Franciscan Praying  

 Simon Cocksedge

Copyright © 2019 by Third Order, Society of St Francis, European Province (www.tssf.co.uk)
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The moral right of the Editor has been asserted. 
Cover image: St Francis of Assisi, detail from the Miracle of the Spring, fresco, Saint Francis cycle by Giotto (ca 1267-1337), Upper Basilica of St Francis, Assisi. www.wga.hu/html_m/g/giotto/assisi/upper/legend/franc14.html 

Introduction
Section 1: Francis and Praying

1.1       Praying with Scripture

1.2       Praying at all Times

1.3       Praying with Liturgy

1.4       Praying Through Creation

1.5       Praying and Solitude

1.6       Francis and How to Pray

1.7       Francis, prayer and action

 Section 2: Franciscan Spirituality and Praying

2.1              Praying and the Foundations of Franciscan Spirituality

2.2              Franciscan Praying and Action

2.3              Praying and Creation in Franciscan Spirituality

2.4              Franciscan Praying as Desire and Gift

Section 3: Franciscans Praying Today

3.1       Francis’ Prayer and Praying Today

3.2       Francis’ Prayer and Action Today

3.3       Francis, Praying and Third Order Franciscans

 Introduction

 Prayer is our communion with God (p. 18),[1] an exchange between God and the soul… a dialogue… communication (p. 12),[2] God’s gift granted to those who pray (p. 281),[3] a conversation of the spirit with God (p. 56).[4]

 Prayer can be undertaken alone or with others; both are important for Christians. The New Testament uses several words translated in English as either ‘prayer’ or ‘worship’, meaning communication with God by individuals alone or in public gatherings (p. 380-2).[5] Private prayer and public worship complement each other though the precise balance varies from person to person (p. 7)6; (p. 55).7   

 Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) did not leave any clear method for how to pray. Instead he left his writings and the example of his life. This Assisi booklet examines this evidence to see what can be learnt about prayer and praying by followers of Francis’ way today. The hope is that this will excite, encourage and inspire contemporary Franciscans to lead a life centred on prayer and praying.

 Section 1 (Francis and praying) investigates the place of prayer in Francis’ writings and his life. In an attempt to understand Francis’ personal approach to prayer unencumbered by layers of interpretation from later authors, this analysis is drawn solely from his own writings (pp 34-167)8 and The Life of Saint Francis (commonly known as The First Life) written by Thomas of Celano in 1229 (pp 169-308).8 Thomas was Francis’ first biographer and a member of the fraternity known to Francis. The First Life is ‘the pivotal text… its importance cannot be underestimated’ (p. 17).11

 In contrast, Section 2 (Franciscan spirituality and praying) uses a wide range of sources to enable reflection on themes concerned with Franciscan praying. Finally, Section 3 (Franciscans praying today) explores what all this might have to say to today’s reader.

 This booklet is brief and has considerable limitations. To focus on the title, the life and development of the Franciscan Order has been mostly ignored. Similarly, the voices of Saint Clare and the Poor Clares are largely absent. There has been no attempt to offer source criticism or to assess the validity or priority of early Franciscan writings, as these can be found elsewhere.8-11 The Franciscan literature over the years is very extensive and any personal selection is inherently limited. Of the many biographies available, most use has been made of Moorman’s brief, but authoritative work12 and Thompson’s more recent biography and survey of the sources.13

Section 1: Francis and Praying

 1.1 Praying with Scripture

 Scripture was central to Francis’ praying and his whole life. It formed the basis of both the Rule and many of his prayers and liturgies. Additionally, he was ‘submissive and subject’ (p. 106)8 to the Gospels as his pattern of life. At the end of his life, his Testament records that ‘the most High Himself revealed to me that I should live according to the pattern of the Holy Gospel’ (p. 135).8 Evidence for this is present throughout Francis’ own writings and those about him.

 Stories of literal submission to the Gospels

Firstly, it emerges in the various stories of literal submission to the Gospels. Francis would prayerfully open the Bible and take the first passage that met his eye as God’s will. These events are recorded both early (pp 38, 86)9 and later on (p. 262)8 in Francis’ life. This way of using scripture was not uncommon at the time, and its origin can be traced as far back as Saint Augustine (p. 217).14

 Early in the life of the fraternity, with only Bernard and Peter as his companions, Francis went to one of Assisi’s churches. After praying together, they asked the priest to ‘show us the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ’:

 When the priest opened up the book, they immediately found the passage: If you wish to be perfect, go, sell everything you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Opening up the book a second time, they discovered: Whoever wishes to come after me…  When they opened the book for a third time, they came upon: Take nothing for the journey…  When they heard this, they were filled with great joy (p. 38).9

 This passage incorporates verses from Mark 10.21, Luke 9.3 and Matthew 16.24 and inspired the start of the rule that subsequently shaped the brothers’ lives (p. 86).9

 Towards the end of his life, some two years before his death, Francis is again recorded as ‘praying earnestly’ and then opening the Bible three times to try to discern God’s will for him. Each time, he was told of the suffering, trials and difficulties he would go through (p. 262).8

 Francis’ own writings

Perhaps the strongest evidence of the scriptural basis to Francis’ life and praying comes from reading Francis’ own writings. For example, The Earlier Rule (pp 63-86),8 the Admonitions (pp 128-137),8 The Exhortation to the Praise of God (p. 138),8 and The Office of the Passion (pp 139-157)8 all quote extensively from scripture and some are formed almost entirely of biblical verses.

 The Earlier Rule had its origins in a simple document composed by Francis and made almost entirely from Gospel texts. This was presented to, and approved by, Pope Innocent III in 1209 by Francis and his first twelve followers. This simple document became part of the much larger Earlier Rule (pp 63-86),8 which the brothers completed at their Chapter in 1221. Its beginning emphasises the centrality of the scriptures, particularly the Gospels, for Francis:

 This is the life of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that Brother Francis petitioned the Lord Pope to grant and confirm for him; and he did grant and confirm it for him and his brothers present and to come (p. 63).8

 The twenty-eight Admonitions (pp 128-37)8 are undated writings of Francis, which also emphasise the centrality of the scriptures in Francis’ life and thinking. Each one begins with a biblical passage from which practical lessons are developed for everyday life in the fraternity. For example, the first (entitled ‘The body of Christ’) begins by quoting in full John 14.6-9. It goes on to use a further thirteen biblical quotes in a passage of only some four hundred words.

 Another undated writing attributed to Francis is the Exhortation to the Praise of God (p. 138).8 It was possibly written for the rededication of a small church in the Spoleto valley, Our Lady of the Angels. In its seventeen verses, there are eighteen different scriptural quotes, mostly from the Psalms, but also Revelation, Luke, John and Daniel. Francis took the only two non-biblical verses from familiar feast-day liturgies.

 This Exhortation, which has been described as a collage of biblical and liturgical praises (p. 138),8 demonstrates the importance of scripture for both inspiring Francis to prayer and praise, but also using scripture as prayer. This has been described as prayer of echoing in which we hear God’s words of praise and ‘echo’ them back (p. 185).15

 Lastly, The Office of the Passion (pp 139-157)8 offers further evidence of the place of scripture in Francis’ praying and writing. One of these prayers would have been used after each recitation of the Liturgy of the Hours, that is, at least seven times a day. Although this collection of prayers was mostly created using psalms, on a few occasions Francis introduced New Testament phrases. For example, in the final Psalm XV (pp 156-7):8

             12        Give to the Lord, you families of nations,

Give to the Lord glory and praise,

Give to the Lord the glory due to His name. (Psalm 96.7-8)

13        Take up your bodies and carry His holy cross (Luke 14.27; John 19.17)

And follow His most holy commands even to the end. (1 Peter 2.21)

 In this we see Francis creating prayers for use in worship by interpreting the psalms from his Christian perspective.

 Venerating scripture as God’s revelation

Throughout his life, Francis consistently attributed power to the written word. The following is from The Letter to the Entire Order dated 1225-6:

 I admonish all my brothers and encourage them in Christ to venerate, as best they can, the divine written words wherever they find them. If they are not well kept or are carelessly thrown around in some place, let them gather them up and preserve them, inasmuch as it concerns them, honouring in the words the Lord who spoke them. For many things are made holy by the words of God and the sacrament of the altar is celebrated in the power of the words of Christ (p. 119).8

 He would gather up any fragment of writing ‘wherever he found it: on the road, in the house, on the floor. He would reverently pick it up and put it in a sacred or decent place… “because they have the letters which make the glorious name of the Lord God” upon them’ (p. 252).8 

 Additionally, Francis urged his brothers to ‘honour all theologians and all those who minister the most holy divine words and respect them as those who minister to us spirit and life’ (p. 125).8 This is further discussed in Section 1.3 below.

 All this being said, the reason for Francis’ devotion to the Gospels and scripture was their revelation of God in Jesus Christ:

 Let us therefore hold onto the words, the life, the teaching and the Holy Gospel of Him Who humbled Himself to beg His Father for us and to make His name known saying: Father, glorify your name and glorify Your Son that Your Son may glorify You (p. 81).8

 This is a central theme in Franciscan spirituality. Throughout his writings, Francis contrasts the spirit and the flesh. He teaches us that the flesh of our bodies is our outward manifestation of life, but the spirit is life itself. He encourages us to venerate or cherish each word of God as a channel of the divine Spirit and a seed of divine life. He challenges us today, through the scriptural basis of so many of his writings, to live truly both these words and the Word in our daily existence.

  How do you use scripture in your praying?

 What difference would literally following the Gospel words make to your life?

1.2 Praying at all Times

 And day and night let us direct prayers and praises to Him… for we should pray always and not become weary (p. 47).8

 Based on Luke 18.1, this phrase is typical of Francis’ view that ‘praise and thanks may always be given to the all-powerful God by all people throughout the world at every hour’ (p. 57).8 His crucial insight, central to Franciscan praying, was that prayer and devotion are activities of the Holy Spirit in which all other activities take place.

