Above all things - Pray

 

Day  30   Of the Virtues putting Vices to flight.   Where there is charity and wisdom there is neither fear nor ignorance Where there is patience and humility there is neither anger nor worry. Where there is poverty and joy there is neither cupidity nor avarice. Where there is quiet and meditation there is neither solicitude nor dissipation. Where there is the fear of the Lord to guard the house the enemy cannot find a way to enter. Where there is mercy and discretion there is neither excess nor hard-heartedness.	We, in the Ecumenical Franciscan Order  Meditate on the Admonitions of St. Francis daily, as part of our Daily Office, our Br. Shepherd has therefore divided these into 31 parts; today we think about virtues and vice.   Why is Solicitude a vice? – Why is it more virtuous to be quiet than kind?   When taken to its extreme being kind, concerned, attentive etc. are degrees of anxiety and to be anxious is a vice.   Paul tells us in Philippians 4: 6, 7 – that anxiety is overcome through prayer.   6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Therefore the most virtuous thing we might do is to pray.
	NIV

 

This is an interesting Admonition; (Part 2)

 

26th July Admonition  26   How the Servants of God should honour Priests.   Blessed is the servant of God who puts faith in those priests who live upright lives according to the Roman Church.   And woe to those who despise them. For no one should criticise a priest-even one who is a sinner, because the Lord reserves to Himself alone the judgement of a priest.   For, just as so much greater is their responsibility concerning the holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which they possess , and which they receive, and which they alone can minister to others,   so much so is the sin of one who sins against a priest greater than any other sin found amongst men in the whole world.   Translation Pia Fugaccia aka Sr. Giles

This is an interesting Admonition; (Part 2)   And to sin against Priests is greater than any sin we can commit, (because it is like judging Christ himself)?   In today’s world, in the everyday sense, when we assess another by their behaviour we tend not to count this assessment as a verdict requiring secular or religious censure, rather something necessary for the good of all.   What if the person is a Priest who has committed paedophilia?   Do we think that St. Francis would have it that anyone condemning a Priest for such heinous crimes yet sins against Christ himself?     Rather I believe that any paedophile, Priest or not, sins against Christ… To rape a child is to rape Christ…   How far then do we take Matthew 7:1 What think you?

 

How the Servants of God should honour Priests. -part 1

26th July Admonition  26   Blessed is the servant of God who puts faith in those priests who live upright lives according to the Roman Church.   And woe to those who despise them. For no one should criticise a priest-even one who is a sinner, because the Lord reserves to Himself alone the judgement of a priest.   For, just as so much greater is their responsibility concerning the holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which they possess , and which they receive, and which they alone can minister to others,   so much so is the sin of one who sins against a priest greater than any other sin found amongst men in the whole world.   Translation Pia Fugaccia aka Sr. Giles

This is an interesting Admonition; (Part 1)   Francis indicates that our self-regard depends on our regard for others. When we trust our neighbour we will feel respectful.   When we disapprove of him/her we will feel disrespectful ourselves.   When the one whom we respect or disrespect is a Priest then not only will we experience respectfulness or disrespectfulness, we will incur judgement because God alone judges Priests.   God’s Word translation has 1”’Stop judging so that you will not be judged. 2 Otherwise, you will be judged by the same standard you use to judge others. The standards you use for others will be applied to you”’   Is Francis telling us that if we judge a priest, even an unrighteous one, then God will judge us as severely as if we are Priests ourselves?   And why? Because (Francis believed) that those who are set aside as Priests are the only Christians permitted and empowered to confect the Eucharist and to administer it to others.   And to sin against Priests is greater than any sin we can commit, (because it is like judging Christ himself)?

 

Of Bodily Mortification.

Admonition 10.     There are many who if they commit sin or suffer wrong often blame their enemy or their neighbor.   But this is not right, for each one has his enemy in his power,—to wit, the body by which he sins.   Wherefore blessed is that servant who always holds captive the enemy thus given into his power and wisely guards himself from it, for so long as he acts thus no other enemy visible or invisible can do him harm.

Well, it is convenient to blame another for our own shortcomings, children do this.   Coming to maturity we learn to face the consequences of our own actions, be they wise or unwise.   We develop ‘self-control’, we come to know ourselves, ‘warts an’ all’ and as often as we can we do not place ourselves in temptation’s way.   Of course, Francis did not have these little things in mind when he taught about ‘Bodily mortification’.  Francis taught self-sacrifice or even self-harm as aids to sanctification.   Francis referred to his body as ‘brother Ass’   In his way, he taught responsibility for ones deeds, pointing out that the human body, our human body, is within our own control and could be beaten into submission. Such self-inflicted pain making up for the suffering of Christ, aiding the Holy Souls in their procession to heaven, even aiding their own salvation. This must not be our way today, self-control, self-knowledge aided by prayer will keep ourselves safe without doing ourselves harm.   Lent is always an opportunity to reach our goal weight.

 

Of what might we be envious?

 

Admonition 8.   Of Avoiding The Sin Of Envy.   The Apostle affirms that “no man can say the Lord Jesus but by the Holy Ghost,”1   And “there is none that doth good, no not one.”2   Whosoever, therefore, envies his brother on account of the good which the Lord says or does in him, commits a sin akin to blasphemy, because he envies the Most High Himself who says and does all that is good.

