Francesco Bernadone was the son of a wealthy merchant. For the first twenty-seven years of his life, Francis was an elegantly dressed playboy. His rich imagination, coupled with his father's hope that he would earn a title for the family, led him into dreams of becoming a knight. When he was seventeen, the men of Assisi attacked the local fort while the duke was away. They killed everyone in sight and tore down the walls, using the stones to build a protective wall around their city. Francis surely took part in that assault and helped to build the wall afterward. Made confident by their easy victory, the citizens of Assisi later attacked the neighboring town of Perugia where the duke had taken refuge. They were quickly defeated and Francis spent time as a prisoner of war. The seeds of his conversion were sown during that time.
Some years later, Francis again went to war as part of a contingent of citizens of Assisi who rode to the aid of the besieged Papal army. As Francis rode along he heard a voice call to him: "Francis! Who do you serve? The servant or the master?" At first he thought it was an impertinent companion, but when he saw he was alone, he realized it was the Lord's voice that he heard. "I am at your service, Lord," he replied. "Just tell me what you would have me do." At the Lord's request, the obedient Francis returned to Assisi but never again to the playboy lifestyle he had left behind.
Francis came to mirror the love of Christ and the living Gospel so closely that nearly everyone who met him wanted to follow his way. He realized that not everyone could or should take up a celibate life of poverty and homelessness, yet he recognized that people unable to do this were still drawn to serve God with deeply committed hearts and lives. Long before Francis was born, groups of men and women in ordinary secular walks of life were living under rule and vows as members of "Third Orders." Francis saw this as an appropriate answer for many of his followers, and so, eight hundred years ago, the "Brothers and Sisters of Penance," later known as "Third Order" or "Secular" Franciscans, came to be.
The Anglican Franciscan movement began in the U.S., England and India early in the twentieth century and merged into the Society of St. Francis (SSF) in 1967. The Third Order in the American Province was founded in 1917, two years before the First Order, yet it functioned for many years as a sort of "Third Class Franciscan" auxiliary of the Friars. It maintains close familial ties with First and Second Order sisters and brothers, though it became autonomous in 1987. Today it is a fully independent Order, recognized by the (American) House of Bishops under the Canon of Religious Communities. It has its own provincial and worldwide governments, constitution, novice training programs and statutes. There are about 3,100 Anglican Third Order Franciscans worldwide. About 600 live in the American Province, which includes North, South and Central America, Hawaii, the West Indies and Guam.
Though we are no less committed than our First and Second Order brothers and sisters, the Third Order vocation is lived out in a different and more challenging way. We are neither "wanna be" nuns or friars, a "pious guild" nor a devotional society. We are lay and clergy, married and single, serving God as we are called, in the ordinary occupations of life. We do not live together in community, wear habits, or follow the rule of literal poverty that Francis chose for himself and his friars minor; that was surely never his intention for secular Franciscans with family and work responsibilities. Because we are an Order, the shape of our lives is formed in context of the Order's Principles and Rule. Being a Franciscan tertiary is one of many ways of responding to God's love; it is a specific vocation which will not be "right" for everyone.
Simon Tugwell defines spirituality as "a way of looking at the world," and Franciscan spirituality as "a way of radical unprotectedness." That is about as apt a definition as it is possible to give. Francis was in love with God and threw himself into the love relationship with the dangerous abandon of a lover. He saw the Kingdom of God as present now and expressed this with great passion by embracing the radical poverty of Christ. His Order not only did without possessions -- things as basic as shelter from the elements; they were downright happy about it! The worse things got, the more joy it seemed to produce. Before Francis, the spiritual focus of religious orders was to renounce the world as evil and humanistic and to work at negating it. Francis looked at the world, saw his beloved (its Creator) and embraced it with open arms. He called all created things his brothers and sisters: sun, moon, living beings, storms, fire, even death. Sometimes this attitude is mistranslated into a sort of sentimental piety that is anything but representative of the passionate Franciscan ethos. Francis had so much love and compassion for Jesus' suffering and death on the cross that he wanted to share Christ's passion as deeply as he was able; therefore he saw any pain or hardship he had to endure as a gift to be celebrated, any contact for good or ill with creation as contact with his beloved -- embracing a leper, he embraced Christ.
Francis unhesitatingly followed the leading of the Holy Spirit, which he perceived in deep prayer and scriptures. He followed the Gospels so literally, he makes latter-day fundamentalism seem liberal. The playboy excesses for which he was notorious before his conversion were channeled directly into his relationship with God - he became a zealot, "a fool for God." He surely would not pass psychologicals for ordination today, though he was quickly ordained deacon when his original Rule was approved, lest he be turned loose on the world with his crazy insistence that the Gospel should be followed literally, without formal accountability to Church authority. Everything he did was done with great heart, deep humility, and much joy. Prayer leading to action, generosity and joyousness of spirit, careful discernment, and close following of the Gospels should characterize the Tertiary's way of seeing and being in the world today, just as they did that of Francis.
