CHAPTER III

THE PRAYER LIFE OF THE BROTHERS

By loving God, the highest good, the brothers should be earnestly moved by the example and words of the Seraphic Father, Saint Francis, to direct their hearts to their heavenly Father, who “created and formed us in the flesh according to the image of his beloved Son and in the Spirit according to his likeness” (Admonitions 5), and to pray to the same Father: “We give You thanks because by Your holy will and through Your only Son in the Holy Spirit You created all things . . . and placed us in paradise. . . . We give You thanks because just as You created us through Your Son, so in that true and holy love with which You have loved us You caused him, true God and true man, to be born of the glorious and most blessed Holy Mary ever Virgin, and through his Cross and blood and death You willed to have us captives redeemed” (Regula non bullata 23). Wherefore, “. . . we should always make a home and dwelling in ourselves for him who is almighty Lord God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. . . .” (Regula non bullata 23).

Let us have recourse to our Lord Jesus Christ “as to the shepherd and guardian of our souls. For he says: Know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time. . . . The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. . . . I am the Way, the Truth and the Life” (Regula non bullata 22). “With wonderful love St. Francis always carried about and kept in his heart Christ Jesus and him crucified” (1 Celano 115) and “. . . offered a sacrifice of all his members, and receiving the Lamb that was slain would immolate his spirit with the fire that always burned upon the altar of his heart” (2 Celano 201). He, therefore, begs his brothers: “. . . to show the greatest possible reverence and honor for the most Holy body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ in whom everything in heaven and everything on earth are propitiated and reconciled to almighty God” (Letter to All the Brothers).

“Heavenly Father, because none of us, wretches and sinners, are worthy to mention Your Name, we humbly beg You that our Lord Jesus Christ . . . together with the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, give You thanks . . . on behalf of all” (Regula non bullata 23). In the same Christ Jesus, then, we should render the divine praises with the same ardor of soul with which blessed Francis “recited the psalms with such attention of mind and spirit as if he were in God’s visible presence” (Legenda major X, 6).

In imitation of Holy Father Francis, the intercessory prayer of the brothers is always lovingly united to that of the Vicar of Christ. We pledge ourselves to intercede for him and for the good of the Church.

Blessed Francis always contemplated and honored Mary, the Mother of God, whom our heavenly Father “consecrated with his most holy beloved Son and the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete; Mary in whom there was and is all the fullness of grace and every good” (Salutation of the Blessed Virgin Mary). In union, therefore, with the Immaculate Mother of God, the Mother of the Church, the Queen of the world, and Mediatrix of all graces and, venerating the memory of the saints, we hope to enjoy their company, and “we await the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, until he our Life shall appear, and we, too, will appear with him in glory” (Sacrosanctum Concilium 8).
Enlightened by a new light, blessed Francis undertook his heart’s conversion to almighty God with great joy and he proposed “to begin to do penance” (Testament) and from that time to give more heed to “the good Shepherd who underwent the suffering of the Cross to save his sheep” (Admonitions 6). For this reason “we should hate our body with its vices and sins, because the devil wants to deprive us of the love of our Lord Jesus Christ and of eternal life by having us live according to the flesh (Regula non bullata 22). And let us always take care “in all our offenses . . . to punish them interiorly through contrition and exteriorly through confession and works of atonement” (Admonitions 23), remembering that the “sheep of the Lord have followed him in tribulation and persecution, disgrace and poverty, in weakness and temptation, and other such situations. Because of these they received everlasting life from the Lord” (Admonitions 6).

Living this way the brothers manifestly fulfill in their works the exhortation of the Apostle: “Never say or do anything except in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Col. 3:17). Likewise, they imitate the spirit and works of faith, hope, and charity of blessed Francis, who in accord with his principle, “My God and my All,” lived in full communion with the triune God through Jesus Christ.