Letter and Spirit, Chapter 7

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COMMUNITARIAN DIALOGUE

Dialogue, a Requirement of the GospelCommunity

The Chapter in the Rule of St. Clare

Communitarian Confession

Communitarian Deliberation

The Counsellors or Discreets

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Chapter IV, 15-2415The abbess is bound to call her sisters together at

least once a week in the Chapter, where both she and hersisters should humbly confess their common and public

offences and negligences. 16Let her consult with all her

sisters there concerning whatever pertains to the welfare

and good of the monastery, 17 for the Lord frequently

reveals what is best to the least [among us].18Let no heavy debt be incurred except with the

common consent of the sisters and by reason of manifest

necessity, and let this be done by the procurator. 19Let the

abbess and her sisters, however, be careful that nothing is

deposited in the monastery for safekeeping; 20for such

practices often give rise to troubles and scandals.21 Let all who hold office in the monastery be

chosen by the common consent of all the sisters to

preserve the unity of mutual love and peace. 22Let at least

eight sisters be elected from the more discerning ones inthe same way, whose counsel the abbess should be always

bound to use in those matters which our form of life

requires. 23Moreover, the sisters can and should, if it

seems useful and expedient, remove the officials and

discreets and elect others in their place.

Dialogue, a Requirement of the

Gospel Community

Any authentic Christian group tends to form a

community of service where each brother tries to be useful

to the rest without looking after his own interest andconsidering others as superior to oneself. (Gal 5,13f; Phil2,

3f). From this open and active charity spring the need of

dialogue. Consciousness of self-limitations and faith in the

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action of the Holy Spirit upon others bring each one to find

in the word of the brother that piece of truth that he

possesses, the enlightenment that comes from above, andcooperation. The will of service causes us to be open to the

brothers to share with them our experience or to contribute

our points of view. When taking a decision, this holds a

greater guarantee of efficacy if we feel prompted by a

common commitment rather than, if we look at it, as an

imposition of just one personal will.

The exercise of authority, seen at its evangelical

setting, cannot set aside appealing to the brothers

responsibility. According to the doctrine of Paul VI, far

from being in opposition to one another, authority and

individual liberty go together in the fulfillment of Gods

will, which is sought fraternally through a trustful dialogue

between the superior and his brother, in the case of a

personal situation, or through a general agreement

regarding what concerns the whole community.1A well led dialogue causes all the religious to take part

with interest in the common life and longings not less than

in the situations and activities of each one. It makes each

one feel an active part and in charge of the general progress

[of the community]. It sets everyone in the state of ongoing

search, unceasingly deepening the Gospel contents of their

calling and opening to the spirit the requirements ofadapting to the reality of times and environment.

To dialogue is the art of knowing how to listen to God

who communicates with man at the intimacy of prayer but

also through signs and through each other. For the same

reason, opening up to the brother means opening up to God.

St. Francis knew how to dialogue because his soul was

ever open to the spirit of the Lord and his holy operation,and because he simply believed in the action of the Holy

Spirit on every brother, and trusted the single-mindedness

of each one. For that reason he established dialogue at the

group of brothers the Lord gave him. Upon returning from

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their apostolic journeys, Celano reports that they gathered

around the Saint, each one recounted how did it do with

them along, sincerely revealing their shortcomings; andFrancis added the correction and opportune admonitions for

future journeys. (1Cel, 30)

The chapter of the fraternity has had from the

beginning of the First Order the greatest importance. At

the beginning they gathered twice a year, then once every

other year with the attendance of all the brothers; finally,

every three years and at the Major Superiors level when the

Order had already spread through several nations. At each

region, its respective ministers continued gathering all the

brothers. The Chapters fundamental objective was, as St.

Francis had it written in his first Rule: to treat about Gods

interests. Not just because at a gathering of brothers only

spiritual matters are supposed to be dealt with, but because

our problems are worth discussing only if we look at them

as Gods interests, for just then they will be duly stated.

