Letter and Spirit, Chapter 5

8/9/2019 Letter and Spirit, Chapter 5

1/14

5_______________________________________________________________________

_

BODILY PENANCE: CONFESSION

AND COMMUNION

Life of Penance

Works of Penance

The Perpetual Fast Today

The Sacrament of Penance

The Sacrament of the Eucharist

74


2/14

CHAPTER III, 8-158The sisters shall fast at all times. 9They may eat

twice on Christmas, however, no matter on what day ithappens to fall. 10 The younger sister, those who are

weak, and those who are serving outside the monastery

may be mercifully dispensed as the abbess sees fit. 11But

the sisters are not bound to corporal fasting in time of

manifest necessity.12 They shall go to confession, with the permission

of the abbess, at least twelve times a year. 13 They shall

take care not to introduce other talk unless it pertains to

the confession and the salvation of souls. 14 They should

receive communion seven times [a year], that is, on

Christmas, Thursday of the Holy Week, Easter,

Pentecost, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, the

Feast of Saint Francis, and the Feast of All Saints. 15

The chaplain may celebrate inside [the enclosure] in

order to give Communion to the sisters who are in goodhealth or to those who are ill.

Life of Penance

To do penance is the expression employed by St.Francis and St. Clare to denote the sort of life according to

the Gospel embraced as a result of their conversion. And

it is precisely that state of permanent conversion where

what is sweet becomes bitter and what is bitter becomes

sweet that constitutes the essence of a life of penance.

This is otherwise known to be the biblical meaning of

penance.Bodily beatings makes no sense to a Christian unless

they be an answer to that demand of ongoing turning back

to God, adherence to Christ, faithfulness to the Spirit,

75


3/14

crucifying little by little our sinful tendencies so as to reach

freedom in the life of the new man created in holiness of

truth (Eph 4, 24) and thus fulfilling in our body all thehardship that still has to be undergone by Christ for the

sake of his body, the Church (Col 1, 24).

Clare lived fully up to the end of her life, in imitation

of Francis, that spirit of conversion that is a requirement of

purification. In the Testament she encourages her sisters to

not faint away along the narrow path that leads to life,

lest we stray away from it through our fault, negligence, or

ignorance.

Works of Penance

The evangelical spirit of penance, that is certainly real,demands the practice of penance and is expressed in the

works of penance. Whoever feels called to seriously follow

the Crucified Redeemer by cooperating with Him in the

work of personal salvation and that of all men, experiences

then the urgency to getting united to Him at renunciation

and even at afflicted pain, willingly looked/sought for, i.e.

mortification.

At the beginning of her surrender to the Lord with

youthful generosity Clare opened herself to that longing for

bodily sacrifice which surpassed sometimes the limits of

prudence. She abstained from all food three times a week,

and most of the days and on Lent she fasted on bread and

water. She wore on her skin a very rough cilice and slept

on a couch of vine twigs with a log for a pillow. The

sisters wondered how her body could hold itself up.1 Andthat is the way she continued till her body undermined in

the prime of her life. Francis ordered her to restrain her

fast and to sleep on a straw mattress.2

76


4/14

Hard on herself, she was on the contrary gentle and

thoughtful with the sisters regarding bodily penance

3

notimposing on others what was her own personal vocation

nor subjecting outer maceration to a uniform regulation.

She allowed ample margin to the initiative and capabilities

of each one.

In fact, the practice of fasting and abstinence was

extremely rigorous at San Damiano and Francis was forced

to temper them. The most authentic testimony is the

answer given by St. Clare to the consultation of St. Agnes

of Prague:

Except for the weak and the sick, for whom St.

Francis advised and admonished us to show everypossible discernment in matters of food, none of uswho are healthy and strong should eat anythingother than Lenten fare, either on ferial days or on

feast days. Thus, we must fast everyday exceptSundays and the Nativity of the Lord. And on

ordinary Thursdays everyone may do as she wishes,so that she who does not wish to fast is not obliged.However, we who are well should fast everydayexcept on Sundays and Christmas. During theentire Easter week 4 as the writing of Francis tells

us, and on the feasts of the blessed Virgin Mary andof the holy Apostles, we are not obliged to fast,unless these feasts occur on a Friday. (3LAg, 31-36).