 As a result, Francis was concerned about the balance of work and prayer in his fraternity. In The Earlier Rule, he wrote ‘Servants of God must always apply themselves to prayer or some good work’ (p. 69).8 This is expanded in The Later Rule to make it clear that work and prayer overlap and may be seen as one:

 Those brothers to whom the Lord has given the grace of working may work faithfully and devotedly so that, while avoiding idleness, the enemy of the soul, they do not extinguish the Spirit of holy prayer and devotion to which all things temporal must contribute (p. 102).8

 Francis offers us an example of balancing work and prayer in everyday life. When secular persons or business disturbed Francis, ‘he would interrupt his prayers rather than end them, and return to them in his innermost being’ (p. 309)9, (p. 118).16

 The primacy of praying over other activities is reinforced in A Letter to Anthony of Padua. Anthony was a learned Augustinian monk and experienced teacher who joined the Franciscan fraternity. The brothers asked him to teach them and he in turn asked Francis’ permission for this. Francis allowed the teaching, but with a significant proviso, quoting The Later Rule:

 I am pleased that you teach sacred theology to the brothers providing that, as is contained in the Rule, you ‘do not extinguish the Spirit of prayer and devotion’ during study of this kind (p. 107).8

 This indicates that for Franciscans, work, pastoral care, theology and study can only take place within a framework of praying and devotion. Every aspect of our existence and our calling to follow Francis must remain secondary to this central dimension in our lives: intensifying our loving relationship with God through prayer (p. 121).15

 Francis made every effort to see that the Word became his life, and he called his followers to do the same. To live in the Word of God as a life-giving Word is to allow the Spirit of gospel truth to shine through in everything we do (pp 112-3).17

 The centrality of prayer at all times is indirectly emphasised by Francis in his lovely prayer The Praises To Be Said at All the Hours (p. 161).8 The refrain for each verse of the prayer is ‘let us praise and glorify Him forever,’ and it opens by quoting Revelation 4.8:

             Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty,

            Who is and Who was and Who is to come.

Implicit in praying this verse must have been the beginning of the sentence from which it is taken in Revelation: day and night without ceasing they sing.

 What is the balance between praying and other activities in your life?

 How might you offer prayer and praise at all times without becoming weary?

1.3 Praying with Liturgy

 Francis had great respect for the liturgy of the church. Evidence of this is in both The Earlier Rule of 1209 and The Later Rule of 1223:

 Let all the brothers, whether clerical or lay, recite the Divine Office, the praises and prayers, as is required of them. Let the clerical brothers recite the Office and say it for the living and the dead according to the custom of clerics (p. 65).8

 Let the clerical brothers recite the Divine Office according to the rite of the holy Roman Church excepting the psalter, for which reason they may have breviaries. The lay brothers, however, may say twenty-four Our Fathers for Matins, and five for Lauds; seven for each of the Hours of Prime, Terce, Sext, and None, twelve for Vespers, and seven for Compline (p. 101).8

 In A Rule for Hermitages (p. 61)8 and also in The Office of the Passion (p. 139)8, Francis gave more detail:

 Let them always recite Compline of the day immediately after sunset and strive to maintain silence, recite their Hours, rise for Matins, and seek first the kingdom of God and his justice [Matthew  6.33]. And let them recite Prime at the proper hour and, after Terce, they may end their silence… afterwards let them recite Sext, None and, at the proper hour, Vespers (p. 61).8

 The centrality for Francis of a regular daily rhythm of worship is clear. The significance of this is emphasised in two of his writings in his last year. In A Letter to the Entire Order he urged his brothers to ‘persevere in discipline and holy obedience’ (p. 17).8 Not long after, he wrote in The Testament:

 Although I may be simple and infirm, I nevertheless want to have a cleric always with me who will celebrate the Office for me as it is prescribed in the Rule. And let all the brothers be bound to obey their guardians and to recite the Office according to the Rule (p. 126).8

 This regular rhythm of prayer and worship was part of the everyday obedience and way of life for all who followed Francis in his lifetime and remains so for those who follow him today. Francis wished people outside his fraternity to pray daily. The evidence for this is in A Letter to the Rulers of the Peoples. Francis requested ‘mayors, consuls, magistrates and governors throughout the world’ to arrange:

 That every evening an announcement may be made by a messenger or some other sign that praise and thanksgiving may be given by all people to the all-powerful Lord God (p. 58).8

 Additionally, for any lay brothers who could not manage the full offices (most likely due to poor literacy), Francis allowed alternative provision in saying Our Fathers (see also Section 1.6). This is an encouragement for those of us trying to follow the Franciscan way in everyday life but able to offer only limited time for prayer.

 The daily offices were based on reciting verses of the psalms. These might use the psalms in their original forms or versions adapted by Francis, such as The Office of the Passion:

 These are the psalms which our most holy Father Francis composed in reverence, memory and praise of the Passion of the Lord. They should be said during each of the hours of the day and the one hour of the night (p. 139).8 

 These adaptations are collages of passages from both the Old and New Testaments. They help us to understand both the daily routine of offices and worship followed by the fraternity and Francis’ own spirituality (pp 177-84).15

 Francis’ choice of ‘the rite of the holy Roman Church’ (p. 101)8 ‘according to the custom of clerics’ (p. 65)8 is significant. Rather than use liturgy found in monasteries, he chose the Office found in churches (p. 312).8 This can be seen as Francis making a statement that his fraternity was mendicant; he and his community did not isolate themselves in monasteries, but followed Jesus Christ by living among, and serving, local communities.

 Also, at that time, the Office varied somewhat from church to church, so we cannot be certain exactly how it was undertaken. It most likely varied across the fraternity. After Francis’ death, it took some years before any uniformity of office texts and practice was achieved by the brothers (pp 311-5).8

 Of equal importance to the regular offices was the daily mass or Eucharist. In the first Admonition, Francis focused on Christ’s bodily incarnation as the revelation of God the Father continuing within each of us today through the Spirit:

 As he revealed Himself to the holy apostles in true flesh, so he reveals Himself to us now in sacred bread. … And in this way the Lord is always with His faithful, as He Himself says: Behold I am with you until the end of the age (p. 129).8

 This revealing led Francis to have great reverence for the sacraments because he regarded Jesus as humbling Himself and hiding ‘under an ordinary piece of bread’ (p. 118).8 This mystery required total humble commitment from the brothers, because ‘in this way the Lord is always with His faithful’ (p. 129).8 

Due to the importance he attached to the daily revelation of Christ in the precious sacred bread, he emphasised reverent eucharistic celebration throughout his writings. This is from A Letter to the Entire Order:

 I also beg in the Lord all my brothers who are priests… to celebrate Mass… with purity and reverence, with a holy and unblemished intention… let all their will be directed to God (p. 117).8

 In the early days of the order, the number of priests was small and the brothers attended local churches (p. 315).8 In 1224, the pope granted the brothers the privilege of celebrating the Eucharist in their residences. The brothers were to celebrate only one Mass a day in their houses (p. 119),8 which was to be received with ‘fervour’ (p. [6])8, humility and respect (p. 78).8

 Before attending Mass, Francis instructed in The Earlier Rule:

 Let all my blessed brothers, both clerics and lay, confess their sins to priests of our religion. … Contrite and having confessed in this way, let them receive the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ with great humility and respect (p. 78).8

 As well as in The Earlier Rule, confession and penance are mentioned in The Later Rule (p. 103),8 and several other writings (pp 47, 91, 98).8 Reflecting the customs of the time, they were integral to Francis’ life and way of living (p. 119).8 This is further discussed in Section 1.6. 

 The Earlier Exhortation to the Brothers and Sisters of Penance (pp 41-4)8 begins with a program of penance most likely written for the first penitents who came to Francis wanting to share his way of life, later becoming the Third Order. It involved perseverance in loving God, loving neighbours, hating the body as responsible for sin (see also Section 3.1), receiving the Eucharist, and accepting the fruits and blessings that result.

 Rather than a set of rigorous regulations, Francis’ way of penance is a simple and fundamental outline of following in the Christian way resulting in drawing close to God:

 O how happy and blessed are these men and women while they do such things and persevere in doing them, because the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon them and make Its home and dwelling place among them (pp 41-4).8

The origins of Francis’ instructions concerning confession and penance may in part come from his respect for the church, its authority and its liturgy. He wrote ‘we are bound to observe… the constitutions of holy mother church’ (p. 54)8 and ‘Brother Francis promises obedience and reverence to the Lord Pope Innocent and his successors’ (p. 63).8. The brothers were always to obtain clerical consent for preaching, which had to be according ‘to the rite and practice of the church’ (p. 75).8

Similarly, Francis’ respect and reverence for clergy is documented in several places (p. 77),8  despite his acknowledgement of their human frailties. For example, in The Testament, he notes his ‘respect, love and honour’ for ‘impoverished priests’ (p. 125).8 He goes on to explain his reasons for this reverence and respect:

I act in this way because I see nothing corporally of the most high Son of God except His most holy Body and Blood which they receive and they alone administer to others (p. 125).8

Ultimately, this is the basis for Francis’ respect for, and love of, liturgy and the Eucharist. In them he sees the love of God expressed through His incarnate Son. This in turn inspires Francis to express his own love of God through praying and through prayers such as the Exhortation to the Praise of God (p. 138).8

 What is your regular rhythm of daily worship?

 How does this compare to the ideals offered by Francis’ example?

 What is the place of the Eucharist in your life?