The Chapter in the Rule of St. Clare

The abbess is bound to call her sisters together in

Chapter at least once a week. This prescription of St.Clare is more valuable because the previous one of

Innocent IV did not mention the communities chapter but

for the election of the abbess. Neither had she found it at

St. Francis Rule, since when this was written, the local

fraternity did not exist as yet in the First Order. It was her

personal intuition not less than her long experience of

government that caused the Saint to conceive a group of poor sisters, vitalized by fraternal openness and

continuously strengthening the ties of the common

commitment through dialogue. This is the highest merit of

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St. Clares Rule, one of the elements making it today more

actual as it best shows its Gospel perpetuity.

This gathering will be held at least once a week. Weask ourselves: What business can there be in the quiet and

simple life of a community of poor contemplatives so as to

require the weekly summons of all the sisters? The

fundamental importance of the Chapter is to Clare not so

much on what they are to decide but on the unceasing

check-up of what they do, in order to do it better, and on

the enrichment that the interchange of ideas and feelings is

meant to the sisters by coming out of themselves to connect

at a common task. The rhythm of life at the cloister, made

up of so many minute observances and of the execution of

orders received, runs the risk of each sister closing up

within her personal world, reducing the horizon of her

mentality and affective field. A fraternity that comes

together to reflect at community level on a passage of the

Gospel and to cast it on everyday life in open fraternalsharing, has already gotten a great benefit.

The weekly Chapter prescribed by the Rule has two

times: one of sincere review on the fidelity of the life

embraced, and the other on the interchange of opinions

about the matters of the monastery and the progress of the

community.

The Communitarian Confession

In the Chapter, the abbess and the sisters should

humbly confess their common and public offenses and

negligences.When Christian fraternity is lived out in depth, there

spontaneously springs up the need of a frankness that

moves the brothers to mutually manifest their own

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weaknesses specially those hindering charitable

understanding. The Sacrament of Penance was at its birth a

rite essentially communitarian and, according to Vatican II,does not only attain for us pardon for the offenses

committed against God but reconciles us with the Church

that we have wounded by our sins. (LG, 11)

That is the thought that Clare expresses when she

exhorts her sisters to forward on the path undertaken, since

each deed of unfaithfulness is an offense done not just to

the Lord, but to the whole Church. (T, 75).

One may easily understand that the willing confession

of shortcomings would have been considered of old a

normal element of life in fraternity. St. Clare looks at this

act at its own value of community commitment. Each

sister Mother Superior most of all seek in the humble

and noble admission of her common and public

negligences, the external atonement and the support of her

sisters to go on progressing, to feel herself protected againsther own instability. Nothing encourages us so much to

overcome our own limitations and cowardice as to verify

how our brothers are trying, with humility and generosity,

to overcome theirs. Such was the method of renewal

introduced at the San Damiano community which Clare

wished to get a definitive form in the Rule. Unfortunately,

her daughters were not able to maintain for long that formof cordial openness at round table. As in so many other

instances, the easy and comfortable formalism that exacts

less effort and spiritual height than sustained dialogue soon

got the upper hand. Ten years later, Urban IVs Rule

changed the text into this: The abbess is bound to call

together the sisters in Chapter at least once a week, for

warning, correcting and reforming. At said, Chapter, thepunishment will be mercifully imposed in proportion to the

negligences and public common faults they had

manifested. (C, 22).

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This is how the so called Chapter of Faults finally

came to prevail, wherein the fraternal openness is

substituted by a gesture of humiliation and an asceticpersonal attitude of self-accusation. The Mother Superior,

instead of setting herself at the same level by

acknowledging herself a sinner in need of support, adopts

only the role of one who hears the confession and

administers correcting and penance. That is not what Clare

practiced and desired to practice.

Communitarian Deliberation

Let her consult with all her sisters concerning

whatever pertains to the welfare and good of the

monastery.

