The Rule

Therefore,
let us desire nothing else,
let us want nothing else,
let nothing else please us and cause us delight
except our Creator, Redeemer and Savior,
the only true God,
Who is the fullness of good,
all good, every good, the true and supreme good,
Who alone is good, merciful, gentle, delightful, and sweet,
Who alone is holy,
just, true, holy and upright,
Who alone is kind, innocent, clean,
from Whom, through Whom and in Whom
is all pardon, all grace, all glory...
Therefore,
let nothing hinder us,
nothing separate us,
nothing come between us.
Wherever we are
in every place,
at every hour,
at every time of the day,
every day and continually,
let all of us truly and humbly believe,
hold in our heart and love,
honor, adore, serve,
praise and bless,
glorify and exalt,
magnify and give thanks
to the Most High and Supreme Eternal God...
Who,
without beginning and end,
is unchangeable, invisible,
indescribable, ineffable,
incomprehensible, unfathomable
blessed, praiseworthy,
glorious, exalted,
sublime, most high,
gentle, lovable, delightful,
and totally desirable above all else
for ever,
Amen.

EARLIER RULE XXIII: 9-11

I'm not exactly sure if this is a past rule or a part of the current Rule of St. Francis. I should know but if I wait until I dig around and find the answer I won't finish this post until next week, that's how bad I am. Tuesday night at our SFO meeting Esparenza did a wonderful job with the ongoing formation and the above was part of it. Poor Francis. The first Rule was lost, and when some of the Brothers found out he'd gone into the mountains to write another, they, along with Brother Elias walked up the mountain to the cave where Francis was fasting, and with two other Brothers was trying to come up with another Rule. They thought that Francis would write a Rule that was so strict that they wouldn't be able to live by it. So sad. Not much different than today, really. We as Catholics are asked to do many things, but a lot of us pick and choose the parts of our spiritual life that only conform to our way of thinking, or we leave out the parts that seem too hard to uphold. Birth control. Gossip. Adultery. The list goes on and on. God does not ask us to live His life when it's convenient for us. He asks us for everything, and all the time, and though it's very hard to do that, to live that life in this secular world I don't think people try hard enough, and some people don't try at all. The spiritual life is, to me like a path laid out by God, with Saints and Jesus, His Mother, and the Holy Spirit, all right there along the way to help guide us. In the end we mostly ignore them, because we think we know better. Tomorrow I'll start. I think this is OK. We're able to justify almost any act or thought. But we're only fooling ourselves.