LETTER TO ALL THE FAITHFUL
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Source: Omnibus of Sources - written by St. Francis himself
INTRODUCTION
The Letter to All the Faithful has generally been held to have been
written in the year 1215. St. Francis wrote it as he began to reach out
to everyone in the whole world with his message of the need for personal
conversion. It is rich in its message and in its simplicity. It clearly
held something for everyone, and like the First Rule of the Third Order
of 1221 it was clearly penitential in tone, though not as explicit in
its prescriptions. It has often been referred to as the "First Rule" to
the faithful from St. Francis, and that the actual First Rule (Memoriale
Propositi) was intended to be the "Constitutions" of the Letter. This
makes the Rule of 1221, the Rule of the Brothers and Sisters of Penance
of St. Francis all the more beautiful, as it is the fruit of the Letter
to all the Faithful in the heart of St. Francis. Whatever the intention
of St. Francis, welcome to his Letter to all the Faithful!
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TO ALL CHRISTIANS, religious, clerics and lay folk, men and women; to
everyone in the whole world, Brother Francis, their servant and subject,
sends his humble respects, imploring for them true peace from heaven
and sincere love of God.
I am the servant of all and so I am bound to wait upon everyone and
make known to them the fragrant words of my Lord. Realizing, however,
that because of my sickness and ill-health I cannot personally visit
each one individually, I decided to send you a letter bringing a message
with the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Word of the Father,
and of the Holy Spirit, whose words are spirit and life (Jn 6: 64).
Our Lord Jesus Christ is the glorious Word of the Father, so holy and
exalted, whose coming the Father made known by St. Gabriel the Archangel
to the glorious and blessed Virgin Mary, in whose womb he took on our
weak human nature. He was rich beyond measure and yet he and his holy
Mother chose poverty.
Then, as his passion drew near, he celebrated the Pasch with his disciples and, taking bread,
he blessed and broke, and gave to his disciples, and said, Take and
eat; this is my body. And taking a cup, he gave thanks and gave it to
them, saying, This is my blood of the new covenant, which is being shed
for many unto the forgiveness of sins (Mt. 26: 26-29). And he prayed to his Father, too, saying, Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from me (Mt.
26: 39); and it was the Father's will that his blessed and glorious
Son, whom he gave to us and who was born for our sake, should offer
himself by his own blood as a sacrifice and victim on the altar of the
cross; and this, not for himself, through whom all things were made (Jn 1: 3), but for our sins, leaving us an example that we may follow in his steps (
1Pet. 2: 21). It is the Father's will that we should all be saved by
the Son, and that we should receive him, or want to be saved by him,
although his yoke is easy, and his burden light (Mt. 11: 30).
All those who refuse to taste and see how good the Lord is (Ps. 33: 9) and who love the darkness rather than the light (Jn. 3: 19) are under a curse. It is God's commandments they refuse to obey and so it is of them the Prophet says, You rebuke the accursed proud who turn away from your commands
(Ps. 118: 21). On the other hand, those who love God are happy and
blessed. They do as our Lord himself tells us in the Gospel, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul...and thy neighbour as thyself
(Mt. 22: 37-39). We must love God, then, and adore him with a pure
heart and mind, because this is what he seeks above all else, as he
tells us, True worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth (Jn. 4: 23). All who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth (Jn. 4: 24). We should praise him and pray to him day and night, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven (Mt. 6: 9), because we must always pray and not lose heart (Lk. 18: 1).
And moreover, we should confess all our sins to a priest and receive
from him the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. The man who does
not eat his flesh and drink his blood cannot enter the kingdom of God
(cf. Jn 6: 54). Only he must eat and drink worthily because he who eats and drinks unworthily, without distinguishing the body, eats and drinks judgment to himself (1 Cor. 11:29); that is, if he sees no difference between it and other food.
Besides this, we must bring forth therefore fruits befitting repentance
(Lk. 3: 8) and love our neighbours as ourselves. Anyone who will not or
cannot love his neighbour as himself should at least do him good and not
do him any harm.
