When St. Francis called us into an Order in the very beginning and wrote our Rule, he considered and named us, “Brothers and Sisters of Penance.” Let us spend a few moments in this Lenten Season unpacking our name.

“Brothers and Sisters” are, of course, a family, mutually interdependent, hopefully loving, certainly related by blood, in our case, the blood of the Lamb.

Beyond that, in the Prologue to our Rule, Chapter One, Concerning Those Who Do Penance, we read:

“All who love the Lord with their whole heart, with their whole soul and mind, with all their strength (cf. Mk 12:30), and love their neighbors as themselves (cf. Mt 22:39) and hate their bodies with their vices and sins, and receive the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and produce worthy fruits of penance.

Oh, how happy and blessed are these men and women when they do these things and persevere in doing them, because “the spirit of the Lord will rest upon them” (cf. Is 11:2) and he will make “his home and dwelling among them” (cf Jn 14:23), and they are the sons of the heavenly Father (cf. Mt 5:45), whose works they do, and they are the spouses, brothers, and mothers of our Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Mt 12:50).”

Thus, loving God and our neighbors, hating our sins, receiving the Sacred Body and Blood and producing worthy fruits of penance make us one family in Christ, just as Christ will say, “For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother” (Mt. 12:50).

What then is penance? What are “worthy fruits of penance”?

“Penance” is our Lord’s first call to us, seen in the very first words Jesus utters in what scholars tell us is the very first written Gospel: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15 NAB revised).

This is the call of Lent. This is that call in our Rule ( Article 7): “United by their vocation as ‘brothers and sisters of penance’ and motivated by the dynamic power of the gospel, let them conform their thoughts and deeds to those of Christ by means of that radical interior change which the gospel calls ‘conversion.’ Human frailty makes it necessary that this conversion be carried out daily.”

This is indeed our Christian journey, and St. Francis in the Prologue to our Rule presents a life of penance, a life spent turning away from sin and living in Christ, as the only possible response to our all-mighty, all-holy, all-loving God.

Living in Christ, living as Christ lived, then, produces the worthy fruits of penance: prayer, praise, humility, charity. For Francis and for his followers, Jesus Christ is the focus for our penance; Jesus Christ is the way of penance. The primary struggle of penance is thus that daily need to turn away from sin and self and to turn toward Christ and the Gospel.

Since Jesus is always present, so the kingdom of God is always present if we only repent and believe the Gospel. This is that third of the marvelous Luminous Mysteries announced by our late Holy Father John Paul II: The Proclamation of the Kingdom and the Call to Penance or Repentance since we need to do it again and again day after day.

When I pray this third Mystery of Light, I try always to offer this decade of the Holy Rosary for us, the Brothers and Sisters of Penance, the Secular Franciscan Order and for all our Franciscan family here and throughout the world. Might I beg you to do the same?

Let us pray: “Heavenly Father, in Your great mercy, You have called us to imitate and grow closer to Christ, Your Son, by following in the footsteps of Sts. Francis and Clare. Help us, please, to turn away from sin and to be faithful to the Gospel as Christ gives us the grace. Help us to go constantly from Gospel to Life and from Life to Gospel. Help us always to pray for and to support our brothers and sisters in our common call to Penance. Help us to offer ourselves as did Your Son in loving service of that kingdom where you live with the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

Reflection Questions

1. Who are the “Brothers and Sisters of Penance”?
2. In what ways are we truly “family”?
3. What is your personal idea of “penance”?
4. What would be some “worthy fruits of penance” that you might do?
5. What is your personal idea of “conversion”?
6. What are our Lord’s first words in what scholars tell us is the first written Gospel?
7. How do we “do penance” all our lives? Why is this necessary?

This is an excerpt from a series of articles by the late Deacon Tom Bello, OFS, former National Minister of the Secular Franciscan Order – USA.  “Many of these essays were originally published in TAU-USA, our national newsletter,” said Jan Parker, OFS, current National Minister. “They are excellent for reflection and ongoing formation.”   were messages he sent out as National Minister   and   Each of them are excellent for reflection and/or ongoing formation,” said Jan Parker, OFS, current National Minister. She Jan helped Tom publish these articles the essays in book form.  It is called For All The Saints:  St. Francis’s Five-Point Plan for Salvation and is available from Tau Publishing. These excerpts will appear several times a week on the Secular Franciscans website.

Brothers and Sisters of Penance – Five Point Plan pg 19-21

By Deacon Tom Bellow, OFS

At every step in following the Franciscan Way, from Inquiry to Ongoing Formation, in prayer, one should journey with Sacred Scriptures in one hand and the Secular Franciscan Rule and General Constitutions in the other hand, and with both eyes, as clearly as possible, focused on Christ and Francis.

The very first words of “Chapter Two: The Way of Life” of the Secular Franciscan Rule offer sufficient justification for such a stance: “The rule and life of the Secular Franciscans is this: to observe the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ by following the example of St. Francis of Assisi who made Christ the inspiration and the center of his life with God and people.”

