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Franciscan
Spirituality
Prayer
for Peace
The
Canticle of All Creatures
Pray
of Total Offering
Prayer
before the Crucifix
Prayer
Inspired by the Our Father
Becoming
a Franciscan Minor or Contemplation in Service
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Becoming
a Franciscan Minor or Contemplation in Service
Francis
desired to celebrate God with his entire life. The way he did
this surprised many people of his time. Instead of choosing the
solidly established great Orders, Francis opted for the way of
the lowly and the poorest. Through his love for our Lord, he chose
a simple life at the service of the least in the world.
“Though
he was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself taking the
form of a slave…” (Paul's Letter to the Philippians:
2, 6-7).
Throughout
all his life, Francis of Assisi contemplated Christ’s way
of service. Each scene of Jesus' life, from the crèche
to the cross, was an occasion for Francis to see the Son of God
on the path to service. He gave Him thanks and praised the Father
for such a wonder and he, himself, wanted to follow this path.
Fascinated
by the mystery of our salvation, Francis followed in the footsteps
of his Lord and turned himself also toward the way of lowliness.
He chose to act in acounter-current way to what he knew, admired,
and had followed before, which now had lost its glitter and attraction.
Francis associated
with the abandoned, the losers in life, and went so far as to
put himself at their service. And, in a paradox of faith, his
service to the lowly turned him toward the Almighty. Francis,
filled with joy, exhorted his companions:
“Let
(us) be lesser brothers.” Christ wants us to “be content
to possess (Him) alone as (our) sole riches.” Let us be “subject
to all,” let us seek the last place and “the position
contempt...”(La Legende de Perouse, 67 and the first Life
of Thomas of Celano, 38).
Serving with Joy
To choose
the mode of life that Francis proposed means being present among
the “minors” of society: the little ones, those set
apart, the unnoticed, those that are neither brilliant nor attractive.
In short, trying to be a minor means that we tend towards where
Christ lives among us, the place where we bury ourselves at the
heart of the world, at the heart of ourselves.
Like miners
in gold or diamond mines, a Minor penetrates in the depths of
our world of humanity, of our own personal world, to dig incessantly
to find the precious metal, to find with joy the treasures that
are invisible to worldly eyes but luminous to the eyes of the
Father. But what a struggle that involves! The “major”in
us craves to be noticed, acknowledged, appreciated, distinguished,
to be better than... The joy of the minor finds its unique origin
in the joy of Christ and that of his disciples on Easter morning.
Francis chose
a way of life that linked service to the lowly condemned to a
life of rejection, with a contemplative attitude. Through service
to the lowly who reflect the likeness of the Son of God, commitment
to the will of the Father and journeying with others possessed
with the same Spirit, little by little the disciples of Francis
become transformed. Divested of all ambition to become “major”
in the estimation of others, their whole being will be inhabited
by God, the source of eternal joy.
Marc Le
Goanvec, ofm
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