The Latin expression used in the Rule conferat doesnot denote a simple consultation, as if the abbess were just

to limit herself to expounding her ideas and plans and

asking for the sisters opinions. On the contrary, it means

that she initiates a genuine discussion with them, informing

them with sincerity and requiring the responsible

contribution of each one so as to better succeed on the

communitys well being. The responsibility lies really notonly on the Superior, but is distributed among all the

members of the religious family, though she will of course,

if the case arises, the one to assume the risk of the final

decision.2

The ideal is that no one withdraws from the dialogue at

the discussion of horizontal dynamics. Group psychology

teaches so today. St. Clare deems it indispensable andoffers a faith motivation: For the Lord frequently reveals

what is best to the least [among us]. 3

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It is in reference to the action of the Holy Spirit on

each sister, no matter how ignorant she may be. St. Francis

used to say and would have wished to write it down in hisRule: God does not make exemptions of persons, and the

Holy Spirit, as General Minister of the fraternity rests

equally upon the poor and simple. (2Cel, 193).

There are two aspects in the life of the monastery that

by its own importance require in a special way the

responsible cooperation of all the sisters according to the

Rule: the important economic discussions and the

distribution by appointment of the different offices and

chores.

On Contracting Debts: Let no heavy debt be

incurred except with the common consent of all the sisters

and by reason of manifest necessity, and let this be done by

the procurator.

In the mind of Clare, this supposes that the sisters areto be sufficiently informed on the economic situation of the

house. It is quite difficult to hold an atmosphere of

fraternal mutual understanding where a system of secrecy

reigns about the economic funds of the monastery and on

its management.

There exist a document at San Damiano, dated June 8,

1238 that eloquently shows the way St. Clare conductedherself along this matter: Clare, in her capacity as abbess,

at the presence and by the will and agreement of the

sisters, empowers messer Oportulus de Bernard, in his

capacity as procurator of the monastery, to sell to the

Chapter of the cathedral of Assisi a piece of land inherited

by the monastery. At the foot of the document is the

signature of all the sisters making up the ConventualChapter fifty all in all and among them, as one among

the many, the name of Clare may be read.4

We can furthermore verify by this document how the

norm was kept at San Damiano as expressed by the Rule:

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and this will be done by the procurator. The peace and

solitude of contemplative life, not less than the example of

detachment from economic anxieties that the poor sistersare to set, demand that those negotiations be not carried out

by them, but through outsiders worth trusting.

For the same reason, and because experience says that

it is often a source of disturbance and scandal, the Rule

forbids the abbess and her sisters again a call to co-

responsibility to accept anything to be deposited at the

monastery for safekeeping. Such a deposit may be one of

money, jewels or works of art. At the time of St. Clare,

these responsibilities are to be avoided by the community.

Appointment of Chores and Offices: Let all who

hold offices in the monastery be chosen by the common

consent of all the sisters to preserve the unity of mutual

love and peace.

It is difficult to imagine more fraternal and equalitarianmethods of community life. St. Clare knew well that unity

and peace suffer when domestic preferences and little

ambitions show up, so she entrusts the distribution of

offices to the good sense and rectitude of the sisters who

are to give their vote. The Rule does not seem to speak of

a strict election, which is not usually the best method to

maintain the treasure of unity in love. It is perhaps a sort ofconsultative vote that may guide the abbess and her council

towards the provision of offices. It was thus stated at the

Rule of Urban IV: Let the abbess appoint the officials of

the monastery with the advise and consent of the

community or of its highest position.

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The Counsellors or Discreets

The communitarian dialogue with the sharing of all thesisters holds no juridical function but looks after fostering

mutual communication and sensitize co-responsibility

rather than coming up with decisions. They are the official

counselors, chosen by all the sisters from the most discreet,

who aid the abbess with their advice at the moment of

making decisions. This council or discretorium seems to

be St. Clares personal creation, since it has neither amonastic nor a Franciscan precedent. The Rule wants the

counselors to be at least eight, a very commendable number

at large communities, but may be a little too much for

lesser ones. The general practice has lowered that number

to just six.

It is fitting to note the main objective St. Clare assigns

to the discreet: the abbess will have to count on their

advice on matters that the form of our life requires. The

form of life is the Rule. The particular mission of the

council is therefore to help the superior in her fundamental

duty of promoting in the community faithfulness to the

Gospel life, causing it to be renewed therein unceasingly.