Such was the norm at San Damiano circa 1238, when

Clare was writing this letter. Immediately afterwards

though, a tone that best shows us the mildness of her

dealing with others, she tells Agnes:But our flesh is not bronze nor is our strength

that of stone. No, we are frail and inclined to everybodily weakness! I beg you, therefore, dearlybeloved, to refrain wisely and prudently from an

77


5/14

indiscreet and impossible austerity in the fasting

you have undertaken. And I beg you in the Lord to

praise the Lord by your very life, to offer the Lordyour reasonable service and your sacrifice alwaysseasoned with salt. (3LAg, 38-41).

We ought to read the letter of this precept of the Rule

in the light of this recommendation. No mention at all is

made about penance as such. Perpetual fasting is kept but

with the charitable flexibility the Saint understood it. It is

left up to the abbess prudence exempting from the

common law three kinds of sisters: the young ones for

being at the age of growth; the weak ones needing better

food or on account of sickness or of work to be done; the

extern sisters by reason of greater fatigue.5

Perpetual Fasting Today

The letter of the Rule admits no ambiguity: Let the

sisters fast at all times.6 St. Clare borrows from St.

Francis Rule this statement: But the sisters are not bound

to corporal fasting in time of manifest necessity. We areto see this statement not only as a criterion of natural right

but also one of an amplitude on the lookout for future

situations that might arise.

When trying to apply this important point of the Rule

to our times according to the right criterion of adaptation,

an unavoidable question presents itself: is it still enforced,

in its literal sense? Regarding abstinence, the answer is notdifficult. Abstinence is no longer attached to fasting at

todays Church legislation and since the Rule makes no

mention of it, there is no room therefore for a sound

adaptation of that practice to times and places.

78


6/14

The motu proprio Ecclesiae Sanctae (n.22) says that

the special penitential practices of institutes should berevised so that the members may in practice be able to

observe them, adapting new forms also drawn from modern

conditions of life.

In effect, trying stubbornly to maintain in the

legislation the rigorous practice of fasting, knowing

beforehand that the majority of the sisters would be unable

to keep it, is empty formalism and pharisaic vainglory. The

matter of perpetual fasting should be seen in the light of the

Constitution Paenitemini of Paul VI and of later Church

discipline that have in mind the different trends of modern

life, so different from those of the past (kind of

nourishment, traveling, forms and schedule of labor) and

propose for today other ways of penance not less

efficacious and more consonant with the longings of

modern society. (In the Middle Ages, there were hardlyany other pleasures but that at table.) We should

furthermore think over the physical frame of the body,

poorer nowadays, and above all the more rationalized and

sustained labor at the monasteries. In addition to that, St.

Clares daughters are now spread throughout the continents

and have to adjust and adapt their life to new climates,

customs and to different forms of nourishment.It is not yet so easy giving an answer to the question:

What attitude would have Clare adapted today?

Let us see how this point of the Rule became

actualized in the revised Constitutions.

It begins by affirming the concept and the need of the

spirit of penance in a Gospel sense, i.e. as an attitude of

conversion and ongoing renewal without which the worksof penance would be meaningless. The first means of

penance of the religious is the very Gospel life we

embraced with its manifold self-denials attached to it:

separation from the world, the wants of poverty, the

79


7/14

humiliation of our frailty, the hardship inherent in work

faithfully done, fraternal communion, and the patient

bearing of the trials of earthly life. And all of this in unionwith the sufferings of Christ for the sake of his body, the

Church. (Col 1, 24).

A distinction is to be made between the penitential

times of the entire Church and those of the Franciscan

tradition: the so called St. Martins Lent, Advent, the main

Lent, and all the Fridays of the year.

As regards fasting, the Constitutions quotes the

Rules prescription: Let the sisters fast at all times

except on Sundays and solemnities. The General

Constitutions adds: If it could not be kept somehow for a

just reason, it belongs to the monastery Chapter to

determine the days and mode of fasting. And that of the

Capuchins: Let the monastery Chapter determine the

manner of fasting according to the custom of each region.

As regards abstinence, the first one decrees: Inaddition to the prescription of the universal or local Church,

let the Orders tradition be kept. And for the Capuchins:

It is up to the monastery Chapter to determine the days of

abstinence from meat or from other food, in addition to

those prescribed in the universal Church. (Can. 1251).

It is left to the monastery Chapter to appoint the other

exercises of bodily penance and mortification that are to bepracticed in common according to existing customs. (Gen

CC, art. 83-87; Cap CC, 88-93).