Those who have been entrusted with the power of judging others should
pass judgment mercifully, just as they themselves hope to obtain mercy
from God. For judgment without mercy to him who has not shown mercy (Jn.
2: 13). We must be charitable, too, and humble, and give alms, because
they wash the stains of sin from our souls. We lose everything which we
leave behind in this world; we can bring with us only the right to a
reward for our charity and the alms we have given. For these we shall
receive a reward, a just retribution from God.
We are also bound to fast and avoid vice and sin, taking care not to
give way to excess in food and drink, and we must be Catholics. We
should visit churches often and show great respect for the clergy, not
just for them personally, for they may be sinners, but because of their
high office, for it is they who administer the most holy Body and Blood
of our Lord Jesus Christ. They offer It in sacrifice at the altar, and
it is they who receive It and administer It to others. We should
realize, too, that no one can be saved except by the Blood of our Lord
Jesus Christ and the holy words of God, and it is the clergy who tell us
his words and administer the Blessed Sacrament, and they alone have a
right to do it, and no one else.
Religious especially are bound to make greater efforts, without
neglecting the duties of ordinary Christians, because they have left the
world.
Our lower nature, the source of so much vice and sin, should be hateful
to us. Our Lord says in the Gospel, it is from the heart of man that
all vice and sin comes
(cf. Mt. 15: 18-19), and he tells us, Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you (Lk.
6: 27). We are bound to order our lives according to the precepts and
counsels of our Lord Jesus Christ, and so we must renounce self and
bring our lower nature into subjection under the yoke of obedience; this
is what we have all promised God. However, no one can be bound to obey
another in anything that is sinful or criminal.
The man who is in authority and is regarded as the superior should
become the least of all and serve his brothers, and he should be as
sympathetic with each one of them as he would wish others to be with him
if he were in a similar position. If one of his brothers falls into
sin, he should not be angry with him; on the contrary, he should correct
him gently, with all patience and humility, and encourage him.
It is not for us to be wise and calculating in the world's fashion; we
should be guileless, lowly, and pure. We should hold our lower nature in
contempt, as a source of shame to us, because through our own fault we
are wretched and utterly corrupt, nothing more than worms, as our Lord
tells us by the Prophet, I am a worm; the scorn of men, despised by the people (Ps. 21: 7). We should not want to be in charge of others; we are to be servants, and should be subject to every human creature for God's sake
(1Pet. 2: 13). On all those who do this and endure to the last the
Spirit of God will rest (cf. Is. 11: 2); he will make his dwelling in
them and there he will stay, and they will be children of your Father in heaven (Mt.
5: 45) whose work they do. It is they who are the brides, the brothers
and the mothers of our Lord Jesus Christ. A person is his bride when his
faithful soul is united with Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit; we are
his brothers when we do the will of his Father who is in heaven
(cf. Mt. 12: 50), and we are mothers to him when we enthrone him in our
hearts and souls by love with a pure and sincere conscience, and give
him birth by doing good. This, too, should be an example to others.
How glorious, how holy and wonderful it is to have a Father in heaven.
How holy it is, how beautiful and lovable to have in heaven a
Bridegroom. How holy and beloved, how pleasing and lowly, how peaceful,
delightful, lovable and desirable above all things it is to have a
Brother like this, who laid down his life for his sheep (cf. Jn. 10:
15), and prayed to his Father for us, saying: Holy Father, in your name
keep those whom you have given me. Father, all those whom you gave me in
the world, were yours and you gave them to me. And the words you have
given me, I have given to them. And they have received them and have
known truly that I have come forth from you, and they have believed that
you have sent me. I am praying for them, not for the world: Bless and
sanctify them. And for them I sanctify myself, that they may be
sanctified in their unity, just as we are. And, Father, I wish that
where I am, they also may be with me, that they may see my splendor in
your kingdom (cf. Jn 17: 6-24).
