Francis of Assisi, the Knower and the Least of God, always had clear in his conscience the importance and necessity of the contemplative life, tempered by work that keeps idleness at bay and conforms to Christ. He demanded this for himself and for his brothers. He went so far as to say that serving his brothers was worth more than any stay in the hermitages, where he himself loved to go when he could.
We read in his writings:
«And I worked with my own hands, and I want to work; and I firmly want all the other brothers to work as befits honesty. Those who do not know, let them learn, not out of greed to receive the reward of work, but to set an example and keep idleness at bay» (FF 119).
Furthermore: «We are convinced that [...] those who live differently in hermitages have been reproached a great deal. Many, in fact, transform the place of contemplation into idleness and the hermit's way of life, instituted to allow souls perfection, reduces it to a place of pleasure [...] Certainly this reproach is not for everyone. We know that there are saints [...] who follow excellent laws in the hermitage» (FF 765).
Even among the friars there was discussion about whether to live in contemplation or action, in fact in the Major Legend it is written:
"While, firm in their holy purpose, they faced the Spoletana valley, they began to discuss whether they should spend their lives among the people or dwell in solitary places.
But Francis, the servant of Christ, not trusting in his own experience or that of his own, entrusted himself to prayer, in order to insistently seek what the disposition of the divine will was on this point.
He was thus enlightened with an answer from Heaven and understood that he had been sent by the Lord for this purpose: to win souls for Christ [...] And so he chose to live for all, rather than for himself alone, spurred on by the example of the One who deigned to die, He alone, for all men" (FF 1066).
But love for prayer and listening to the Word always accompanied his actions and those of his brothers.
"The tireless dedication to prayer [...] had brought the man of God to such clarity of spirit that [...] he scrutinised the depths of the Scriptures with a clear and acute intellect.
He read the sacred books and kept tenaciously imprinted in his memory what he had once assimilated: for he continually ruminated with affectionate devotion what he had listened to with an attentive mind" (FF1187).
The Poverello and Clare of Assisi had well understood that at the basis of their lives was the choice of the good part that no one would ever take away from them.
Listening to the Word and the relationship with Jesus were the driving motives behind every gesture, which took its flavour from being with God and with faith.
Clare, in fact, in a letter to her spiritual daughter, Agnes of Bohemia, writes:
«The love of Him makes one happy, contemplation restores, kindness fills. The gentleness of him pervades the whole soul, the memory shines sweetly in the memory» (FF 2901 - letter four).
Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus (ref. Lk 10:38-42)