St. Francis had written in his first Rule: Let no

Minister appropriate on himself serving his brothers. One

of the things most directly opposed to inner poverty is theattachment to the office when it becomes selfish egotism

that can only be justified as a function of service to the

brothers. So as to avoid that the sisters become guilty of

that kind of appropriation to the detriment of fraternal

oneness, St. Clare decrees that the officials and discreet be

easily changed and substituted by other sisters when it

would seem useful and convenient. The judgment on thisopportunity of changes is again left up to all the sisters.

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We think that no founder has ever chosen such a strong

determination of developing in the members of the

religious community a mature sense of responsibility onwhatever concerns common good and of blocking every

form of self-centeredness on those exercising authority.

The Rule of St. Clare, well understood and set loyally into

practice, cannot but make out of a community a school

human maturity and Christian excellence.

Nowadays, under the Church magisterium, the

Franciscan family has rediscovered the dynamics of

fraternal life, such as it was practiced and taught by Francis

and Clare. That is how the spirit of open and responsible

dialogue has fully imbued the new Constitutions of all the

daughters of St. Clare. Everything in it as a whole,

beginning with the use of the pronoun we, sets us in front

of a context of common commitment assumed with the

awareness of a gladly shared co-responsibility that every

community and sister pledged to carry out under theleadership of the mother and guide, who stands as the

personal mediator of the fraternal discernment of Gods

will, before whom she will have to render an account on the

faithfulness of each one of them and on the entire

community to the common Gospel calling.

The Constitutions, following Vatican II (PC, 14)

expound the concept of active and responsible obedienceon the part of the sisters, and on their attitude to listen

gladly in a calm dialogue, aiming at a quick and generous

cooperation, though never losing sight of the renunciation

done to self-will. They foresee several types of exercising

this co-responsibility: 1) The discretorium or council

that shares in the responsibility of the abbess, with a

deliberative or consultative vote, towards the spiritual andtemporal wellness of the community; 2) the conventual

chapter, supreme authority of the monastery when its

deliberative vote is required at the elections and discussions

of major importance, or conditions for the personal

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discernment of the abbess when their vote is just

consultative; 3) the chapter of fraternal revision which

the Rule prescribes as weekly and will substitute thetraditional chapter of faults; 4) the fraternal gathering

to deal about matters of cloistered life under various

aspects.

The conventual chapter is constituted by all the sisters

of perpetual vows; on some cases, the same chapter may

admit also the rest of the sisters of the community but just

for consultative vote. According to the General

Constitutions, the abbess must summon it at least three or

four times a year and whenever matters of greater

importance concerning community life, in addition to those

cases foreseen by the Constitutions.

The Chapter of Fraternal Revision which the General

Constitutions decree to be held at least once a month and

that of the Capuchins every week keeps the penitential

character or of commitment to the renewal St. Clarewished. It aims at the community becoming aware of its

own level of observance, spiritual life and oneness in love;

a concrete form of communitarian life will serve as center

of attention. Apart from this revision is the humble

admission by each sister of her external and public faults,

and the admonitions and exhortations that the abbess may

deem fitting.The Fraternal Gathering, whose vote is always

consultative, or rather an open and frank interchange of

opinions at fraternal listening will be held at least once a

month according to the General Constitutions, and as

often as the chapter may decide according to that of the

Capuchins. All the sisters of the community are to attend,

and after the abbess criterion, even the novices andpostulants (Gen. CC, art. 80, 221-223, 249-251; Cap CC

168-171, 194-196).

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Footnotes to Chapter 7:

1. Evangelica Testificatio, n. 25.

2. PC, 14; Evangelica Testificatio, n. 28.

3. The expression is borrowed from St. Benedicts Rule: Wesaid that all should be called for counsel because the Lord

often reveals to the younger what is best. Clare substitutes

the word younger for lesser. In a Franciscan community

there is no difference between majores and minores.

4. I. Omaecheverria, Escritos, pp. 53-55.

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Letter and Spirit, Chapter 7