Prayerful Posse
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
In Sacraments class yesterday, I introduced the Sacraments of Initiation and the larger point made was that they don’t just “get you in the door”, they are tools of the grace of God specifically to prepare the faithful for their own share of the Apostolic mission of evangelizing the world.
Unfortunately, even at the top, we hear all the platitudes about the fake quote from St. Francis (“preach all times… occasionally use words”), and this emphasizes passivity. Evangelization is action, and that has been heavily shut down to the point where we are told that it is offensive to engage non believers in persuasion.
(Josh) That fake quote is endlessly repeated on the internet, always falsely attributed to St Francis of Assisi, who was quite capable of “using words” to preach the Gospel. Franciscan scholars have repeatedly denied that he ever said that platitude. And yet it continues.
A much better quote, with a better “use of words,” is the Prayer of Cardinal Newman:
Dear Jesus, help us to spread your fragrance everywhere we go. Flood our souls with your spirit and life. Penetrate and possess our whole being, so utterly, that our lives may only be a radiance of yours.
Shine through us, and be so in us, that every soul we come in contact with may feel your presence in our soul. Let them look up and see no longer us but only Jesus!
Stay with us, and then we shall begin to shine as you shine; so to shine as to be a light to others. The light, O Jesus will be all from you. None of it will be ours; it will be you shining on others through us.
Let us thus praise you in the way that you love best by shining on those around us. Let us preach you with preaching: not by words but by our example, by the catching force, by sympathetic influence of what we do, the evident fullness of the love our hearts bear to you. Amen.
I think what St Francis actually said was “When necessary use words.”
The Francis dreamed up by 21rst century and late 20th century admirers bears little resemblance to the humble monk, who, with Saint Dominic, sent a thunderclap of faith through the thirteenth century which has echoed down the following centuries.
“If you are lukewarm, I will vomit you out of my mouth” God loosely quoted
“The Francis dreamed up by 21rst century and late 20th century admirers bears little resemblance to the humble monk, who, with Saint Dominic, sent a thunderclap of faith through the thirteenth century which has echoed down the following centuries.“
I understand that. But I do think he did say something similar.
Of course, words are often necessary in evangelization. But backing those words up with virtuous behavior is also necessary. We see what happens when there’s one without the other.
From the Franciscan Rule of 1221, probably written, or rather dictated, by Saint Francis:
No brother may preach contrary to the forms and institutions of the holy church and unless it has been conceded to him by his minister. The minister must beware not to grant this concession to anyone indiscriminately. All the brothers, however, should preach by their actions. And no minister or preacher should appropriate to himself the ministry to the brothers or the office of preaching, but at whatever hour he is enjoined to do so he should give up his office without any objection. And so, by the love which is God I entreat all my brothers, preachers, speakers and workers, whether cleric or lay, to strive to be humble in all things, not to pride themselves nor to rejoice in themselves nor to praise their (own) good words and works, not even the good which God sometimes does, says, or works in them and through them, according to what the Lord says: “Nonetheless, do not rejoice that the spirits are subject to you” (Lk. 10:20). And we should know for certain that nothing is our own except our vices and sins. And rather we must be glad “when we are brought to various trials” (James 1:2) and when we undergo all kinds of anxieties of body or soul or tribulations in this world for the sake of eternal life. All the brothers should beware of all pride and vainglory.
Only certain brothers could preach, according to the regulations of the Church. All the brothers were to preach by their actions.