Brothers and Sisters of Penance—Brief History—Fr Christopher, T.O.R.

TOR/OFS are guided by the Holy Spirit in search of God in the world. Our Rule
       is a form of life for a more perfect observance of the Gospel by reason of our
       condition of life. The 1221 Letter to All the Faithful is an inspirational text.

1221 Form of Life

1978 Pauline Rule

• Spiritual and evangelical
• A return to the spiritual experience of St Francis
• Attention to the Spirit in the “signs of the times”

The Rule invites us

• to creativity, and
• the exercise of co-responsibility

Essentials for mission effectiveness:

• autonomy
• unity, recognizing its centralized system
• vital reciprocity

7 Popes were Secular Franciscans

• Gregory IX: Memoriale Propositi 1221 to 1228—canonical establishment of the Third Order; detailed daily life of penance; need for a more organized structure for penitential groups
• Nicholas IV: Supra Montem 1289—new rule given to the Third Order by papal bull; closer juridical relationship with 1^st Order friars over dependence upon the 1^st Order
• 13^th century: tensions between Holy See and the State
• Privileges enjoyed by the Order of Penance with immunity from laws of the State
• Lesser involvement of the friars
• Elias takes interest in the fraternities; new changes in assistance to them
• Difficult to bring peace when divisions are present
  
• Urban VIII 1628 Observants (Conventuals) are guardians of the Rule
• 1883: Misericor Dei Filius—to protect the Third Order
• Leo XIII from Perugia, established fraternities everywhere; entrusted the Third Order to be the fundamental stone of the great Christian Social Doctrine
• 1893: national/international congresses of studies in the social actions of the Third Order; social reforms to the Church and Third Order apostolates.
• 19^th – 20^th century: first steps of unity for OFS; approval of statutes of international council of the Third Order by the General Minister of the Franciscan Family
• Approval of the Pauline Rule of 1978:
• Unity of the Order
• Centralized form of government
• Autonomy
• Vital reciprocal communion between 1st Order/TOR

Continued from Home Page

Sep 17 - Feast of the Stigmata of our holy father Francis

Francis imitated Christ so perfectly that towards the end of his life our Lord wished to point him out to the world as the faithful imitator of the Crucified, by imprinting His five wounds upon his body.

Two years before his death, when, according to his custom, Francis had repaired to Mt. La Verna to spend the 40 days preceding the feast of St. Michael the Archangel in prayer and fasting, this wonderful event took place.

(continued below Giotto image)

St. Bonaventure gives the following account of it:

"Francis was raised to God in the ardor of his seraphic love, wholly transformed by sweet compassion into Him, who, of His exceeding charity, was pleased to be crucified for us. On the morning of the feast of the Exultation of the Holy Cross, as he was praying in a secret and solitary place on the mountain, Francis beheld a seraph with six wings all afire, descending to him from the heights of heaven. As the seraph flew with great swiftness towards the man of God, there appeared amid the wings the form of one crucified, with his hands and feet stretched out and fixed to the cross. 

"Francis wondered greatly at the appearance of so novel and marvelous a vision. But knowing that the weakness of suffering could nowise be reconciled with the immortality of the seraphic spirit, he understood the vision as a revelation of the Lord and that it was being presented to his eyes by Divine Providence so that the friend of Christ might be transformed into Christ crucified, not through martyrdom of the flesh, but through a spiritual holocaust.

"The vision, disappearing, left behind it a marvelous fire in the heart of Francis, and no less wonderful token impressed on his flesh. For there began immediately to appear in his hands and in his feet something like nails as he had just seen them in the vision of the Crucified. The heads of the nails in the hands and feet were round and black, and the points were somewhat long and bent, as if they had been turned back. On the right side, as if it had been pierced by a lance, was the mark of a red wound, from which blood often flowed and stained his tunic."