Once more let us reflect; of what might we be envious?   Francis and Paul are talking about people who work miracles, as Francis himself did.   They teach that it is only through the power of Christ working through them that they do miraculous things.   If anyone envies another because they can work miracles, then they envy the one who works through that one who is our Lord Jesus Christ.   This says Francis is blasphemy because when we envy God we would be gods ourselves.

1 I Cor. 12 : 3 2 Ps 52: 4

 

Of Avoiding The Sin Of Envy.

 

Admonition 8.     The Apostle affirms that “no man can say the Lord Jesus but by the Holy Ghost,”1   And “there is none that doth good, no not one.”2   Whosoever, therefore, envies his brother on account of the good which the Lord says or does in him, commits a sin akin to blasphemy, because he envies the Most High Himself who says and does all that is good.

Of Avoiding the sin of Envy,     of the spiteful words we associate with it when someone has done something we wanted to do or something was given to someone other than to ourselves.   Avoiding being envious or jealous of or spiteful towards seems a passive act to me, rather I hope I would act by shunning such emotions by actively pushing them away from me.   Francis records that St. Paul wrote that unless one possessed the holy Spirit one could not confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.   The Psalmist wrote that no one can do good deeds by themselves.   So, two things here - belonging to, acknowledging, the Lordship of Christ, happens only when we have God’s Spirit within us.   When we have God’s Spirit within us we understand that God is responsible for any good we do because God uses our body’s to work through because God has no physical form.   Since we can do nothing good it is a sin to envy what God does through another because that is envying God.

1 I Cor. 12 : 3 2 Ps 52: 4

 

Of The Imitation Of The Lord.

 

Admonition 6.     Let us all, brothers, consider the Good Shepherd who to save His sheep bore the suffering of the Cross.   (“’HE WHO follows Me, walks not in darkness,’ says the Lord 1  By these words of Christ we are advised to imitate His life and habits, if we wish to be truly enlightened and free from all blindness of heart. Let our chief effort, therefore, be to study the life of Jesus Christ.” Thomas à Kempis)       The sheep of the Lord followed Him in tribulation and persecution and shame, in hunger and thirst, in infirmity and temptations and in all other ways;2 and for these things they have received everlasting life from the Lord.             Wherefore it is a great shame for us, the servants of God, that, whereas the Saints have practised works, we should expect to receive honor and glory for reading and preaching the same.

Whenever I read this Admonition I think of Thomas à Kempis, (1380-1471) and his Imitation of Christ.(see beside)         Francis came before him ( Yet it was Thomas who first inspired me, he came first for me) and may have inspired him in some way.   Francis, in a similar manner to our reading of Thomas, exhorts his brothers to follow Christ in every way, everywhere, whereby receiving from Him, everlasting Life.     Francis details this and records that imitating Christ involves all manner of deprivation and suffering.   When have we been in dire straits in one way or another and have not offered it for the glory of God and his Christ?       And I always find it amusing here, where Francis says that it is a great shame for us to expect ‘glory’ just by reading of and preaching about their deeds. Mayhap a little like myself who attempts to preach Christ via the words of the Saints rather than from my own experience and from the Scriptures.

1 John 8:12 & Book 1, The first chapter: Imitating Christ and despising all vanities on earth. 2. See John 10:11, Heb. 12: 2, John 10:4, Rom. 8:35

 

That No One Should Glory Save In The Cross Of The Lord

 

Admonition 5   Consider, O man, how great the excellence in which the Lord has placed you because He has created and formed you to the image of His beloved Son according to the body and to His own likeness according to the spirit.1 And all the creatures that are under heaven serve and know and obey their Creator in their own way better than you And even the demons did not crucify Him, but you together with them crucified Him and still crucify Him by taking delight in vices and sins. Wherefore then can you glory?   For if you were so clever and wise that you possessed all science, and if you knew how to interpret every form of language and to investigate heavenly things minutely, you could not glory in all this, because one demon has known more of heavenly things and still knows more of earthly things than all men, although there may be some man who has received from the Lord a special knowledge of sovereign wisdom.   In like manner, if you were handsomer and richer than all others, and even if you could work wonders and put the demons to flight, all these things are hurtful to you and in nowise belong to you, and in them you cannot glory; that, however, in which we may glory is in our infirmities,2 and in bearing daily the holy cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Aside (As I read the Admonition for today I am struck by its likeness to the rhythm or beat of St. Paul’s prose, (as in Douay –Rheims) even in English, the similar stresses and unstressed words that carry us along within his teachings.)   Francis says ‘Consider O man, how great the excellence in which the Lord has placed you…’ Francis seems to build us up to take the fall of our disobedience, our presumption; because all other creatures serve, know and obey their creator, (after the manner of each kind in its capacity to know and love God) better than we do.   Our Father created us to be ‘a little lower than the angels crowned us with glory and honour and set us over all other beings, (Psalm 8:5) yet, in our service of God we fall from this position of trust.   I will leave us with some words by the Writer to the Hebrews:-   26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins, 27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. 28 He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: 29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose you, shall he be thought worthy, who has trodden underfoot the Son of God, and has counted the blood of the covenant, with which he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and has done despite to the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him that has said, Vengeance belongs to me, I will recompense, said the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.