Every creature in heaven and on earth and in the depths of the sea
should give God praise and glory and honour and blessing (cf. Ap. 5:
13); he has borne so much for us and has done and will do so much good
to us; he is our power and our strength, and he alone is good (cf. Lk.
18:19), he alone most high, he alone all-powerful, wonderful, and
glorious; he alone is holy and worthy of all praise and blessing for
endless ages and ages. Amen.
All those who refuse to do penance and receive the Body and Blood of
our Lord Jesus Christ are blind, because they cannot see the light, our
Lord Jesus Christ. They indulge their vices and sins and follow their
evil longings and desires, without a thought for the promises they made.
In body they are slaves of the world and of the desires of their lower
nature, with all the cares and anxieties of this life; in spirit they
are slaves of the devil. They have been led astray by him and have made
themselves his children, dedicated to doing his work. They lack
spiritual insight because the Son of God does not dwell in them, and it
is he who is the true wisdom of the Father. It is of such men as these
that Scripture says, their skill was swallowed up (Ps. 106: 27).
They can see clearly and are well aware what they are doing; they are
fully conscious of the fact that they are doing evil, and knowingly lose
their souls.
See, then you who are blind, deceived by your enemies, the world, the
flesh, and the devil, our fallen nature loves to commit sin and hates to
serve God; this is because vice and sin come from the heart of man, as
the Gospel says. You have no good in this world and nothing to look
forward to in the next. You imagine that you will enjoy the worthless
pleasures of this life indefinitely, but you are wrong. The day and the
hour will come, the day and the hour for which you have no thought and
of which you have no knowledge whatever. First sickness, then death,
draws near; friends and relatives come and advise the dying man, "Put
your affairs in order". Wife and children, friends and relatives, all
pretend to mourn. Looking about, he sees them weeping. An evil
inspiration comes to him. Thinking to himself, he says, "Look, I am
putting my body and soul and all that I have in your hands". Certainly a
man who would do a thing like that is under a curse, trusting and
leaving his body and his soul and all that he has defenseless in such
hands. God tells us by his Prophet, Cursed shall he be that puts his trust in man (Jer. 17:5). There and then, they call a priest; he says to the sick man, "Do you want to be absolved from all your sins?"
And the dying man replies, "I do". "Are you ready then to make
restitution as best you can out of your property for all that you have
done, all the fraud and deceit you practiced towards your fellow men?"
the priest asks him. "No", he replies. And the priest asks, "Why not?"
"Because I have left everything in the hands of my relatives and
friends", is the answer. Then his speech begins to fail and so the
unfortunate man dies an unhappy death.
We should all realize that no matter where or how a man dies, if he is
in the state of mortal sin and does not repent, when he could have done
so and did not, the devil tears his soul from his body with such anguish
and distress that only a person who has experienced it can appreciate
it. All the talent and ability, all the learning and wisdom which he
thought his own, are taken away from him, while his relatives and
friends bear off his property and share it among themselves. Then they
say, "A curse on his soul; he could have made more to leave to us and he
did not." And the worms feast on his body. So he loses both body and
soul in this short life and goes to hell, where he will be tormented
without end.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In that love which is God (cf. 1 Jn. 4: 16), I, Brother Francis, the
least of your servants and worthy only to kiss your feet, beg and
implore all those to whom this letter comes to hear these words of our
Lord Jesus Christ in a spirit of humility and love, putting them into
practice with all gentleness and observing them perfectly. Those who
cannot read should have them read to them often and keep them ever
before their eyes, by persevering in doing good to the last, because
they are spirit and life (Jn. 6:64). Those who fail to do this
shall be held to account for it before the judgment-seat of Christ at
the last day. And may God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, bless those who
welcome them and grasp them and send copies to others, if they
persevere in them to the last (cf. Mt. 10:22).
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COMMENTARY: from Bruce and Shelley Fahey BSP
Since it is commonly held that the Letter to all the Faithful was
written before the First Rule of the Third Order, Memoriale Propositi,
which is the Rule of the Brothers and Sisters of Penance of St. Francis,
then St. Francis must have intended that those who wished to lead a
committed life of penance should do more than the letter prescribes.