1.4 Praying Through Creation

 Most of the evidence concerning Francis, praying and creation comes from writings about him rather than from his own words. The notable exception, which gives great insight, is the Canticle of the Creatures, ‘Francis’ most celebrated masterpiece’ (p. 137).11

 The Canticle of the Creatures (pp 113-4)8

1Most High, all-powerful, good Lord, Yours are the praises, the glory, and the honour, and all blessing.

2To You alone, Most High, do they belong, and no human is worthy to mention Your name.

3Praised be You, my Lord, with all Your creatures, especially Sir Brother Sun, Who is the day and through whom You give us light.   4And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendor, and bears a likeness of You, Most High One.

5Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars in heaven, You formed them clear and precious and beautiful.

6Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Wind, and through the air, cloudy and serene, and every kind of weather, through whom You give sustenance to Your creatures.

7Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Water, who is very useful and humble and precious and chaste.

8Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Fire, through whom You light the night, and he is beautiful and playful and robust and strong.

9Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with colored flowers and herbs.

10Praised be You, my Lord, through those who give pardon for Your love, and bear infirmity and tribulation,

11Blessed are those who endure in peace for by You, Most High, shall they be crowned.

12Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death, from whom no one living can escape.

13Woe to those who die in mortal sin. Blessed are those whom death will find in Your most holy will, for the second death shall do them no harm.

14Praise and bless my Lord and give Him thanks and serve Him with great humility.

  Towards the end of his life, six to nine months after receiving the stigmata and suffering greatly, he announced ‘I want to write a new Praise of the Lord for his creatures’ (pp 186).9 The ensuing canticle praises God and all creation – ‘Praised be You, my Lord, with all your creatures’ – through sun, moon, stars, air, water, fire and earth. Two verses (ten and eleven) were added after Francis heard of a dispute between the Bishop and the Mayor in Assisi (p. 187).9 The two verses on Sister Death (twelve and thirteen), added later very near the end of Francis’ life, view death as another expression of God’s presence.

The Canticle represents Francis’ vision of the new creation where God’s own self-expression throughout all creation transfigures all creation into a harmonious doxology of God’s presence: All is God’s self-gift: Praise God! (p. 137)11

This incarnational theology offers a crucial insight about Francis that is consequently a central theme for people who follow in the Franciscan way: all creation is image of God, gift of God, and revelation of God. It is through this theology/spirituality that all stories about Francis and creation/creatures must be understood; all creation is of God and points to God and inherently praises God: a prayer-full relationship. Some examples from The First Life by Thomas of Celano follow. There are many more in the later writings about Francis.

Examples of stories about Francis and creation in The First Life include:

»         dreaming about trees (p. 212)8

»        obedient birds listening reverently to Francis preaching to them (pp 234-5)8

»         lambs saved from slaughter (p. 249)8

»        identification with worms and putting them safely off the path (p. 250)8

»        preaching to beautiful fragrant flowers (p. 251)8

»         urging his brothers and sisters fields, woods, rocks, springs, gardens, earth, fire,  air and wind to love and serve God (p. 251)8

»        recreating the Lord’s birthday at Greccio (pp 254-7).8

 In his relationship with all creation, Francis found God in all creatures. Everything spoke to Francis of the infinite love of God. He began to see God’s goodness incarnate – Christ – in every aspect of creation (p. 135).17 This undoubtedly contributed both to his own love and respect for the world around him and to his praying. If all reality expresses the goodness of God, then all reality is called to praise and thanksgiving. This is further discussed in Section 2.3. 

 The way in which Francis wrote the Canticle of the Creatures points towards the way in which he offers his prayers of praise to God and their underlying meaning. A doxology is a prayer of praise (from the Greek word doxologia meaning ‘words of glory’) such as the familiar Glory be to the Father and to the Son… said after psalms and canticles or the Gloria in excelsis. Francis often used doxologies in the prayers he wrote.

 In the Canticle of the Creatures, the repeated doxologies ’Praised be you my Lord’ occur eight times and provide the central structure of the prayer. The meaning of the preposition that follows (per in Latin, translated as with or through in the English version above) can be understood in various ways that help to tease out the depths of Francis’ praying.

 Four interpretations have been suggested (pp 142-4):11

»        Per meaning ‘for’: we give God praise for God’s creatures;

»        Per meaning ‘by’: creatures themselves give praise to God;

»        Per meaning ‘by means of’: we praise God by means of, or using, creatures;

»        Per meaning ‘through’: God, through whom all creation begins and ends, is the source of praise.

 The fourth interpretation above (per meaning ‘through’) can be understood as meaning that all creation exists as symbols of the Creator, and their very existence is God’s praise. In other words, God and creation become one and are joined through praise.

 For Francis, the only appropriate response to God’s self-communication as praise is to join in by praising. Rooted in his earlier prayers, especially The Praises to be Said at all Hours (p. 161),8 The Canticle of the Creatures is Francis’ ultimate prayer of praise. It gives us great insight both into his understanding of the deep meaning of creation within the love of God, and to the place of prayer as relationship with both God and creation.

 How do you relate to creation?

 What place do created things have in your praying?

 What responsibilities do we have towards all creation around us?

1.5 Praying and Solitude

 We have seen that Francis emphasised a daily rhythm of praying framed by a pattern of work and prayer, all of which assumed praying to be taking place at all times. Within this, Francis sought solitude and was attracted to the hermit life from the time of his first attempts to follow Christ’s way:

 The restoration of that church took place in the third year of his conversion. At this time he wore a sort of hermit’s habit with a leather belt. He carried a staff in his hand and wore shoes (p. 201).8

 Through this change in attire, he made a statement to others of his intention to devote himself to the religious life, though at this early stage the precise method for this was unclear (p. 122).18 Nevertheless, searching for solitude continued to the end of his life:

 It was his custom to divide the time given him… to spend some of it to benefit his neighbours and use the rest in the blessed solitude of contemplation. He took with him only a few companions – who knew his holy way of living better than others – so that they could shield him from the interruption and disturbance of people, respecting and protecting his silence in every way (p. 261).8

 Balancing praying, solitude and activity remains central to Franciscan living, as it was for Francis. His Friars Minor were the first to combine intermittent solitude for prayer with itinerant preaching in a mixed life (p. 207).18 Two examples – The Rule of Hermitages and Francis himself – help us to understand how this evolved as the fraternity developed.

 A Rule for Hermitages (pp 61-2)8 is a writing of Francis that offers insight to the place of solitary prayer for the early fraternity and for today. In it, Francis outlined a pattern of shared solitude in which four brothers lived together, two acted as ‘Martha’/mothers and two as ‘Mary’/sons. The former looked after the latter, protecting their silence from interruption, except by the minister. The latter spent their time in their enclosure in solitary prayer, framed by reciting the offices (see Section 1.3). Periodically, the sons took over as mothers and vice versa.

 Let those who wish to stay in hermitages in a religious way be three brothers or, at most, four; let two of these be ‘the mother’ and have two ‘sons’ or at least one. Let the two who are ‘mothers’ keep the life of Martha and the two ‘sons’ the life of Mary… Let those brothers who are ‘mothers’ … protect their ‘sons’ so no one can speak with them (pp 61-2).8

 This document offers us several significant themes. Firstly, it is brief and is concerned not with a detailed description of how the brothers should live, but with ‘the atmosphere of love which is to form the ideal climate of prayer in the hermitage’ (p. 276).19 Francis was more concerned with relationships between the brothers than with the places or structures in which they lived.

 Secondly, there is an inherent assumption that hermitage living is a natural, though voluntary, part of the fraternity. This is reinforced by reference to brothers in hermitages in The Earlier Rule (p. 69),8 establishing hermits in the life of both the Franciscan Order and the wider Church (p. 276).19 Thirdly, this natural solitude is surrounded by fraternal care and support. The hermits in solitude are dependent on their brothers and overseen by their minister.

 Lastly, we see again the pattern of prayerful solitude and activity, of Mary then Martha, which is integral to Franciscan life. This pattern is present in both The Earlier Rule, in which regular fasting and ‘Lents’ for the fraternity are documented (p. 66),8 and in Francis’ life, which he modelled on Christ. He spent considerable time in solitude, increasing in his later years:

 Francis would spend probably three and perhaps five periods of about forty days each in relative solitude, dedicating himself to prayer in solitude, usually with one of the brothers. This would total four months to seven months a year in a secluded, contemplative way of life, frequently spent in the hermitages, a characteristic feature of early Franciscan spiritual practice (p. 85).20

 This model of regular but not permanent solitude, and solitude as integral to community life, can be seen in the Gospels. There are numerous examples of Jesus going to seek solitude for praying after busy days. Following intense activity at Capernaum (Mark 1.21-34), Jesus ‘went out to a deserted place and there he prayed’ (Mark 1.35, Luke 4.42). Similarly, before choosing the twelve companions (Luke 6.12-13), after feeding the five thousand people (Mark 6.46), and after preaching and curing diseases (Luke 5.15-16), Jesus prayed alone.

 This pattern of activity and prayer carried on in the life of the disciples:

 He appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message (Mark 3.14).

 Their mission to preach was alongside their call to be with Christ, following his example. This persisted after Jesus’ death: ‘we will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word’ (Acts 6.4). 

 Francis attempted to be both a preacher and evangelist and to find time for prayer. He often spent the whole night praying after a full day walking and preaching (p. 86).12 At one point in his life he felt a clear tension and choice between the life of an evangelist and the call to prayer with solitude in a hermitage. He sought advice through two of his brothers from St Clare and Brother Silvester. They were unanimous in responding that he should preach:

 When the two brothers returned and told him God’s will as they had received it, he rose at once, girded himself and without the slightest delay took to the roads. He went with such fervour to carry out the divine command, just as he ran along so swiftly as if the hand of God were upon him, giving him new strength from heaven (pp 622-4).9

 Hence a Franciscan model emerges: times of solitude and prayer enabled by fraternal care feed times of activity. ‘Love generated in this solitude is poured out on the world in preaching… solitude opens out to the world and bears fruit in preaching’ (pp 277-8).19

 With firm biblical roots and in contrast to other traditions of prayer and Christian life, such as the early desert Christian monks, Benedictines, and Carthusians (pp 57-62),17; pp 27-39),21 Francis’ ‘cloister was the whole wide world’ (p. 75).22 Franciscan solitary prayer is not about total separation from the world, but being open to the world. It is an evangelical solitude that balances and integrates worldly openness with distance and perspective, refreshing solitude with exhausting activity.