The Sacrament of Penance

Penitential life has its sacrament that obtains for us

Gods mercy, reconciles us with the Church, purifies us

from evil and strengthens us in goodness. Within the

80


8/14

practice at that time, The Rule bids the sisters to confess at

least twice a year. We know however, that the Saint was

not pleased with that minimum but that she went often toconfession, forming the young sisters too in the esteem of

frequent and sincere confession. The Rule adds a serious

summon to the responsibility of each sister: they should

take care not to introduce other talk unless it pertains to

confession and salvation of souls.

It would seem that there were by then sisters who

found in the secret dialogue with the confessor a sort of

compensation for the want of communication taken on

while binding themselves to cloistered life. The warning

has not lost force at present, since one may fall even today

into the weakness of taking the opportunity of confession

as an escape valve either to be in touch with the outside

world or to fill up the confessors ears with the internal

miseries of the community.

There are two objectives that the Rule grants as good:accusation of ones sins and spiritual direction. In fact, to

treat the wellness of her soul with a director is the right of

every sister acknowledged by the Rule. Anything else is

foreign to the confessors mission.

For a long time, a rigid discipline has been vigorously

enforced in order to prevent possible abuses; canon norms

speaks about ordinary, extraordinary, and occasionalconfessors. In the occasion of the Council everything has

been simplified in favor of a greater trust in the uprightness

and responsibility of both the sisters and the confessors.

Even the rigidity of the norm of weekly confession has lost

ground as it could have easily deduced into a routinely

practice of little penitential effectiveness.

The current Constitutions emphasize the importance ofthe Sacrament of Reconciliation not only as a means to

obtain Gods forgiveness but also of purification and,

individual as well as community renewal. A minimum

frequency of twice a month is suggested, though making it

81


9/14

easy to those who would want to benefit from the grace of

this sacrament more often. Each monastery will have an

ordinary confessor but the sisters will not be obliged to present themselves to him according to the reigning

principle that everyones freedom should be fully honored

regarding confession and spiritual direction. For the

appointment and confirmation of the ordinary confessor,

the whole community will be consulted, novices and

postulants included. The sisters may confess to any

confessor duly approved, setting aside the discipline of

cloistered life. The ordinary confessor as much as possible

should belong to the Franciscan family. (Gen CC, art. 68-

70; Cap CC, 87).

The Sacrament of the Eucharist

The Rule does not speak about the Eucharistic

celebration. It was an element of the daily liturgical life

that did not need any rules. Neither did Francis mention it

in his Rule. Nevertheless, we know how much he wished

to see the brothers gathered together everyday for the only

mass of the fraternity at every place they were.7 We also

know with what veneration and love St. Clare used to take part at the celebration and how intensely she held the

Eucharistic life. The depositions at the canonization

Process speak about the skill with which, during her illness,

she used to prepare the corporals that she had distributed

among the poor churches of the region, and described her

emotions and her physical appearance, at approaching the

sacred table.8Holy Communion was administered through a little

window (1Cel 117) under both species, according to the

usage that exist then, since Urban IVs rule disposed: At

82


10/14

the middle of the grille, let there be a little window through

which the chalice may be introduced at the moment of

communion so that by his hand the priest could administerthe Sacrament of the Lords Body.

We are accustomed to see the Saint represented as

clasping in her hands the ciborium with the Sacrament 9 in

memory of the miracle worked at the Saracens assault. It

is really more than fancy. It expresses the place that

Christs Eucharistic presence is held in her spirituality.

The Rules prescription about receiving communion

seven times a year may seem nowadays inconceivable to

us. At that time, it was a lot, since the frequency of the

Eucharistic food had been reduced to a minimum. The

Lateran II Council, held in 1215, had to confine itself to

bind the faithful to confess and receive communion at least

once a year in view of the progressive withdrawal from the

Eucharistic table. Fervent Christians received communion

thrice a year. But those seven communion feasts weredates looked forward to with spiritual eagerness at San

Damiano. The chaplain entered the cloister and the mass

was celebrated with the intimacy of a family for the sound

and the sick. The Rule so disposes.

The frequency of Eucharistic communion has altered a

lot from the time of St. Clare. It has been going on

progressively recovering the ecclesial conscience of the primary objective of the institution of the Sacrament

through which Christ gives himself as living nourishment

to the faithful. By the time of St. Bonaventure it was

already normal that the novices would receive communion

every Sunday. In the fourteenth century, the Constitutions

of the Franciscans established that the brothers who are not

priests would do it every fifteen days, a norm that wasfollowed too at the Poor Clares monasteries. In the

fifteenth century, the Constitutions of St. Colette prescribed

that the sisters would go to confession every fifteen days

so as to enjoy a greater purity of soul and body, and their

83


11/14

fervor and love to the Most Holy Body of the Lord may

grow. They were to receive communion every Sunday

besides the seven solemnities pointed out by the Rule.