The Rule of the BSP, and its supporting and defining Statutes, puts
into writing these admonitions in concrete form. Consideration of these
documents verifies the mind of St. Francis himself. It would not be
sufficient for the brothers and sisters of penance to have the Letter to
All the Faithful read to them. They were to put it into effect in their
lives according to the specifics of that original Rule of Life,
Memoriale Propositi, the Rule of 1221, now the Rule of the BSP..
"It is an earnest appeal to all the faithful to sanctify themselves
by prayer, by the use of the sacraments, by mortification, and by the
practice of justice, charity, and humility; to show respect for the
Blessed Eucharist; and to live the Catholic life in all its fullness. It
is especially noteworthy for its graphic description of the last
moments of an impenitent possessor of ill-gotten goods." Franciscan Omnibus of Sources
With these thoughts in mind, the Letter to All the Faithful carries in
it the seeds of the First Rule of all of the Orders that St. Francis
established. From its rich message souls would rise and taste and see how good the Lord is (Ps.
33: 9) and gain the courage to make the deeper commitment of embracing
a penitential Rule of Life as their way to follow the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. The Letter to all the Faithful was a starting point, not an
ending, for the conversion of the masses.
Hence, this general commitment to living the Gospel all Christians
should embrace. The Rule of 1221, being a specific lifestyle within that
call, a "call within a call" as it were, is a commitment that many can
make that takes one beyond the Letter. The contents of the Letter to All
the Faithful are fulfilled in a dramatic and definite way by living the
First Rule of the Third Order of St. Francis of 1221 in the modern
Association of the Brothers and Sisters of Penance of St. Francis.
Blessed are those who feel called to do that! These admonitions, or
perhaps it is more accurate to say, prescriptions, of the Letter to All
the Faithful are very straightforward and simple and can be summarized
nicely as follows.
WE CAN:
...bring with us only a right to a reward for our charity and the alms we have given...
WE SHOULD:
...receive him with a pure heart and chaste body...
...praise him and pray to him day and night saying Our Father, who art in heaven (Matt.6:9)...
...confess all our sins to a priest and receive from him the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ...
...pass judgment mercifully...
...visit churches often...
...show great reverence for the clergy...
...realize...that no one can be saved except by the Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ and by the holy words of God...
...become the least of all and serve our brothers...
...be as sympathetic with others...as we wish others to be with us...
...not be angry with others...
...be guileless, lowly, and pure...
...hold our lower nature in contempt, as a source of shame to us...
...not want to be in charge of others...
...be servants...
...be subject to every human creature for God's sake (1 Pet.2: 13)
...be an example to others...
WE MUST:
...love God, then, and adore him with a pure heart and mind...
...bring forth therefore fruits befitting repentance (Lk. 3: 8)...
...love our neighbors as ourselves...
...be charitable, too, and humble...
...give alms...
...renounce self and bring our lower nature into subjection under the yoke of
obedience...
WE ARE BOUND:
...to fast...
...to avoid vice and sin...
...to order our lives according to the precepts and counsels of our Lord Jesus Christ...
Religious especially are bound to make greater efforts, without
neglecting the duties of ordinary Christians, because they have left the
world...
WE MUST TAKE CARE:
...not to give way to excess in food and drink...
Such are the admonitions and holy prescriptions of the Letter to all the
Faithful, and all of them are incorporated in the Rule of the Brothers
and Sisters of Penance of St. Francis, as he himself had the Rule of
1221, our Rule, prepared for the laity to live. In living the Rule of
the BSP we fulfill the demands of the Letter. And, St. Francis himself
says of this, in the Letter to All the Faithful:
"And may God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, bless those who welcome them
and grasp them, and send copies to others, if they persevere in them to
the last".
Welcome to the Brothers and Sisters of Penance of St. Francis!
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