Embarking on the Great Fast

Did you receive ashes this past Wednesday? Lots of people here in southeastern Wisconsin did not due to the huge snowstorm from Tuesday evening through Wednesday night! However, that shouldn't stop us from entering Lent.

As the People of God we embark upon a Sacred Journey each year. A Holy Retreat, as Pope Benedict XVI reminded the Catholics in Rome at St. Sabina Church this Ash Wednesday night. (He receives ashes, too, by the way!).

In the Eastern Churches it is called the "Great Fast" (in Poland, a Western Slavic country, it is called "Wielki Post" -- great fast, also). This is the time we as a community undertake the traditional penitential practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving (giving to the poor). These ancient biblical traditions (which are also echoed in Islam, especially during Ramadan) call us as Catholic Christians to renew our baptism. We purposely abstain from certain things so that we may avail ourselves to God and grow more closely in the likeness of Christ Jesus (cf. 2 Cor. 3:18).

We the baptized receive the ashes on our forehead (or sprinkled atop our heads, as according to local custom) being signed to call us to deeper repentance, to grow deeper with those who are preparing for the Sacraments of Christian Initiation. To grow deeper in our relationship with the Lord; to grow deeper in our love of God and neighbor. Especially the poor. Especially to be reconciled with our enemies.

We heard in yesterday's First Reading from Isaiah 58 the call to the "true fast" -- not just abstaining from foods and delights as though we were trying to please God merely by our penitential practicies or try to curry favor with God. Rather, true penance is a change of life; that is, to live justly and conduct ourselves as a redeemed people. To live lives of integrity that corresond to our baptism. That is the Great Fast -- to turn away from sin and to believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

As Franciscans we participate in this Great Fast, whether Roman Rite or Byzantine Rite, according to our respective Church customs. We are Men of Penance who wear the habit of penance. Our life is about conversion, daily conversion to the Lord. And both St. Francis of Assisi and St. Clare of Assisi took this Holy Season very seriously in their own ongoing conversion to the Lord and his manner of living.

Please note the following:
In case you are not aware, Catholics of the Roman (Latin) Rite abstain from meat (i.e. beef, chicken, lamb, goat, pork, turkey -- basically any animal with lungs) on ALL Fridays of Lent; and on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Likewise, all between the ages of 18-59 are required (unless medically unable to do so) to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday as penitential practices. This means eating only ONE full meal those two days of the year. Byzantine Rite Catholics have different customs, according to their particular laws (i.e. Ruthenians, Melkites, Ukrainians, Romanians) -- to abstain from meat AND dairy products especially on Wednesdays and Fridays of the Great Fast.

The Poverello of Assisi: St. Francis and his feastday, 4 October 2007

Most High, glorious God,

bring light to the darkness of my heart

and give me true faith, certain hope and perfect charity,

sense and knowledge, Lord,

that I might carry out your holy and true command.

Amen.

St. Francis composed this simple prayer apparently early on in conversion experience. He would pray this before the Crucifix of San Damiano on the hill outside of the city of Assisi. San Damiano was a hostel for pilgrims en route to Rome, but had fallen into disrepair from neglect. It was before this Crucifix that Francis heard the Lord Jesus speak to him and say, "Francis, go repair my Church which you see is falling into ruins!"

Francis initiated his church-rebuilding campaign shortly afterward, thinking originally that it was to this chapel and a couple others that he was called to physically renew and repair. However, it wasn't till later on, as he reviewed his life, that he realized that the Lord had called him to a renewal of the People of God, not just stone and mortar!

Above I used the word "conversion" -- what was that all about? Francis (Giovanni Baptista Bernardone) was reared in a Catholic household, the elder son of the Bernardone family. He was known to be generous to the poor; he was also known to be lavishly generous to his friends for parties! So, you can imagine that he was popular.

But after his excursion into warfare (Assisi v. Perugia -- Perugia won), he became a prisoner of war in the dungeons of Perugia, where he apparently contracted a form of tuberculosis and nearly died. After being ransomed from the prison by his father, Pietro, Francis returned to Assisi a changed man. He tried another venture in warfare, but turned back after a disturbing dream. He began to reconsider the direction of his life. That is when we began going to San Damiano to pray before the Crucifix, alone in a lonely place -- to confront his inner self and to meet the Lord. Such is the stuff of discernment.

It was out of this interior struggle and encounter that eventually led Francis to renounce the world and to become the poor man, the poverello of Assisi, a "fool for Christ", who wanted to live for Jesus alone. And so he embarked on the greatest adventure a human being can do -- to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Crucifix of San Damiano

"Francis, go repair my Church which you see is falling into ruins."

World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Sunday 29 April 2007

Pope Benedict XVI has given his theme for this year's World Day of Prayer for Vocations (tomorrow, Sunday 29 April 2007), The Vocation to the Service of the Church as Communion. Our provincial minister, Fr. Leslie Hoppe, OFM, has encouraged us Franciscan friars to remember that "(w)e are a community of brothers whose commitments to each other are cemented by minority, i.e. by thinking of others as better than ourselves."

Simply put, our Franciscan witness is to mirror Jesus in his self-giving on the Cross. The pope points out that this communion is manifest best in our celebration of the Eucharist. This is when the Church is most visibly in communion -- we partake of the Holy Communion in the Body and Blood of Christ; we are in communion with one another. This is what is most important for our fraternal life as Franciscan friars, too.

As Franciscan friars, however imperfect we are, we try to live this communion both in our brotherhood and in our pastoral ministries. We hope that other men are inspired by the Lord through our witness to join us as friars minor (i.e. lesser brothers) to live for Jesus Christ after the example of St. Francis of Assisi.