10

Inthe sixteenth century, it became frequent practice to receive

communion during the week, and even daily with the

confessors license. From the pontificate of St. Pius X, as it

is well known, daily communion has become normal.

Vatican II teaches that partaking at Holy Mass is not full

without Eucharistic communion, and thereby recommends

that the faithful attending the holy sacrifice receive too the

Lords Body. (SC, 55)

No wonder then that the Constitutions take for granted

the daily mass attendance and communion therein. They

are rather concerned about the spirit the sisters partake with

at the Eucharistic celebration and the role that the mystery

of faith and love should play on the daily life of each sister

and on the community through a sedulous Eucharistic cult.,

in a particular way at those monasteries that, either byfounding or by grant, enjoy the practice of the Eucharistic

adoration. (Gen CC, art. 60-63; Cap CC 66-700.

In addition to the numerous monasteries that maintain

the commitment of perpetual adoration, there are at

present several groups of Poor Clare communities with that

specific mission: Sacramentine Poor Clares (10

monasteries in Ireland, Italy, Mexico and Portugal); PoorClares of Perpetual Adoration (26 monasteries in Europe,

Asia and USA); Capuchin Poor Clares Sacramentarias

(14 monasteries in Mexico, Philippines and Europe).11

84


12/14

Footnotes to Chapter 5:

1. Proc., I,7; II, 5-8; III, 4ff; IV, 5ff; VII, 4; VIII, 3; X, 4,7;XIII,4. What the Saint really did was to take seriously the

rigor of Hugolinus Rule regarding fasting: The sisters are

held to the following observance of fasting: they should fast

daily at all times, abstaining likewise on Wednesday and

Fridays, outside of Lent, from fruit or vegetables and wine,

unless a principal feast of some saint occurs and should be

celebrated on those days. If fruit or fresh vegetables are

available on these Wednesdays and Fridays, they should beserved to sustain the sisters. But they should fast on bread and

water for four days a week during the greater Lent, and for

three days a week during the lent of St. Martin. They may

also do this of their own free will on all solemn vigils. (Rule

of Hugolinus, 7)

2. Proc., I,8; II,8; IV,5; X,7.

3. Proc., II,6; IV,5.

4. That is the translation from the Latin expression, in omniPascha F. Godet at Claire d Assise: Escrits, Paris 1985, p.109. Omaechevarria translates at all Paschs, based on the

Glossariuim of Du Cange; according to him, the term

Pasch was used in Italy for all major festivities.

5. The evangelical flexibility already existed at Hugolinus Rule:The very young sisters or the old and those who are

altogether debilitated physically or mentally should not be

permitted to observe the law of fast and abstinence. They

should be mercifully dispensed in regard to food and fastingaccording to their weakness.Hugolinus Rule, 7)

6. For a right interpretation of this norm, a little detail may serve.

From the previous text of Hugolinus Rule They should fast

daily at all times, she drops the adverb daily.7. Lt Ord., 30-33

8. Proc., I,11; II,11ff; III,7; IV,14; IX,9)

9. It is anachronistic to set at the hand of the Saint the

ostentation that was not being practiced at that time.Besides, it did not answer to the historical event as the sisters

described it at the Process. The Saracens had already entered

the cloister, and the frightened community had sought shelter

at the dining room; Clare requested the little case containing

85


13/14

the Blessed Sacrament be brought and prayed with full

confidence. At this point she heard an inner voice reassuring

her of divine assistance, and so she encouraged the sisters.

They realized then that the hideous guests were gone. (Proc,II,20; III,18; IV, 14; VII,6; IX,2; X,9; XII,8; XIII,9; XIV,3.)

10. Constitutions of St. Colette, chap. 5,1; ed. Seraphicaelegislationis textus originales, Quaracchi 1897, 122 ff.

11. Cf. Elenco dei Monasteri. Monache Francescane di vitacontemplative, Assisi, 1984; Monasteria Monialium OrdinisFF.MM. Capuccinorum spiritualiter consociatarum, Roma,

1990.

86


14/14

87

Documents

Letter and Spirit, Chapter 5