 The eremeticism of St Francis and his followers is deeply evangelical and remains always open to the world, while recognising the need to maintain a certain distance and perspective, a freedom that keeps one from being submerged in active cares and devoured by the claims of exhausting work (p. 280).19

 What place does solitary praying have in your life?

 When did you last have a time of ‘relative solitude’?

 Who supported you in this? How did you, in turn, support them?

1.6 Francis and How to Pray

 Francis gave little direct advice on how to pray and much of the evidence in the previous sub-sections has been drawn from the example of his life.  We now explore the direct advice on praying that he left us. A brief passage in his Later Admonition and Exhortation to the Brothers and Sisters of Penance is helpful (p. 47).8 In this, he directs them to:

 »        love God and adore Him,

»        pray using the Our Father,

»        confess their sins to a priest,

»        fast and abstain from vices and sins,

»        visit and venerate churches,

»        day and night direct prayer and praises to Him,

»        love and serve their neighbours as themselves,

»        receive communion.

 This sub-section uses some of these headings to learn from Francis about praying. Receiving communion has already been mentioned in section 1.3. Loving and serving neighbours is discussed in 1.7.

 Loving and adoring God

The sheer quantity of evidence in Francis’ writing about adoration and praise emphasises the importance of these aspects of praying in his life. They are central to his directions on prayer, the prayers he wrote and his personal way of praying. There are numerous examples in his writings of directions to praise and adore God (pp 76, 88, 134),8 and of his own prayers of praise and adoration (pp 78, 109, 138, 161)8 including The Canticle of the Creatures (p. 113-4):8

I would pray with simplicity and say: ‘We adore You, Lord Jesus Christ, in all Your churches throughout the whole world and we bless You because by Your holy cross You have redeemed the world’ (pp 124-5).8

 All-powerful, most holy, most high, supreme God: all good, supreme good, totally good, You Who alone are good, may we give you all praise, all glory, all thanks, all honour, all blessing, and all good. So be it! So be it! Amen (p. 162).8

 Thanksgiving, as in the Praises to be Said at All Hours (p. 162)8 above, was also an important component of praying for Francis and was often combined with praise and adoration. For example, the penultimate chapter (Chapter 23) of The Earlier Rule (p. 81-6)8 is an extended prayer. It is entitled Prayer and Thanksgiving and begins:

 All-powerful, most holy, Almighty and supreme God, Holy and just Father, Lord King of heaven and earth we thank you for yourself.

 The next four stanzas focus on thanksgiving before three, which urge love, perseverance, penance and desire, lead to this final stanza emphasising adoration, praise and giving thanks as part of praying at all times:

 Wherever we are, in every place, at every hour, at every time of the day, every day and continually, let all of us truly believe, hold in our heart and love, honour, adore, serve, praise and bless, glorify and exalt, magnify and give thanks to the Most High and Supreme Eternal God (pp. 85).8

 Praying using the Our Father

Francis told his brothers to use the Our Father in their prayers on several occasions (pp 47, 88, 222).8 Thomas of Celano in The First Life recorded the following under the heading ‘How Blessed Francis taught the brothers to pray’:

 The brothers at that time begged him to teach them how to pray, because, walking in simplicity of spirit, up to that time they did not know the Church’s office. Francis told them: ’When you pray, say ”Our Father” and “We adore you, O Christ, in all Your churches throughout the whole world, and we bless you, for by your holy cross You have redeemed the world”.’ The brothers, devout disciples of their master, strove diligently to observe this (p. 222).8

 This is perhaps the only example we have of Francis responding directly to a request to teach about praying. As noted in Section 1.3, Francis allowed lay brothers who could not manage the full offices (most likely due to poor literacy) to say several Our Fathers instead.

 The prayer of adoration in these instructions was part of Francis’ Testament (pp 124-5)8 written near the end of his life, emphasising again the key role of adoration in his praying. He also wrote A Prayer Inspired by the Our Father for his brothers (pp 158-60),8 but rather than giving detailed instructions on praying or a commentary, this is an extended meditation, including the following points:

 »        God our Father, the generous source of all that is good, the good ‘from whom all good comes’.

»        God as light and love dwelling in the angels and saints and inflaming them to love.

»        May the knowledge and vision of God become clearer in each of us so that we may share perfect love, blessed companionship and eternal enjoyment of the Father.

»        May we seek God’s glory in everything in the service of love.

»        May we love our neighbour as ourselves, drawing them to God’s love.

»        May we remember Christ’s love and suffering for us.

»        May God forgive us our sins through the intercessions of the Blessed Virgin and all the saints.

»        May we truly love and intercede for our enemies ‘fervently’.

»        May we be delivered from evil, ‘past, present and to come’.

 This prayer has been described as a synthesis of themes and intercessions present elsewhere in Francis’ writings (p. 196).15 If, of Francis’ prayers, we only had this and Chapter 23 of The Earlier Rule, we could see clearly his approach to relating to his Father through praying and his unending desire for gospel perfection (p. 108).15 

 Confess their sins to a priest

Confession and penance were both important for Francis. Confession was integral to the Rule, and Francis himself frequently confessed his sins. This is from A Letter to the Entire Order written in the last year of Francis’ life:

 I confess all my sins to the Lord God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to the blessed ever Virgin Mary, all the saints in heaven and on earth, to Brother H, the Minister of our Order as my venerable lord and all my other blessed brothers. I have offended the Lord in many ways by my serious faults especially in not observing the Rule that I have promised Him and in not saying the Office as the Rule prescribes… (p. 119).8

 As noted in Section 1.3, in The Earlier Rule Francis also instructed his brothers to confess their sins:

 to a priest of the Order or to other discerning and Catholic priests, knowing with certainty that when they have received penance and absolution from any Catholic priest, they are without doubt absolved from their sins, provided they have humbly and faithfully fulfilled the penance imposed on them (p. 77).8

 As was customary at the time, confession followed by penance became part of the lives and Rule of Francis’ fraternity.

 Fast and abstain from vices and sins

The stories of Francis’ personal fasting are too numerous to list (p. 227),8 and he similarly instructed the brothers to ‘fast and abstain from vices and sins and from an excess of food and drink’ (p. 47).8 In The Earlier Rule, he gave more detail:

 Let all the brothers fast from the feast of All Saints until the Nativity, and from the Epiphany, when our Lord Jesus Christ began to fast, until Easter. However, at other times, according to this life, let them not be bound to fast except on Fridays (p. 66).8

 Further on in The Earlier Rule, he explains why fasting and abstinence are necessary:

 Let us guard ourselves from the wisdom of this world and the prudence of the flesh. Because the spirit of the flesh very much desires and strives to have the words but cares little for the activity; it does not seek a religion and holiness in an interior spirit, but wants and desires to have a religion and a holiness outwardly apparent to people. …

The Spirit of the Lord, however, wants the flesh to be mortified and looked down upon, considered of little worth and rejected. It strives for humility and patience, the pure, simple and true peace of the spirit. Above all, it desires the divine fear, the divine wisdom and the divine love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (pp 75-6).8

 In centring their lives on the God of love, the Brothers were called to an inner transformation in which, through their desires and appetites, their shortcomings became apparent. Potential shortcomings included preferring an external show of religion to the interior activity necessary for true holiness. If the desires and appetites of the flesh could be looked down upon and rejected, true love, peace of the Spirit and divine wisdom might emerge.

 Underlying Francis’ attitude to fasting and abstinence is his constant humility:

 I, Brother Francis, a useless man and an unworthy creature of the Lord God (p. 120).8

 We must be simple, humble and pure. And let us hold our bodies in scorn and contempt because, through our own fault, we are all wretched and corrupt, disgusting and worms (p. 48).8

 Visit and venerate churches

In Section 1.3, we noted that Francis had great reverence for the sacraments because he regarded Jesus as humbling Himself and hiding ‘under an ordinary piece of bread’ (p. 118).8 Due to this reverence, he venerated churches themselves (i.e. church buildings) because they were home to the sacramental bread and wine:

 And the Lord gave me such faith in churches that I would pray with simplicity in this way and say: ‘We adore You, Lord Jesus Christ, in all Your churches throughout the whole world and we bless You because by Your holy cross You have redeemed the world.’ … In this world, I see nothing corporally of the most high Son of God except His most holy Body and Blood … I want to have these most holy mysteries honoured and venerated above all things and I want to reserve them in precious places (pp 124-5).8

It may be significant that Francis’ spiritual journey began at the church of San Damiano, but the reverence described here is clearly focused on God’s presence. Churches are visited and venerated to recognize and worship the God of love present, through prayer and sacrament, in these sacred places.

