Here is what is in the Rule of St. Clare
**Chapter III
The Divine Office
and fasting confession and communion.
Let the sisters who can read celebrate the Divine Office according to the custom of the Friars Minor.** For this reason they may have breviaries, reading them without singing. Those who, for some reasonable cause, are at times unable to recite their hours by reading them, may, like the other sisters, say the Our Fathers
The idea in Franciscan theology is to that the religious community should always be a single community of equals (brothers and sisters).
In the monastic communities they had the choir monks. Some were priests and some were brothers. The choir monks or the choir nuns, chanted the office. They also had the lay brothers and the lay sisters. These did not pray with the rest of the community. They prayed less hours of the Divine Office. Their vocation was and is to care for the physical well-being of the monastery, especially the choir monks and choir nuns, so that these are free to pray. I most of these communities, those who did not have a good singing voice could not become choir monks or choir nuns. A good voice was one of the signs of a vocation. The Carthusians still have it in their constitutions.
Francis and Clare wanted to get away from the monastic system. They dearly loved the Benedictines and were very close to them. In fact, both Francis and Clare were trained in the religious life by the Benedictines. We have a great deal that we carry over from them.
At the same time, the sons and daughters of Francis and Clare were to be indistinguishable from each other. They were to wear the same habit. The men were all friars and the women were all nuns. Those who were priests were to be servants to those who were not priests, not their betters. Every distinction between the members of the community was to be avoided.
There was never to be a choir for some and not for others. By reciting the Divine Office, you eliminated the choir. There was never to be a schola for mass. By eliminating Gregorian Chant, you eliminated the need for a schola. Instead, other forms of music were used. They were new in those days, today they are sacred music.
Gregorian Chant did not allow the laity to participate in the vocalizations. In the EF, when it’s a high mass, the chant is very “recto tono” so that the laity can respond. Often, there are other friars present to help. The parts of the mass such as the Gloria, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, Pater Noster etc. have melodies that are very simple.
Also, Francis and Clare introduced the use of the vernacular into the mass. They sang many hymns in Italian. Francis wrote some himself. The one that we have in its totality is the Canticle of the Creatures. The others have been lost through the centuries. No one thought it was important enough to save them. We have the words, but not the melodies.
Some Franciscan communities have permission from their superiors to celebrate the EF with all the bells and whistles; but that’s a very new thing. Before Vatican II, we were never really fully Tridentine, nor did we have our own rite as do Dominicans, Carmelites and Carthusians. To use Pope Benedict’s language, we had our own form of the EF. There was a Franciscan Missal known as the Roman Seraphic Missal, which has been out of use and out of print for a very long time. Later a Roman Franciscan Missal was published for the OF. This simply means that we have our little customs that you would not notice unless you put a Franciscan side by side with an FSSP. The EF and OF follow the Roman Franciscan Calendar. If you only attend the EF at a friary, you would never know that the FSSP down the street is wearing green when the friar is wearing white.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
