This year the Feast of All Saints of the Franciscan Family falls on the day of the 800th anniversary of the approval, by Honorius III, of the Order's Regula Bullata. "His holy sons," we read in the Seraphic Missal, "of the First, Second and Third Orders, belong to every social condition and to every people. There are martyrs, doctors, priests, religious brothers, lay people, virgins, holy women... An immense multitude gathered around the great Poverello-the poor man, 'bearing the sign of the living God.”
It is 800 years in which so many women and men have shared and lived Francis’ project, welcoming God without reservations, observing the Gospel in obedience, without anything of their own and in chastity, becoming people capable of loving their neighbour with generosity.
St. Bonaventure writes in his "Apologia pauperum," after a brief explanation of the Beatitudes: "[...] Francis, Patriarch of the Poor, who at the beginning of his Rule proposes the three cornerstones of religious life: The Rule of the Friars Minor consists in putting into practice the Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ, living in obedience, poverty and chastity. Thereafter he then recommends three other things, which integrate and in a certain way complete the previous ones: "Let the friars reflect that they must desire more than anything else to possess the Spirit of the Lord and to act according to His Holy Will; that they must know how to pray to God with a pure heart and possess humility and patience in tribulations and sicknesses; who must have a special predilection for those who persecute us, despise us and insult us." With this admonition, Francis proposes, in the first place, the elevation of all action through God; He then recommends the joyful acceptance of all tribulations and effective and exquisite charity towards our neighbour. In this way the perfect man or woman is crucified to the world by the three vows, and by the three successive recommendations he is conformed to God, so that with the six seraphic wings he may detach himself forever from the things of this world and penetrate the divine.
It was a worthy thing that Christ, in the seraphic apparition, imprinted His stigmata, as a seal of confirmation and authenticity, on the sacred flesh of this Poverello, who observed and taught evangelical perfection in the most genuine form, so that, in the dangerous gloom of the end times, we might be offered a clear sign that would illuminate the path of perfection.
It is by conditioning, however, that we learn not to desire what gives honour and prestige, but to prefer humble and hidden things." By virtue of our baptism, we are all called to holiness, as Pope Francis reminds us in his Apostolic Exhortation "Gaudete et Exsultate".
In the footsteps of Francis, Clare and all the Franciscan Saints, let us allow the Holy Spirit to guide us in our day and transform everything that seems ordinary, even that which may be discarded, into something extraordinary and precious in the eyes of God and our neighbour.
Happy Feast Day to one and all!