Perhaps because of this, Thomas of Celano reported that Francis ‘would spend the night alone praying in abandoned churches’ (p. 244).8 Similarly, whenever the brothers saw a church, they would turn towards it, prostrate themselves on the ground, bow inwardly and outwardly, and offer the prayer of adoration taught them by Francis, saying ‘We adore you, O Christ, in all your churches…’ (p. 222).8

Day and night direct prayer and praises to God

We saw in Section 1.2 that prayer and devotion are activities of the Holy Spirit in which all other activities take place. In Francis’ life and writings there was a pattern of activity (such as preaching, see Section 1.7) and silent praying framed by the regular daily rhythm of worship. Within this inner and outer praying, The First Life also recorded that Francis prayed day and night:

His safest haven was prayer; not prayer of a fleeting moment, empty and proud, but prayer that was prolonged, full of devotion, peaceful in humility. If he began at night, he was barely finished in the morning. Walking, sitting, eating, drinking, he was focused on prayer. He would spend the night alone praying in abandoned churches and in deserted places where, with the protection of divine grace, he overcame his soul’s many fears and anxieties. He used to struggle hand to hand with the devil who, in those places, would not only assault him internally with temptations but also frighten him externally with ruin and undermining (p. 244).8

To combat the inevitable distractions that occur in silent prayer, Francis urged his brothers to be on their guard against the ‘malice and craftiness of Satan, who does not want anyone to turn his mind and heart to God’ (p. 80).8 To do this while praying, he would use simple words repetitively, sometimes just ‘Jesus’ (p. 283)8 or other phrases:

He went to a place of prayer, as he so often did. He remained there for a long time… frequently repeating this phrase: ‘Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner’ (p. 205).8

What different ways of praying do you use?

What helps? What gets in the way?

1.7 Francis, Prayer and Action

Those brothers to whom the Lord has given the grace of working may work faithfully and devotedly so that, while avoiding idleness, the enemy of the soul, they do not extinguish the Spirit of holy prayer and devotion to which all things temporal must contribute (p. 102).8            

As we have seen, prayer and action in the Franciscan tradition are inevitably intertwined; any attempt to understand Francis’ prayer must include study of action because prayer leads to action for Francis. This section explores actions emerging from prayer as described in Francis’ writings.

Preaching was central for Francis and his brothers from the earliest days of the fraternity and prayer preceded preaching:

Saint Francis did not put trust in his own efforts, but with holy prayer coming before any decision, he chose not to live for himself alone, but for the one who died for all. For he knew that he was sent for this: to win for God souls which the devil was trying to snatch away. … Francis, Christ’s bravest soldier, went around the cities and villages, proclaiming the kingdom of God and preaching peace and penance (p. 204).8

Francis gave instructions about preaching in The Later Rule and elsewhere:

Let none of the brothers dare to preach to the people unless he has been examined and approved by the general minister of his fraternity and the office of preacher has been conferred upon him.

Moreover, I admonish and exhort those brothers that when they preach their language be well-considered and chaste for the benefit and edification of the people … with brevity, because our Lord when on earth kept his word brief (p. 105).8

May you announce and preach His praise to all nations in such a way that praise and thanks may always be given to the all-powerful God by all people throughout the world at every hour (p. 57).8

Similarly, in another letter, Francis requested that ‘the praises of God be proclaimed among the peoples and in the piazzas’ (p. 60).8 Thomas of Celano noted that in response men, women, clerics and religious ‘rushed to hear the holy one of God’ (p. 215).8 

Thomas also noted that peace was a key theme in the preaching which Francis began after re-building San Damiano and the Portiuncula:

In all of his preaching, before he presented the word of God to the assembly, he prayed for peace saying, ‘May the Lord give you peace’. He always proclaimed this to men and women, those he met and to those who met him (p. 203).8

This is also apparent in Francis’ own writings:

The Lord revealed a greeting to me that we should say: ’May the Lord give you peace’ (p. 126; The Testament).8 

May the Lord bless you and keep you. May He show His face to you and be merciful to you. May He turn his countenance to you and give you peace. May the Lord bless you, Brother Leo (p. 112; A Blessing for Brother Leo).8 

Into whatever house they enter, let them first say: ‘Peace be to this house!’ (p. 102; The Later Rule).8

The deep theological significance for Francis of peace as uniting God and heaven with all creation and the earth in Christ is apparent in A Letter to the Entire Order:

Our Lord Jesus Christ in whom that which is in heaven and on earth has been brought to peace and reconciled to almighty God (p. 117).8

Reconciliation can be between people and also between people and God. The papal bull of canonisation noted Francis’ mission ‘to reconcile people to God by his zealous preaching’ (p. 566).8 Francis’ writings suggest that he believed that peace begins within each of us through prayer (pp 166-7).17 Hence we read of Francis urging his brothers to have peace in their hearts:

His great desire was that he and his brothers would perform deeds through which the Lord would be praised. He used to tell them: ‘As you announce peace with your mouth, make sure that you have greater peace in your hearts… Let everyone be drawn to peace and kindness through your peace and gentleness’ (pp 52-3).9

This priority of proclaiming peace was both inherently prayerful and central to action for Francis. For example, he sent his early fraternity out in pairs to announce ‘peace to the people and penance for the remission of sins’ (p. 207).8 Later, such missionary journeys became part of the life of the fraternity, brothers travelling throughout Europe and the Middle East. Francis himself travelled to Syria and Egypt to visit the Sultan in the hope of achieving reconciliation between the warring parties (pp 231).8

For Francis, prayer was also intimately linked with prophecy. In Chapter Eleven of The First Life, Thomas described Francis remaining for a long time at a place of prayer. When he re-joined his eight brothers, he told them of his prophetic vision for the future of their fraternity. Many men were going to join from all over Europe, a huge crowd (p. 206).8 For Francis, transforming prayer was the path to action, inherently prophetic.

Another example of prayer leading to action for Francis was his healing ministry. The Life of Saint Francis described many instances of healing, frequently noting that Francis prayed before the healing took place:

The holy father Francis took pity upon [the man’s] serious condition, went to see him and, after praying, signed him and blessed him. The man was suddenly healed (p. 241).8

Finally, identifying with, living alongside and serving the poor people of the time were also important components of life in the fraternity (p. 218).8 Alongside the regular rhythms of prayer described earlier, such practical actions – including nursing lepers – shaped those who sought to follow Francis.

These are among many examples of actions emerging from prayer that people who attempt to live following in the way of Francis today might look to emulate. Discerning how to live out a balance of action and prayer may take each of us some time and may vary over time. As he lay dying, Francis gave us clear instructions:

‘I have done what is mine to do; may Christ teach you yours’ (p. 642). 9

What activities are significant in your life?

How might they need to change in the light of Francis’ example?

In what ways do you express peace and reconciliation in your lifestyle?

Section 2: Franciscan Spirituality and Praying

2.1 Praying and the Foundations of Franciscan Spirituality

The most holy father did not want his brothers to be desirous of learning or books, but wanted and preached to them to be eager to lay the foundation on holy humility and to imitate the pure simplicity, holy prayer, and Lady Poverty on which the holy and first brothers had built. And he used to say that this was the only secure path for their well-being, because Christ, Whom we are to follow, has shown us that this is the only way and taught us so both by word and example (p. 319).10

These words are thought to have been written by Brother Leo between 1247 and 1260 (p. 116).9 They have been described as offering four foundation stones of the Franciscan way: humility, simplicity, poverty, prayer (p. 24).12 These themes, evident in most early writings about Francis, form the basis of what Francis stood for and for subsequent Franciscan spirituality. Crucially, as the passage suggests, these stones themselves must be underpinned by Christ:

[Francis’] highest aim and foremost desire and greatest intention was to pay heed to the holy gospel in all things and through all things, to follow the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. … Francis used to recall with regular meditation the words of Christ… he scarcely wanted to think of anything else (p. 254).8

Francis’ devotion to following Jesus Christ – God’s son incarnate as a human being – is the underlying theme in all Franciscan spirituality. Francis writes of God as good (p. 85),8 ‘all good, the highest good’ (p. 109),8 and as Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), from whom ‘all creation proceeds through the Son’ (p. 38):20

            All-powerful, most holy,

            Almighty and supreme God,

            Holy and just Father,

            Lord King of heaven and earth

            we thank You for Yourself

            for through Your holy will

            and through Your only Son

            with the Holy Spirit

            You have created everything spiritual and corporal (p. 81).8

He notes that ‘the Lord God… created and formed you to the image of his beloved Son according to the body and to His likeness according to the Spirit’ (p. 131).8 The entirety of the first of The Admonitions (Francis’ teachings on biblical passages) concerns the central place of Christ as the revelation of God the Father (p. 128).8 Quoting John 14.9 (‘whoever sees me sees my Father as well’), Francis presents the whole creation and the whole person (body and spirit) as image and revelation of God through Christ with the Holy Spirit.

In the same Earlier Rule passage (p. 81),8 he links this with the fall (‘through our own fault we fell’), along with the cross and redemption (‘You willed to redeem us captives through His cross and blood and death’). Francis’ love of the incarnate and human Christ led him to see Christ in all of ‘fallen’ creation, and to understand that everything in heaven and earth has been reconciled to God through Christ.

These writings of Francis give us insight to the Christ-centred beliefs that underpinned his life and prayer. We see its application both in his life and subsequently in Franciscan spirituality.

Key features of Franciscan spirituality include the following (pp 27-3912; p. 7920):

»        Humility: evident in begging and serving lepers, both by Francis himself and his brothers.

»        Simplicity: seen in Francis’ application of the gospels (no preparation of food in advance, i.e. ‘take no thought for the morrow’) and constantly giving away his only cloak or the house bible.

»        Poverty: central to Francis; the brothers were not allowed to touch money or have anything to do with it.

»        Intense love for God and hence for all humanity: encounter with lepers as part of Francis’ conversion, and at other times, led to encounter with God; subsequently caring for and living with people who are sick or poor has been central to the Franciscan tradition.

»        Intense love for God and hence for all creation: from this originate many well-known stories, e.g. the wolf at Gubbio, preaching to the birds and contemporary Franciscan approaches to peace and environment.

