourse on 29 November 1972 ( Insegnamenti di Paolo VI, X, p. 1210 s.).
16. St. Bonaventure, Sermons, Fourth Sunday after Easter, 2 (ed. Quaracchi, IX, p. 311).