Audio Course: St. Francis of Assisi: A New Way of Being Christian
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Blog Author: Br. William Short
Because they wished to live all the Gospel, the new form of life Franciscans inaugurated fit neither the category of the contemplative nor the active life as these were being defined. They were classified as being of “mixed life,” that is, both contemplative and active. This characteristic can help us to understand how the Franciscan family can include full-time contemplatives and missionaries, heads of families and hermits within its wide embrace. They all form a part of the whole, and the Gospel demands that wholeness.
Clare serves as a reminder that the Franciscan movement at its origins has no need to struggle with the issue of the importance and centrality of the contemplative life, but rather with the question of preaching and its place within a life dedicated to the spirit of “prayer and holy devotion.”
In the Major Life of Francis by Bonaventure, Francis asks two people to help him discern the shape of his life. The two people are Sylvester, one of the brothers, and Clare. His question was this: Could he best serve God by living in a hermitage or by preaching? Clare and Sylvester prayed about this matter, and both replied that he should continue preaching.
The question, as Bonaventure presents it, probably concerned others besides Francis. Clare lived as a “contemplative” (to use our modern categories); Sylvester, a priest, is known to us chiefly as a hermit, another contemplative. The question is directed to these two trusted advisors, and their answer is that Francis continue the “active” life of preaching.
Yet the terms “active” and “contemplative” are rather misleading when speaking of the early Franciscans. Neither Francis nor Clare use the word “contemplative.” They do speak of “contemplation” in various ways, Clare more often than Francis, but it refers generally to “looking at” or “beholding.”
Both Francis and Clare speak of the “spirit of prayer” as a guiding principle in the life of their brothers and sisters. And both expect that work will be an essential part of their lives.
The Brothers and Sisters of Penance, those who live in their own homes, have families and occupations in society, are called to a contemplative life of prayer in the circumstances of their lives.
Clare and her sisters give a special witness to the contemplative dimension of the Franciscan vocation. In solitude and communion as sisters, the Poor Sisters express this gift in complete poverty, mutual love, liturgical prayer, attentive listening to the Word of God, and in work.
This life is a form of preaching. Clare asks her sisters to live this evangelical life “in the sight of all,” so that by their example people may be brought to Christ, to be “a mirror and example for all living in the world.”
Francis writes a Rule especially for those brothers who live in hermitages, and in his own life witnesses to the importance of the contemplative foundation of his life of conversion. His biographers picture Francis spending as much as seven months a year living in the silence and solitude of the many early Franciscan hermitages. In these places (Greccio, Fonte Colombo, La Verna, among others) three or four brothers lead a contemplative life, alternating roles of “mothers” and “sons.”
This easy exchange of roles which we would call active and contemplative, shows the difficulty of characterizing Francis’ “form of life” as being either contemplative or active. It is quite simply, fully both.
Francis himself frequently lived in these solitary places, frequently celebrating a “Lent” of fasting and prayer. His biographers indicate that he observed as many as five “Lents.” These included the Lent of the Incarnation, from the Feast of All Saints in early November until Christmas; and another period from the Feast of the Epiphany in January to the beginning of what we usually call Lent, the Great Lent of the Redemption for forty days before Easter. From the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul in late June until the Feast of the Assumption in mid-August he observed another period of solitude and prayer. From the Assumption until late September, he observed a Lent that ended with the Feast of Saint Michael the Archangel. We do not know whether Francis observed all of these Lents every year. If he did, more than half the year was dedicated to contemplative solitude: early November through March or April (depending on the date of Easter), and late June through September.
Other brothers imitated this practice to a greater or lesser degree—they were obliged only to observe the “Great Lent” before Easter and the “Lent” preceding Christmas. We can suppose that some would spend this time in the hermitages, alternating that form of life with the more “active” life of the suburban places and preaching journeys. Some brothers seem to have stayed at the hermitages year round. Whatever the time individual brothers may have spent in the hermitage, it was an important component of the life of the early fraternity of Lesser Brothers.