Above we noted four foundation stones of Franciscan spirituality based on the writing of Brother Leo  - humility, simplicity, poverty, prayer - all underpinned by Francis’ devotion to following the way of Jesus Christ (his Christ-centredness). However, it seems more accurate to see praying as alongside Christ-centredness, underpinning and coming before the well-known triad of simplicity, poverty and humility.

Francis’ wish to follow Jesus Christ became part of his life and praying was his vehicle for this. The evidence for this is in Francis’ early call to faith reported in The First Life. Soon after the failed attempt to join an expedition to Apulia, Francis went with a friend to remote places around Assisi:

There was a cave near the city where they often went and talked together… The man of God, who was already holy because of his holy intention, was accustomed to enter the cave while his companion waited outside, and inspired by a new and extraordinary spirit he would pray to his Father in secret. … He prayed with all his heart that the eternal and true God guide his way and teach him to do His will (pp 187-92).8

Desire for God in Christ expressed through praying begins the Franciscan story. Hence the true foundation of all Franciscan spirituality is Christ and Francis’ wish to imitate Christ. Praying is the means by which Francis both experienced and expressed this desire for and love of Christ; everything else proceeds from this.

As noted in Section 1.2, all aspects of our existence and our calling to follow Francis must remain secondary to this central dimension in our lives: intensifying our loving relationship with God through praying. Hence praying and a Christ-centred theology underpin Franciscanism. From these two develop all other dimensions of Franciscan spirituality, including loyalty and devotion to the Church, obedience, poverty, humility, penance and a mixed life of both prayer and activity.

What are the foundations of your Christian faith?

How have they changed over the years?

Might they need to be re-visited or to change again?

2.2 Franciscan Praying and Action

From the earliest centuries of Christianity, the idea of the whole cosmos as prayer has been proposed:

The profound conception, well attested in the ancient Church, according to which, at certain times, and especially in the dead of night, which is the moment of resurrection, the whole cosmos becomes Church – stars, plants and animals gather together in a sort of prayer (p. 192).23

Towards the middle of the night … we have to pray at this hour because the men of old from whom we have received this tradition have taught us that all creation rests then for a moment in order to praise the Lord. The stars, the trees, the rivers stop for an instant and, together with the choir of angels and the souls of the righteous, sing the praises of God (p. 193; attributed to Hippolytus, c. 170-235 CE).23

Christians are called to pray everywhere and at all times; ‘to pray everywhere is not only possible, it is a duty because the universe is primarily a place of worship’ (p. 198).23

Every Christian, even if he lacks any education, knows that every place is a part of the universe and that the universe itself is the temple of God. He prays in every place. … He prays unceasingly who combines prayer with necessary duties and duties with prayer. Only in this way can we find it practicable to fulfil the commandment to pray always. It consists in regarding the whole of human existence as a great single prayer. What we are accustomed to call prayer is only a part of it (p. 212; Origen, c. 184-253 CE).23

There is a long history in Christian thought of seeing prayer as constant. If this is so, then any action that we undertake is necessarily prayer-full.

There is no separation between the apostolates of prayer and action. They are two aspects of a harmonious whole, two manifestations of a God-centred life. Action and prayer are different modes of expressing the same truth (p. 52).6

Following the example of Jesus (see Section 1.5), this way of thinking is deeply embedded in Franciscan spirituality. It can be seen in the lives of both Francis and Clare:

We are to become vessels of God’s compassionate love for others. Clare’s path of prayer is a deep, mutual relationship with God… so that we may radiate God’s face to the world. It is a ‘mysticism of motherhood’ because through prayer we bring Christ to birth in our lives, making Christ live again. Thus it is the way of prayer that makes the gospel alive: it is prayer for gospel living (p. 68).17

Francis offers us a similar metaphor of motherhood:

We are mothers when we carry Him in our heart and body through love and a pure and sincere conscience; and give Him birth through a holy activity, which must shine before others by example (p. 49).8  

In the Franciscan way, to live a life of prayer is not to leave the world to seek God. It is rather to share fully in the action of human life and so participate in the mystery of God made human in Jesus Christ.

For Francis, apostolic activity does not arise from the contemplation of God; rather it is the contemplation of God because the same Spirit of love that goes out to unite with our neighbours or our brothers and sisters is the same Spirit of love that joins us to God and enables us to see the truth of God in the reality of our world (p. 100).17

The monastic tradition offers a different balance of praying and action (pp 57-62).17 The Rule of Saint Benedict has shaped monasticism since it was written in the sixth century. Influenced by earlier writers such as Evagrius of Pontus and John Cassian, Benedict wrote that the purpose of monastic life is to leave the world to seek God. He described the work of the monk as unceasing prayer aspiring to union with God over which nothing should take precedence (see ‘Prologue’ and ‘Latecomers to the work of God or to meals’).24 The busy-ness and sinfulness of everyday life could only be an obstacle to this aspiration. Until the Franciscan way emerged, such praying was generally out of reach to ordinary Christians.

Christ himself, followers of Francis with a Christ-like rhythm of activity and praying, and monks and nuns whose main work is prayer (p. 10)25 all offer models of living with differing balances of prayer and action. Whatever balance is chosen by each of us, it has deep significance:

However solitary and secluded, the man (sic) who prays is never alone. His is already a celestial liturgy; and it continues to be always for the Church. It already penetrates to the heart of the world and to the core of all things (p. 97).25

For Franciscans, all action is prayer and praying is inseparable from action. Both are work of the highest significance.

What is the balance of prayer and action in your life?

How might it be developed further?

2.3 Praying and Creation in Franciscan Spirituality

As we have seen, the foundation of Francis’ relationship with God was the incarnation of the Son, made human in Jesus Christ. Expressed through praying, this desire to radically follow Jesus’ example inspired Francis’ life.

Alongside this, in exploring The Canticle of the Creatures, we have noted Francis’ understanding that all creation is of God, gift of God, points to God and inherently praises God. All creatures and all creation come from the same source: God the creator, who has come in the Son to be one of the creatures. Hence they are all – animals, birds, flowers, rocks – fellow creatures with the incarnate Son of God, and are ‘brothers and sisters’ to Francis:

From a reflection on the primary source of all things, filled with even more abundant piety, he would call creatures, no matter how small, by the name of ‘brother’ or ‘sister’, because he knew they shared with him the same beginning (p. 590).9

Francis came to see God’s goodness in all parts of creation. Everything on every level spoke to him of God: sun, moon, water, fire, worms, lambs, weeds. The world seen as God’s cloister, charged with God’s grandeur, as the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote (p. 26).26 Bonaventure called this contuition: the awareness of God’s presence alongside the object of creation itself:

In beautiful things he contuited beauty itself and through the footprints impressed in things he followed his Beloved everywhere, out of them all making for himself a ladder though which he could climb up to lay hold of Him who is utterly desirable (p. 596).9 

Bonaventure also described God as the exemplar – by which he meant the model or prototype – of all things. The humanity of Jesus Christ is the prototype, model or exemplar on God’s universal worktable, and every part of creation has, as its model, Jesus the Word incarnate (p. 115-26).20 Hence all creation leads us towards God:

Every creature is a word of God because it speaks of God (p. 75).27

All the creatures of the sense world lead the mind of the contemplative and wise man to the eternal God. For these creatures are shadows, echoes and pictures of that first most powerful, most wise and most perfect principle, of that eternal Source, light and Fullness, of that efficient, exemplary and ordering Art. They are vestiges, representations, spectacles proposed to us and signs divinely given so that we can see God (p. 75-6).27

These themes were later developed by John Duns Scotus, a Franciscan, and more recently by Gerard Manley Hopkins, a Jesuit. They described respectively univocity of being and do-being (pp 115-26).20 Each created thing, in its own special way, is the total image of its creator. It expresses not one aspect of God but God’s beauty as a whole. All things – from grains of sand to bluebells – are doing and being themselves and that doing/being is their doing/being Christ. Grains of sand and bluebells are eucharistic and  extensions of Christ’s incarnation in matter.

Deep gazing or contemplation of things allows glimpses of Christ, who is incarnate in all components of creation:

Gaze on this leaf, this stone, this molecule, this hand, this light streaming through this window, and Behold! Look and see: creature and Creator marvellously one-d, co-present, with no loss of identity for the creature or the Creator (pp 115-26).20

Francis understood this; every aspect of creation spoke to him of the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ. He and they were of equal worth, members of the same family, sharing the same origin and therefore bound to reflect the goodness of their creator. Following the Franciscan way of prayer calls us to open our eyes to see God’s love and goodness in everything around us. Such a vision, deeply prayerful, of the intrinsic love and goodness of people and of all creation, calls us to embrace them and to live in, and work for, peace throughout all creation.

Where and how do you find God in creation?

What helps you to do this?

2.4 Franciscan Praying as Desire and Gift

It is recorded that, as a young man, Francis received three ‘divine visitations’ (pp 3-11),12 which shaped his early life and started him on his vocational journey to sainthood. The first was during the night while he prepared to travel and fight as a knight; the second while out and about with his friends in Assisi; the third while he was praying in the run-down church of San Damiano:

Seething with desire to make the journey [to fight], the One who had struck him with the rod of justice visited him in a vision during the night (p. 186;8 p. 71).9

One evening his friends chose him to be in charge… He made arrangements for a sumptuous banquet… When they left the house bloated, his friends walked ahead of him, singing throughout the city. … Suddenly he was visited by the Lord who filled his heart with so much tenderness that he was unable to speak or move (p. 72).9

While he was walking by the church of San Damiano, he was told in the Spirit to go inside for a prayer. Once he entered, he began to pray intensely before an image of the Crucified, which spoke to him in a tender and kind voice (p. 76).9

Near the end of his life, he received the Stigmata (pp 263-5),8 a further gift. Given that most of us do not receive such divine gifts, what can we learn from Francis’ praying that will help us to ‘cultivate our hearts so that they become the perfect soil in which God’s seed can thrive and bear fruit’ (p. 76)?11

Desire must be first and was central for Francis. We must want to know God in Jesus Christ as Francis did. Thomas of Celano in The First Life recorded the following shortly before Francis went to La Verna and received the Stigmata:

After he had been there for some time, through unceasing prayer and frequent contemplation, he reached intimacy with God in an indescribable way. He longed to know what in him and about him was or could be most acceptable to the Eternal King. He sought this diligently and devoutly longed to know in what manner, and in what way, and with what desire he would be able to cling more perfectly to the Lord God, according to His counsel and the good pleasure of His will. This was always his philosophy; this was the highest desire that always burned in him as long as he lived. He asked the simple and the wise, the perfect and the imperfect, how he could reach the way of truth and arrive at his great goal (pp 261-2).8

In this passage, it is remarkable that even at this late stage in his life Francis continued to ask advice from many people, presumably hoping to gain small insights to allow his journey towards God to move forward. We can also see clearly the importance of desire combined with praying. Despite reaching ‘intimacy with God’, he still wished to draw closer, to be more perfect in love.