Thus, in this reflection on the importance of the concept of “fraternity” to St. Francis, and to us, his secular Franciscan followers, let us begin with our own Secular Franciscan Rule and General Constitutions: “Secular Franciscans, together with all people of good will, are called to build a more fraternal and evangelical world so that the kingdom of God may be brought about more effectively” (Secular Franciscan Rule 14). We work together to build a more fraternal world.

“The Secular Franciscan Order is divided into fraternities of various levels — local, regional, national, and international” (Secular Franciscan Rule 20). Our smallest unit is not the individual; no, we join fraternities to which individual members belong.

Or perhaps most succinctly, we may read in the General Constitutions: “The vocation to the Secular Franciscan Order is a vocation to live the Gospel in fraternal communion.  For this purpose, the members of the Secular Franciscan Order gather in ecclesial communities which are called fraternities” (Article 3.3).

Therefore, if at the heart of the Franciscan call is Christ, then around that heart is fraternity.

Where does this strong language for fraternity come from? Let’s start with God. By Divine Revelation, God is love (1 John 4:8, 16), and love is always more than self. Thus, God as God is not alone; Christ as God is not alone; the Holy Spirit as God is not alone.

God is a Fraternity of a Trinity. Three in One. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Thus, the basic mystery of the Trinity reveals a unity in community that shows what fraternity should look like.

Further, Christ as man is not alone. He had a Holy Family: Jesus, Mary and Joseph. He called to Himself, not just one to follow Him, but Twelve, a fraternity of apostles.

When Christ raises the daughter of Jairus or is transfigured or is praying in the Garden, He is with Peter, James and John; again, not just with, say, Peter alone.

Christ will promise, “Again, (amen,) I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:19-20).

In John’s Gospel, the Lord will pray, “I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me” (John 17:20-21).

“This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:12-13).

Like his Lord, Francis was not intended by God to go his own way. St. Francis writes in his Testament: “When God gave me some friars, there was no one to tell me what I should do; but the Most High Himself made it clear to me that I must live the life of the Gospel” (Omnibus p.68). Please note that according to his own Testament, Francis receives his friars, his fraternity, before he understands his way of life according to the Gospel.

His Exhortation, which offers the Prologue to the current Secular Franciscan Rule, is written to “the Brothers and Sisters in Penance,” again, not just to one.

In his Rule of 1223, or the Later Rule, Francis writes, “Wherever the friars meet one another, they should show that they are members of the same family. And they should have no hesitation in making known their needs to one another. For if a mother loves and cares for her child in the flesh, a friar should certainly love and care for his spiritual brother all the more tenderly” (Chapter 6, Omnibus pp.61-62)

In his November 22, 2002 Address to the Secular Franciscan Order, Pope John Paul II said that Holy Mother Church “wants your Order to be a model of organic, structural and charismatic union at all levels, so as to present yourself to the world as a ‘community of love’ ” (Secular Franciscan Rule 22).

Our Holy Father continued, “For this reason, you are asked first of all to bear a personal witness in the place where you live:  ‘before all:  in [your] family life; in [your] work; in [your] joys and sufferings; in [your] associations with all men and women, brothers and sisters of the same Father; in [your] presence and participation in the life of society; in [your] fraternal relationship with all creatures’ ” (General Constitutions Article 12.1).

Please note: “in [our] associations with all men and women, brothers and sisters of the same Father.” Fraternity is more than the local gathering. St. Francis calls us to be brothers and sisters to all in the Church. St. Francis calls us to be brothers and sisters to Moslems and Jews. St. Francis calls us to be brothers and sisters to sinners and lepers. St. Francis calls us to be brothers and sisters with all men and women. Fraternity is with all the human family.

Further, “in [our] fraternal relationship with all creatures,” St. Francis calls us to fraternity with Brother Sun and Sister Moon and Stars, Brother Wind and Sister Water, Brother Fire and Sister Earth, even with Sister Death (The Canticle of the Creatures).

Thus, fraternity is a call to unity and harmony with all our brothers and sisters, all of whom are children of the same loving God. Fraternity is a call to unity and harmony with all of creation, plant and planet, all created by the same loving God. Fraternity is a call to build a community of love that reflects Love back to the God of Love: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Reflection Questions

1. As professed Secular Franciscans, what should we keep in one hand and what in the other hand and upon whom should both of our eyes be focused?
2. According to our General Constitutions, what specifically is our vocation as Secular Franciscans?
3. Who or what is the heart of our Franciscan call, and who or what is around that heart?
4. What is the meaning to you of the sentence: “God is a Fraternity of a Trinity.”?
5. In what ways was Jesus Christ not alone?
6. How was St. Francis called by God not to be alone?
7. As professed Secular Franciscans, where does our call to fraternity stop?

This is an excerpt from a series of articles by the late Deacon Tom Bello, OFS, former minister of the National Franciscan Order-USA.  “Many of these were messages he sent out as national minister and are excellent for reflection and/or ongoing formation,” said Jan Parker, OFS,  current minister. She helped Tom publish the essays in book form.  It is called  For All The Saints:  St. Francis’s Five-Point Plan for Salvation and is available from Tau Publishing. These excerpts will appear several times a week on the Secular Franciscans website.

“Fraternity and Francis” In Following the Franciscan Way