PENITENTIAL SPIRITUALITY
IN THE FRANCISCAN SOURCES

The Life of Penance and the Eucharist.

  | Back |

St. Francis' love for the Son of God made man, who died and was raised, is expressed in a uniquely, special way, in his devotion to the Eucharist, where the Word of Life abides as living bread for the pilgrims who aspire to the Kingdom of God. Christ, who has ascended on high, is nevertheless, never far away from men (brothers among themselves) - men who have rejected and killed Him: He is really Emmanuel, God with us! The total gift of the Cross is perpetuated in the Eucharist.

Francis had been penetrated by the power of this mystery and he believed in it with all the strength of his soul. In the Testament (12-13) he writes: . "..in the world I see nothing of the Most High Son of God with the eyes of the body, save His most holy body and blood." "And I desire that these most holy mysteries be honored and venerated and that they be housed in costly vessels. "

The first biographer claims that Francis "burned with love right to his deepest fibers, for the sacrament of the body of the Lord, awed as he was by such loving condescension and such great charity..." (2 Celano, 20 1).

The Poverello's faith in the Eucharist can be seen in many parts of the writings and of the sources. (132)

The Eucharist is the bread of the life which never ends, the esca viatorum of the pilgrims who seek strength and light, to walk towards God who is, in the Risen Christ, the source of eternal life. In his "Letter to all the Faithful," Francis reminds the Penitents: "How happy and blessed are all those who receive the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and bear fruits worthy of penance " (1 Faithful 2,1-2 and 7; 2 Faithful 10, 63 ff).
___________________________

(131) On this point cf. K.Esser,La devozione a Maria santissima in S. Francesco d'Assisi, in Temi spirituali, Milan 1973,pp. 285-314; AA.VV., La Madonna nella spiritualita francescana, in Quaderni di spiritualita francescana 5 (1963).

(132) cf.M.Ciccarelli, I misteri ... cit.,pp. 687-748; K.Esser-E.Grau, Love's Reply,cit.,pp. 99-177;AA.VV.,L'eucaristia nella spiritualita francescana, in Quaderni di spiritualita francescana 3 1962).

Page 215

The eucharistic mystery and the life of penance are closely connected: the Son of God, become human and really present in the sacrament of the altar, is indispensable food for the pilgrim on his journey, "conditio sine qua non" of the penitential life. In the Eucharist the saving work desired by God, through Christ, is perpetuated concretely, in reality.

Whoever walks the path of penance, finds therein a constant nourishment for an upward growth, which has its hope fixed on the living God as its final resting place.

  | Back |