This example is significant for everyone. Desire generates desire and ‘enlarges our capacity for the infinite God’ (p. 37).17 The more we desire God, the more we are drawn towards the God who is overwhelmingly generous in love. Our journey in love and desire will continue throughout our lives, as it did for Francis.

The source of prayer for Francis is the Spirit who rests in the faithful making them the home and dwelling of the Trinity. The Spirit produces in those in whom the Spirit resides an inclination to reach out to God, a movement of holy prayer and devotion (p. 110).17

Desire demands a constant turning to God, a repeated choice to love God. The tools for this are commitment, attentiveness to our inner selves and disciplined perseverance. Without these, praying will not develop and we risk not hearing God’s love and desire for us. We risk this also when we become waylaid by competing possibilities and responsibilities in work, family life and recreation.

This desire cannot be for ourselves. Gospel life is about relationship, about giving birth to the Word in ourselves and in others:

The man of God, the blessed Francis, had been taught not to seek his own salvation but what he discerned would help the salvation of others. More than anything else he desired to be set free and to be with Christ (pp 243-4).8

Desiring and praying are intimately linked. Saint Bonaventure, after meditating on the significance of Francis’ stigmata, came to the conclusion that the only path to God is through the love of the crucified Christ and that the entrance to this path is desire:

No one is in any way disposed for divine contemplation that leads to mystical ecstasy unless like Daniel he is a person of desires [Daniel 9.23]. Such desires are kindled in us in two ways: by an outcry of prayer that makes us call aloud in the groaning of our heart and by the flash of insight by which the mind turns directly towards the rays of light (p. 55).27

Franciscan praying is available to everybody and a pure gift to those who seek. Francis has not left us a system of prayer (though we have already explored many clues), but he has left the example of his journey: desire, choosing God, disciplined perseverance in praying. Bonaventure, the first Franciscan theologian, sums this up:

If you wish to know how these things come about, ask grace not instruction, desire not understanding, the groaning of prayer not diligent reading… not light but the fire… This fire is God… and Christ kindles it in the heat of his burning passion (p. 115).27

What do you really desire?

How do these desires relate to your Christian journey and your praying?

Section 3: Franciscans Praying Today

3.1 Francis’ Prayer and Praying Today

In this Section, key themes concerning Francis’ prayer are highlighted and synthesized in an attempt to tease out what we can learn for our own lives today concerning both praying and action.

Francis’ example of his life journey was based on disciplined perseverance in praying and focused on his love for God in the incarnate Jesus Christ. This journey incorporated all the elements of Christian prayer noted earlier in the Introduction. There is clear evidence throughout The First Life that Francis’ prayer was ‘an exchange between God and the soul’ (p. 12).2

Desire is central for those who wish to follow Christ through Francis today; desire generates desire. The foundations of Franciscan spirituality are God made human in the incarnate Jesus Christ and Francis’ desire to imitate Christ. We have to want to love God in Christ in the same way that Francis did and urged his brothers to do as well. This emphasis is apparent in much contemporary spiritual writing, Franciscan and otherwise 6; 25; (p. 35-49).17

Praying and Christ-centred desire underpin any Franciscan vocation. This is evident in Francis’ own writings, such as his clear view that ‘holy prayer’ and devotion (an expression of desire) are activities of the Spirit to which ‘all temporal things must contribute’ (p. 102).8 There is ample support for this in Franciscan thought.17; 22

Praying at all times is a Franciscan and Christian theme easily forgotten. ‘Praying means remaining in the presence of God, whom we love; it is a continuous union with Him, and we should retain this contemplative attitude even while working’.28 For Francis, praying is not simply unceasing, it is the context of all activity. Praying and devotion lead to action and can themselves be viewed as action.

Francis’ prayer involved a Christ-like pattern of solitary praying and communal time in the world, utilizing a variety of liturgy and rhythms of prayer. A regular rhythm of daily worship is important for people who follow Francis today, however difficult this may be for many in everyday life. Similarly, a rhythm of solitude and action is relevant today. Contemporary Franciscans have recorded a variety of ways of living such a rhythm, in both urban and rural settings (pp 287-344).18 For many people, going on retreat regularly is part of this (pp 87-113)29 and it is a component of the Rule of the Third Order, Society of St Francis.30

Daily prayer for Francis and his fraternity involved several daily offices (saying the Hours) based on recitation of the psalms. Today, priests and religious follow a similar, if less onerous, pattern of worship based on psalms and bible readings. Although the Secular Franciscan Order emphasises the Liturgy of the Hours (pp 104-7)29 and the Anglican Third Order requires prayers at least once and preferably twice a day,30 this would not be part of the daily routine for many contemporary Christians.

Francis’ instructions concerning regular attendance at the Eucharist and veneration of the sacraments and holy places were discussed in Section 1.3. The former is expected of members of the Third Order30 though Francis’ insistence on daily Eucharist, if possible, may not be realistic for many people today.

While the central Franciscan themes of adoration and praise are at the forefront of much current worship, perhaps less emphasized is the repetition of short verses, aspirations and exclamations, including simply the name ‘Jesus’. The Jesus Prayer is an example of such prayer, documented in both current Orthodox31 and Franciscan32 writing, which might benefit from wider use.

Confession and penance – also known as the sacrament of reconciliation – are similarly little emphasized in many contemporary Anglican churches. As noted in Sections 1.3 and 1.6, in Francis’ cultural context they were a routine part of Christian living and were incorporated into the life of the fraternity. The Principles of the Third Order, Society of Saint Francis encourage participation in the sacrament of Reconciliation.33

Francis’ program of penance discussed in Section 1.3 included the instruction to ‘hate our bodies with their vices and sins’ (p. 41).8 This points towards his belief that our flesh is transient and an outward manifestation of life. It may distract us with the busy-ness of our existence in the everyday world, but the Spirit is true life, life itself.

How are personal praying and communal worship present in your life?

What might praying at all times involve for you?

What do you truly desire in your life?

How are confession, forgiveness and penitence part of your Christian

vocation?

3.2 Francis’ Prayer and Action Today

Franciscan action is prayer and praying is inseparable from action. Actions emerging from prayer for Francis were discussed in Section 1.7. They included preaching, spreading peace, enabling reconciliation, prophecy, healing, and identifying with and living alongside the poorest people. To what action does Francis’ prayer call us today?

Contemporary writers have suggested that Francis’ emphasis on peace translates into a new world order of reconciliation and peace with the earth and all creation: ‘a gospel of peace through unconditional love and unlimited forgiveness with no preconditions’ (p. 55).34 Built on actions such as non-violence (pp 83-103),35 working for reconciliation, and the ‘dirty feet’ (pp 128-9)20 of deep, painful engagement with the world, this is a new order in which the social and the spiritual are intimately bound together.   

Francis’ incarnational theology, seen in his prayer The Canticle of the Creatures, is the basis for all Franciscan action:

Francis knows himself through the incarnate Son: he also sees the rest of creation in this same light. All creatures, not just human beings, come from this same source, the good God of the Trinity, and all come through the same medium, the Son. … All creatures are, with Francis, ‘fellow creatures’ with the incarnate Son of God, and are therefore ‘brothers and sisters’ to Francis (p. 111).20

Francis’ prophetic assertion that all created things are linked in brotherhood and relatedness under God challenges a person-centred, anthropocentric vision or Enlightenment assumption of humanity as the pinnacle and centre of creation (p. 85).36 The Canticle offers a view of creation based on a relationship of equals, with God as the focus of all that is made. For Bonaventure, the first Franciscan theologian, ‘every creature is a word of God because it speaks of God’ (pp 75-6).27

If God is incarnate in all creation and all creation is equal, ‘brother and sister’, then there are implications for our actions:

»        Attending to even the smallest aspect of creation is a loving action and is of God.

»        Gazing on or contemplating a minute aspect of creation can enable glimpses of God.

»        As we are made in God’s image along with all creation, we have a responsibility of stewardship for the whole of creation; we become co-workers with God.

Hence action is for all of us, from our smallest and most ordinary everyday-ness, to our more visible active ‘doing’, along with our praying and contemplating. All these may appear limited and inadequate offerings, but they all have deep consequences: ‘everything in the universe and in history has to do with everything else and is unified in the heart of God; nothing is by chance’ (p. 71).34

Stewardship of creation might involve environmental work or service of others, particularly people who are poor, disadvantaged, lonely or unwell. Actions inherent in following Francis are all based on loving and serving our neighbours (see Section 1.7). They might include facilitating reconciliation and peace between people and between people and God, developing community, promoting justice and equality, and enabling sustainability in all creation.

