The Writings of St. Francis of Assisi - + Saints' Works

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THE WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI adore the Lord Our God, Omnipotent in Trinity and Unity, the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, the Creator of all. · Do penance (cf. Mt 3:2) and produce fruits worthy of penance (cf. Lk 3:8), because know that we shall soon die. · "Give and it shall be given to you" (Lk 6:38). · Forgive and it shall be forgiven you (cf. Lk 6:37). · And "if you will not have forgiven" (Mt 6:14) , the Lord shall not "forgive you your sins" (Mk 11:25); confess all your sins (cf. Jm 5:16). · Blessed are those who die in penance, because they shall be in the Kingdom of Heaven. · Woe to those who do not die in penance, because they shall be "sons of the devil", whose works they do (Jn 8:41) and they shall go into eternal fire. · Beware of and abstain from all evil and persevere until the end in good. 67-70 [VII,13-16] Let all the friars beware, wherever they have been, in hermitages or in other places, that they appropriate no place or any thing to themselves nor defend it against anyone. · And whoever will have come to them, friend or adversary, let them not contend with him in any manner. · And wherever the friars are and in whatever [place they have come upon one another, they ought to spiritually and diligently look upon themselves and honor "one another without murmuring" (1 Pt 4:9). · And let them beware of themselves, that they do not show themselves to be sad, exteriorly gloomy and hypocrites; but let them show themselves to be (those) "rejoicing in the Lord" (cf. Phil 4:4) and cheerful and jocund] and suitably gracious. 71 [X,3] I beg every sick friar, that by returning thanks to the Creator because of all things, as God wants him to be, so he would desire (to be), whether healthy or infirm, because all, whom the Lord has preordained "to life eternal" (cf. Act 13:48), He trains with the goads of whips and infirmities and a spirit of compunction; 521 just as (He says): "Those whom I love" (Apoc 3:19) etc.. 72 [X,4] Whence I beg all my sick friars, that in their infirmities they do not grow angry nor become disturbed against God or against the friars, nor very solicitously or exceedingly desire medicines to free the flesh (that is) swift to die, which is the soul's enemy (that is) to die. 73-8 [IX,1-6] Let all the friars strive to follow the humility and poverty of Our Lord Jesus Christ and let them remember, that it is proper that we have nothing else of the whole world, except, as the Apostle says, having [food] and clothing "with which we are covered let us be content with these" (1 Tm 6:8). · And they ought to rejoice, when they conduct themselves among vile and despised persons, among the poor and weak and infirm and lepers and those begging along the road. · And when the necessity has arisen, let them go about for alms. · And let them not be ashamed, because Our Lord Jesus "Christ, the Son of the living God" (Jn 11:27) Omnipotent, "set his face as flint" 522 (Is 50:7) nor was He ashamed. · And He was poor and a guest and lived by alms, He and the Blessed Virgin, His holy Mother Mary, and His disciples. · And when men have shamed them and have not wanted to give them (anything), let them on that account return thanks to God, that because of the shame they shall receive great honor before the tribunal of Our Lord Jesus Christ. 79-8 [IX,7-9] And let them know, that shame will be imputed not to those who are suffering (it), but to those who bring it upon (others); · because alms are the inheritance and justice, which ought to be given to the poor, (and) which Our Lord Jesus Christ acquired. · And the friars, who labor by acquiring it, shall have a great wage and shall make the donors profit and acquire (merit); because all things, which men leave behind in the world, will perish, but because of the charity and alms, which they will have given, they shall have eternal life. 521 cf. St. Gregory the Great, Homil. in Ev. 18,18; PL 76, 1148. 522 see fn. 396. Page - 114
II. From the writings of Hugo of Digne 523 THE WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI II,175 [II,5] Whence the Saint used to say regarding this kind of thing in the Rule before it was approved: Let the friars and the ministers of the friars beware of themselves, that they in no manner enter into his affairs. II,193 [II,15] Before the Rule was approved the Saint used to add: And though they be called hypocrites, let them not cease to do good. III,201-2 [III,12] Whence before the Bull 524 the Rule used to have it thus: However at other times they are not bound to fast according to this life except on Fridays. X,297 [IV,6] ...as the Saint said previously in the Rule: Let the ministers—he said—remember that the care of the souls of the friars has been committed to them, of which, if any would be lost on account of their fault or bad example, it shall be proper that they render an account before the Lord Jesus Christ. VII,285-6 [V,7-8] The Saint used to say it thus, in the original Rule: Let all the friars beware, the ministers as much as the others, that on account of the sin or bad example of anyone they are not disturbed or grow angry, because the devil wants to corrupt the many on account of the sin of one, but let them spiritually, as they are able, help him, who has sinned, because a doctor is not needed for the healthy, but for those who have a malady (cf. Mk 2:17 par.). X,296 [V,10] ...in accord with that word of the Lord, which even blessed Francis used to speak to the friars: The princes of the nations dominate their own, and those who are greater exercise power among them; not so shall it be among you (Mt 20:25-26a). X,302-3 [V,14b-5] ...thus the Saint used to exhort them in the Rule before it was approved: Through charity of spirit let them voluntarily serve and obey one another (cf. Gal 5:13). This is, he said, the true and safe obedience of Our Lord Jesus Christ. X,305 [VI,1-2] Whence, previously it used to be said thus in the Rule: Let the friars, in whatever places they are, who cannot spiritually observe our life, indicate the same to their minister. Let the minister indeed strive to provide in such a wise, just as he would want to be done to himself. 523 Each excerpt is identified in italics (Hugo's chapter #, Sisto's p. #) according to its position in Hugo of Digne's Expositio super regulam Fratrum Minorum, as its appears in A. Sisto's, Figure del primo Francescanismo in Provenza: Ugo e Douceline di Digne, Florence, 1971, pp. 159-324. The cross references, in square [ ] brackets, to the Regula non-Bullata [RegNB] are from K. Esser, pp. 373-77, and refer to the latter's chapter and senate enumeration. These fragments taken from Hugo of Digne are arranged by K. Esser into verses according to the number of their paragraphs: each paragraph reckoned as one verse. This entire selection comprises part II of the Fragments. For other notes, see the corresponding sections of the Regula non-Bullata [RegNB]. 524 i.e. the bull of Pope Honorius III, Solet annuere, which approved the final version of the Rule; for a text of this Bull see the opening and closing paragraphs of the Regula Bullata [RegB]. Page - 115
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