On Saturday the 16th September, in the Sacred Monastery of St. Francis in Assisi, a round table was held on the theme "The Gospel is life: the Rule of Francis", which saw the participation of the three General Ministers: Br. Massimo Fusarelli of the Order of the Friars Minor, Br. Roberto Genuin of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin and Br. Carlos Alberto Trovarelli of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual. The meeting, moderated by Don Marco Moroni, custodian of the Sacred Monastery, was also attended by Professor Maria Pia Alberzoni, historian and expert on Franciscanism, and the writer Davide Rondoni.
Professor Alberzoni began the debate by relating the life of Saint Francis and the Rule: how was it possible that Francis' lifestyle, that is, living the Holy Gospel, could become a rule? Seeing as he had the idea of following the Gospel, but not of writing a Rule. Br. Massimo commented: “The Gospel is not a closed code, but an open code; Francis has a lively sense, a strong sense of the living presence of Jesus Christ", and continued: "Francis's time was a time of return to the Gospel, but the originality of Francis's lifestyle is that he accepts the form of the Holy Gospel above all as a unique experience, an experience that is based on the Christian experience, the discovery through the encounter with the lepers of the new face of Christ, that is, an experience of mercy". She then concluded her speech by commenting: “Combining the Gospel and life implies that, just as the rule illuminates life, so too life illuminates the Rule; for this reason the friars meet once a year, update the experience of the Rule and listen to the voice of the church, allowing themselves to be accompanied by the Pontiff. The Rule is a living body that grows because life contributes to the Rule and the Rule calls us to re-launch life."
The second theme focused on how Franciscan life combined contemplation and apostolate, to which Br. Massimo responded: “The friars helped the people in the city with simple daily tasks, in the kitchen or in the fields working the land without asking for compensation; they also served in the leper colony and this was a novelty for their time. Francis taught us that the important thing in the apostolate is the testimony of life." Here he took the opportunity to talk about an experience he had in 2010 working with the elderly, living on the outskirts with two other friars in an apartment: "For us at the time it was an important step to experience fraternity together. The experience of working and living together with people was a grace. Today we are asking ourselves again: can we also look at work as a grace? We have to do it with life...".
The last topic concerned Chapter love is not possession,” and then continues by reporting that there are gaps in the early years of Francis' brotherhood. In the writings we find the recommendation: "The friars should not eat from the same plate as the women", so we can hypothesize that in the beginning the friars lived with the women, but Francis presents tenderness and asks the friars to be like a mother. Br. Massimo concluded his speech by saying: "It is a current theme in the Synod: men and women must learn to live together."
