"We must be simple, humble and pure."
Stephen Pastick, sfo , Formation Director for the Queen of Peace Regional Fraternity, reflects on the "Hidden Rule" in St. Francis' Second Letter to All the Faithful.
I stumbled upon this saying of St. Francis of Assisi (we Franciscans are always stumbling), “We must be simple, humble and pure.” Being much moved by the statement and having made it a personal mantra in my daily prayer life, I wondered where and in what context had St. Francis said or had it written down. After some detective work, I found it in the Second Version of the Letter to the Faithful. Perhaps I was drawn to this saying because the two letters to the Faithful were mainly directed to the Brothers and Sisters of Penance, the Third Order of St. Francis of Assisi. I am one of these though we now call ourselves Secular Franciscans. The first letter to the faithful is the Prologue to our Rule. Much of this first letter is contained in the second.
Why did St. Francis feel the need to write a second letter? Scholars feel that he loved and worried about the Third Order, as it was a legitimate offspring of his, sprung from his great heart. Some feel that he was concerned with the direction the Third Order was taking and felt it needed some guidance. (Prophet that he was, St. Francis may have had future Franciscans in mind and wanted to help keep us on track too.) The Third Order had been around since 1209, but it was not until 1221 that we received our first Rule of Life. That Rule of Life is now felt not to have been written by St. Francis, but rather a cleric working for Cardinal Hugolino, who was later to become Pope Gregory IX. It is very prescriptive in that it tells one what to wear, what to eat, what to drink. There is no mention of the Gospel or anything that reveals much about the charism of St. Francis. The more we discover who St. Francis was, and what he was all about, and then integrate that into our lives, the more we will become the Franciscans that St. Francis envisioned.
So what I came to deduce after reading through the Second Letter is that it really contains a hidden, unofficial Rule of Life, that specifically tells us what “we must” do. In this letter, Francis is quite emphatic about it and always speaks in the plural. He considered himself one of us, a lay person. He may be our father but he was our most holy brother and servant. Over and over he inclusively says “we must” or “let us”. He is with us in our time and in our space. We may not be bound to observe this unofficial Rule, but we may be most wise to learn from it and carry it and clothe ourselves with it as we can. Here is a listing of the articles of this unofficial Rule:
Here then are 18 unofficial articles coming from the lips of St. Francis himself and directed to members of the Third Order. We are not legally bound by them, but we may very well be spiritually bound to them. Take note of St. Francis’ closing words of The Second Version of the Letter to the Faithful: “I, Brother Francis, your little servant, ask and implore you in the love which is God and with the desire to kiss your feet, to receive these words and others of our Lord Jesus Christ with humility and love, and observe them and put them into practice. And to all men and women who will receive them kindly and understand their meaning and pass them on to others by their example: If they have persevered in them to the end may the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit bless them. Amen.”
In the never ending quest to better understand who we have called to be, here is a vehicle to help us, (serving as an addendum to the Pauline Rule), in this search of our identity and the living out the mission we have been called to be faithful to.
Stephen
[The Second Version of the Letter to the Faithful, The Complete Works: Francis and Clare, pp. 66-73]