By attending to creation in the world, we attend to and meet God. Engagement with others, particularly poor people, becomes an engagement with God. This is a key and prophetic insight of the Franciscan tradition (pp 15-9)35 which, as we have seen, emerges from Francis’ prayer. It is crucial because it challenges any spirituality that is not rooted in everyday life and the world, in what is mundane and down to earth; the ‘dirty feet’ of the incarnate word (p. 129).20

The Franciscan journey is not a monastic or solitary life of prayer, seeing the world as an obstacle to union with God in contemplation. It is instead an inversion of monastic rules: having the world as our cloister and finding God in the world, rather than fleeing the world to find God. It is not a spiritual search pulling people away from contemporary society, but:

A spirituality with consistent emphasis on the God who is revealed in Christ enfleshed, ‘in-mattered’, and in history, offering a point of dialogue with those who see in much of the contemporary religious quest a denial of responsibility for the world in which we live (p. 129).20

To what action does your praying call you?

How do you live out your responsibility for the stewardship of creation?

3.3 Francis, Praying and Third Order Franciscans

We have considered writings by and about Francis of Assisi and prayer, and then reflected on them a little in the light of the thought of those who have followed Francis over the centuries. What has all this to say to each of us as we try to follow Francis today, especially of those of us in the long tradition of the Franciscan Third Order?

The Rule of the Third Order, Society of Saint Francis has within its Principles30 three aims:

»        To make our Lord known and loved everywhere;

»        To spread the spirit of love and harmony;

»        To live simply.

These are reflected in three ways of service: prayer, study and work:

In the life of the Order as a whole these three ways must each find full and balanced expression, but it is not to be expected that all members devote themselves equally to each of them. Each individual’s service will vary according to his or her abilities and circumstances (Day 13).30

Service through work is based on actively serving others whenever possible and through this reflecting the love of Christ. Franciscan service through active work is itself deeply prayerful.

In the Principles, service through prayer includes30:

»        seeking to live in an atmosphere of praise and prayer;

»        being constantly aware of God’s presence;

»        aiming to pray without ceasing;

»        having the Eucharist as the heart of prayer;

»        constantly interceding for the needs of God’s church and God’s world;

»        being encouraged to participate in the sacrament of Reconciliation;

»        guarding the time allotted to prayer from interruption.

Such service through praying is, as we have seen earlier, deeply rooted in the life of Francis and within the Franciscan tradition over the centuries. Each of us has to think through how we can do this for ourselves, with the help of our Novice Guardian or spiritual director. The results of these discussions will then inform our Rule of Life, which is likely to need to be changed as we pass through different phases in life, work and family living.

The challenge is to follow Francis truly in prayer today, without being waylaid or caught up in the distractions of everyday life:

Prayer of the heart, that unceasing prayer where God breathes in us and our hearts are turned towards God, allows us to deepen our identity in God. And in that deepening of our life in God by which we become more of our true selves, the Word shines forth in our lives. We become an expression of the Word of God. Thus, when we allow the Word to take root within us through prayer and the indwelling of the Spirit, then we bring the Word to life.

In Francis’ view, nothing is to hinder us from this vocation nor should we desire anything else. … Life in God should be a daring adventure of love – a continuous journey of putting aside our securities to enter more profoundly into the uncharted depths of God. Too often we settle for mediocrity (p. 113).17

How might you most truly follow Francis in prayer?

What distractions are you caught up or waylaid in at present?

4: Conclusion

Despite the Franciscan significance of action and worldly rootedness – Francis has been called the inaugurator of ‘the social gospel’ – ‘the mainspring of Francis’ life was not compassion for his fellow men but an intense love of God’ from which all else flowed (p. 39).12 Francis experienced this love – focused on the incarnate Christ – through praying. Loving God in Christ and praying are the bases of his life and action, and of subsequent Franciscan spirituality and activity.

Within each of us, the desire ‘to make a home and dwelling place for Him who is the Lord God Almighty’ (p. 80)8 is crucial.

Desire above all else to have the Spirit of the Lord and Its holy activity, to pray always to Him (p. 105).8  

The example of Francis’ living and praying, modelled on that of Jesus Christ, challenges us and all contemporary Christians – frighteningly, uncompromisingly, foolishly – to choose also to journey towards infinite love.

References

1          Dalrymple, J. Simple prayer. London, DLT, 1984.

2          Balthasar, H. Prayer. London, SPCK, 1961.

3          John Climacus. The ladder of divine ascent. Mahwah, NJ, Paulist Press, 1982.

4          Evagrius of Pontus. Chapters on prayer. Collegeville, MN, Cistercian Publications, 1972.

5          Guiver, G. ‘Prayer’, IN: The new SCM dictionary of liturgy and worship. London, SCM, 2002.

6          Mother Mary Clare. Encountering the depths. Oxford, SLG Press, 1981.

7          Merton, T. Contemplative Prayer. London, DLT, 1973.

8          Armitage, RJ., Wayne Hellman, JA., Short, WJ. (eds), Francis of Assisi; Early documents, Vol 1 ‘The Saint’. New York, New City, 1999.

9          Armitage, RJ., Wayne Hellman, JA., Short, WJ. (eds) Francis of Assisi; Early documents, Vol 2 ‘The Founder’. New York, New City, 2000.

10        Armitage, RJ., Wayne Hellman, JA., Short, WJ. (eds) Francis of Assisi; Early documents, Vol 3 ‘The Prophet’. New York, New City, 2001.

11        Hammond, J. (ed), Francis of Assisi; History, hagiography and hermeneutics in the early documents. New York, New City, 2004.

12        Moorman, J. Saint Francis of Assisi. London, SPCK, 1950.

13        Thompson, A. Francis of Assisi; A new biography. Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 2012.

14        The confessions of St Augustine; Book 8. London, Collins Fontana, 1957.

15        Armstrong, R. St Francis of Assisi; Writings for a gospel life. New York, St Pauls Publications, 1994.

16        Ramon, Brother. Franciscan spirituality; Following Saint Francis today. London, SPCK, 1994.

17        Delio, I. Franciscan prayer. Cincinnati, OH, St Anthony Messenger Press, 2004.

18        Cirino, A. and Raischl, J. (eds) Franciscan solitude. New York, Franciscan Institute, 1995.

19        Merton, T. Contemplation in a world of action. New York, Image Books, 1973.

20        Short, W. Poverty and joy; The Franciscan tradition. London, DLT, 1999.

21        Yates, P. Early Franciscan eremiticism. The Cord 46 (1), 1996.

22        Hubaut, M. Learning to pray with St Francis and St Clare. Greyfriars Review 9, Supplement, 1995.

23        Clement, O. The roots of Christian mysticism. London, New City, 1993.

24        White, C. (trans) The Rule of Benedict. London, Penguin Classics, 2008.

25        Louf, A. Teach us to pray. London, DLT, 1974.

26        Hopkins, G.M. God’s Grandeur IN: The works of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Ware, Wordsworth Editions, 1994.

27        Cousins E. (trans) Bonaventure; The soul’s journey into God. New York, St Pauls Publications, 1978.

28        Lehmann, L. St Francis at prayer. Greyfriars Review 10.3, 223-34, 1996.

29        Foley, L., Weigel, J., Normile, P. To live as Francis lived; A guide for Secular Franciscans. Cincinnati, St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2000.

30        Third Order, Society of St Francis. The Manual. Various publications.

31        Kallistos, Bishop. The power of the name; The Jesus prayer in Orthodox spirituality. Oxford, SLG Press, 1986.

32        Ramon, Brother and Barrington-Ward, S. Praying the Jesus prayer together. Oxford, Bible Reading Fellowship, 2001.

33        Third Order, Society of St Francis. The Principles. Various publications.

34        Boff, L. The prayer of St Francis; A message of peace for today. New York, Orbis Books, 2001.

35        Dennis, M., Nangle, J., Moe-Lobeda, C., Taylor, S. St Francis and the foolishness of God. New York, Orbis Books, 1993.

36        Williams, R.C. A condition of complete simplicity; Franciscan wisdom for today’s world. Norwich, Canterbury Press, 2003.

Source documents for Francis’ life

Armitage, J. Wayne Hellmann, J, Short, W (eds). Francis of Assisi; Early documents. Vol 1, ‘The Saint’. New York, New City, 1999.             

Armitage, J, Wayne Hellmann, J, Short, W (eds). Francis of Assisi; Early documents. Vol 2, ‘The Founder’. New York, New City, 2000.

Armitage, J, Wayne Hellmann, J, Short, W (eds). Francis of Assisi; Early documents. Vol 3, ‘The Prophet’. New York, New City, 2001. 

Cousins, E. (trans) Bonaventure; The soul’s journey into God. New York, St Pauls Publications, 1978.

Biographies of Francis

Moorman, J. Saint Francis of Assisi. London, SPCK, 1950.

Thompson, A. Francis of Assisi; A new biography. Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 2012.

Franciscan prayer and spirituality

Delio, I. Franciscan prayer. Cincinnati, OH, St Anthony Messenger Press, 2004.

Helen Julian, Sister. Living the Gospel; The Spirituality of St Francis and St Clare. Oxford, Bible Reading Fellowship, 2001.

Ramon, Brother. Franciscan spirituality; Following Saint Francis today. London, SPCK, 1994.

Short, W. Poverty and joy; The Franciscan tradition. London, DLT, 1999.

Learning about praying

Becket, Sister Wendy. Sister Wendy on prayer. London, Continuum, 2006.

Dalrymple, J. Simple prayer. London, DLT, 1984.

Greig, P. How to pray: a simple guide for normal people. London, Hodder and Stoughton, 2019.

Mother Mary Clare. Encountering the depths. Oxford, SLG Press, 1981.

Louf, A. Teach us to pray. London, DLT, 1974.

Pilkington, E. Learning to pray. London, DLT, 1986.