Some thoughts on Anglican Franciscanism - part two

Charlie McCarron TSSF from the USA is now an Episcopalian Third Order member. He was Catholic and is deeply rooted in the Franciscan tradition from both the Catholic and Episcopalian viewpoint. He is a bit of an intellectual – he has done studying and lecturing on this stuff and is really good value. He was elected Minister Provincial for the Americas shortly after IPTOC. Good choice Americas. You can find other videos of his here.

He continued looking at some important aspects of the church environment at the time of St Francis, exploring some of the context out of which Franciscanism grew, and which still informs our charism today. Francis was much less the maverick we sometimes make him out to be but was shaped by and shaped the tradition that was going on around him. Charlie focussed this session on: Action and contemplation in the early Franciscan source. He began by suggesting that the key concepts for early Franciscans were:

• solitude,
• fraternity (he said it was hard to find another word that holds the tradition),
• simplicity,
• rhythm of the day,
• creation (noting our relationship with creation is the context of our prayer);
• ‘strive to be like him’ – offering Clare’s model of lectio – ‘be transformed into the image of the Godhead itself.

He observed that there were some early eremitical influences that preceded and were contemporary with Francis including:
a)  a movement of apostolic hermits, ie wandering preaching hermits who sought to live the gospel, and lived very, very simply, such as St Stephen of Muret. Poverty was an important theme for this hermit tradition as was the value the pattern of prayer throughout the day.

b)  Order of Penitents, which included people living in community in town or outside of town; and people who lived in their own homes, or were hermits or recluses, which Puala had already discussed.

c)  St Romuald (c. 950-1025)– founder of Camoldolese Hermits. Their hermitages had no more than 10 brothers. They had a church/ oratory for corporate prayer and shared kitchen/dining place, but spent most of their days alone in their cells, scattered around the common buildings – as in the style of the laura, of the desert fathers in Egypt in the 4^th - 5^th centuries. We encountered these again in our time in Palestine/Israel.

Some of the important themes of this tradition were:

• Smallness
• Poverty
• mission of spreading love

In the  Camoldolese tradition the triple good was: koinonia – community/fraternity;  solitude; evangelisation – martyrdom.

d)  The early desert tradition. Thomas of Celano says that Francis took Anthony of Egypt as his model. The tau cross in the 13^th century was known as the cross of St Anthony of Egypt. Francis, with Jerome, were both seen as desert fathers, and he was seen as a preaching hermit.

All of these helped shape Francis and his response to the gospel. Franciscan hermitages were in the pattern of the laura, including at the Portiuncula which Francis wanted to always be a hermitage. Other places using this model included La Verna, Greccio, La Celle at Cortona, and the Carceri, where they used clefts in the rocks and caves instead of huts. For Francis these hermitages swam in creation leaving no footprint (as opposed to the Cistercians who drained the swamp to improve the farm.) At the time of Francis, the hermitages were the houses of the friars, showing that prayer had a significant place in their life.

Today’s Franciscan balance of contemplation, community and missional action is a bubbling up of the same values from the 12^th century, that are very Franciscan, as well as Camaldolese.  Franciscan action and contemplation must be incorporated in some way into a Franciscan way of life.

He also noted that until 1960’s, as a result of Vatican 2, the San Damiano cross was revealed. Until that time it had been hidden. Apart from the Poor Clares of Assisi, no-one knew what it looked like.

Charlie offers these thoughts to help us reflect on our own calling as Franciscans. Sometimes life gets busy and prayer gets dropped. This is a reminder that prayer is central. I have noted on occasions people really involved in social action can be less contemplative. It is as if you are either contemplative or involved in social action. For Franciscans prayer is at the heart, as it was all through IPTOC-JFOC. The call to prayer stopped some big discussions, and that was important for me anyway. Not everyone agreed with that. Social action comes out of our contemplative life. Prayer reminds me of the need to centre myself in Christ. It teaches me and invites me to look for the crucified and risen Christ at work in the world today. I have not decided much about retirement. But I try to start each day with prayer. The action will come from that time of being and learning to look.