The Third Order's Formation program takes over two and one half years to complete. It is a time of testing for both individual and the Order: Is the Franciscan vocation the expression of Christian life to which God is calling you? During this period you will be asked to take a hard look at yourself, your attitudes and way of relating to God and to others. You may discover you are really a Benedictine at heart, or called to conventual community, or might be happier as an SSF Associate. You may find you would be happier living a rule as an individual rather than as a part of a religious Order. Formation is a time of discovering these things, as well as a time of growth in Franciscan spirituality and of learning to live a rule of life.
Postulancy begins when your proposed rule of life has been approved and your first written report has been received. Not all aspirants are accepted as postulants if there are indications that the Third Order would not be appropriate. Sometimes we ask an individual to wait until a particularly stressful time is over or s/he is in a more stable situation. Formation can be very demanding, especially in the beginning. We hope not to doom an aspirant to failure by piling on more than that individual can readily handle under his/her current circumstances.
Our formation program is mainly conducted by mail, though there are occasionally classes in a few locations. The postulant or novice sends a monthly written report to the assigned counselor. This monthly review helps you take stock of how you are doing and helps the counselor assess progress and get to know you better. Your formation counselor establishes a trusted relationship with you that sometimes develops into a lifelong friendship after Profession. The formation counselor is part of a team which includes the Assistant Formation Director, the Formation Director, and the Chaplain. All correspondence is confidential within the formation team, and formation files are destroyed after Profession. Regular reporting is critical to the process.
Participation in the local Third Order fellowship is expected when one is available. A vocation to the Third Order is a vocation to community. For some isolated tertiaries regular fellowship meetings are not possible. Regional convocations are held annually, and occasionally Provincial convocations are held which provide opportunities for communal prayer and worship, learning and fellowship. Attendance is strongly encouraged, particularly for isolated Tertiaries.
All Franciscan Tertiaries must be under spiritual direction. You may already have a spiritual director, or the concept may be new to you. Tertiaries' spiritual directors may have formal training and long experience in direction or none; they may be lay people, clergy, or members of religious orders. There is nothing so important to your spiritual health as a good spiritual director. We suggest that you choose one who will understand your commitment to a radical Christianity in the Franciscan way, a person who prays, with whom you can communicate well, who doesn't encourage dependence on his/her "authority" or judgment, and neither believes Christianity to be "other worldly" or entirely a matter of morals and humanitarianism. We ask that your director also be under spiritual direction and have someone who serves as a supervisor for the direction relationship. If it is possible -- and sometimes it isn't -- we suggest that people do not use their parish priests as directors because there can be real conflicts of interest. Tertiaries are usually involved in parish activities, and it is easy for the discussion to turn to parish rather than spiritual direction issues. If you are having problems in the parish, you might find real reluctance to share this. In addition, another member of the fellowship is not an appropriate spiritual director for someone in formation due to potential conflicts of interest. We certainly understand that the ideal situation is often neither practical or possible. For those new to the concept of spiritual direction, the book "Holy Listening" by Margaret Guenther provides good, basic information and can help in establishing this critical relationship.
St. Francis of Assisi, Omnibus of Sources, Edit. Marion A. Habig, Franciscan Herald Press, 1972. Compendium of writings by/about St. Francis - a major resource book.
Francis of Assisi:Early Documents - Volume 1, The Saint, Edit. Regis J. Armstrong, OFM Cap., J.A. Wayne Hellman, OFM Conv., and William J. Short, OFM, Franciscan Institute of St. Bonaventure University, 1999. A newer edition of the Omnibus of Sources. Volumes 2 and 3 are due out in Spring 2000 and 2001 respectively.
St. Francis of Assisi, Omer Englebert, Franciscan Herald Press, 1965. Servant Books (paperback ed), 1979. The most accurate nonfiction biography, contains much good information.
God's Fool, The Life and Times of Francis of Assisi, Julian Green, Harper and Row, 1985. An excellent biography of Francis.
St. Francis of Assisi, Thomas of Celano, Franciscan Herald Press, 1962. The original biography of Francis, commissioned by the Order two years after Francis' death.
The Little Flowers of St. Francis. Many translations, many editions. Somewhat apocryphal stories about Francis and his early followers give the flavor of the early Franciscans and their extraordinary spirituality. Essential Franciscan folklore and possibly more truth to them than we might imagine.
St. Francis, a Model for Human Liberation, Leonardo Boff, Crossroad, 1986. Liberation Theology based on Franciscan spirituality.
The Way of St. Francis, Murray Bodo, OFM, Franciscan Herald Press. Franciscan spirituality.
The Prayer of Cosa, The complete works. Ed. And Trans. By Regis J. Armstrong, OFM and Ignatius C. Brady, OFM, Paulist Press, 1982. Francis' own writings, perhaps the best way of all to get to know Francis.
The Francis Book, Edit. Roy Gasnick, OFM, Macmillan, 1982. Francis through the eyes of many authors and artists.
Francis, Brother of the Universe, Roy Gasnick, OFM, Marvel Comics. Comic book, fictionalized version of Francis' life. Very effective.
Franciscan Spirituality - Following Saint Francis Today, Brother Ramon, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1994. A primer on Franciscan spirituality.