You know, I never knew that.
The rule does not say much about mass, because the early brothers attended mass at the local parish. The only thing that is in the rule itself about mass is that they had to attend mass on Sundays. In other writings: letters and so forth, he wrote that the brothers who are ordained should celebrate mass for the diocesan clergy as a help, but never take over parishes. This became a problem.
Francis greatest fear was that the order would become an order of priests or monks. What Christ revealed to him and the pope approved was a brotherhood, where there were some priests, but they had to be brothers foremost. Their priestly ministry could not interfere with their life as brothers. This is very clear in letters that he wrote to St. Anthony of Padua. He speaks of avoiding the extinction of prayer for the sake of study and the sake of priestly duties. If the priestly duties kept a brother from the community those duties had to stop. This is still the rule today. That has never changed.
Later when we began to have masses in our own houses, celebrated by our brothers, the friars were to avoid any semblance of monasticism. Therefore the mass was not to be chanted. But Francis wrote many beautiful hymns in Italian and French. Later the German brothers wrote some beautiful hymns that are still sung in the Church today. The most famous Franciscan hymn is All Creatures of Our God and King. It was written by Francis in Italian and then translated into German. It was never translated into Latin. There is also a collection of Marian Hymns, but we have lost the music to them. We still have the words.
As to the Liturgy of the Hours, the rule is very exact on that. It must be recited. It should never be sung. It must be precided by the superior of the house. In Francis’ time it was precided by a priest. But Francis received a bull from Pope Honorius allowing the friars who were superiors, but were not priests to preside over it and to give the blessing.
Since the superior is not always a priest, there is always a special chair on the side of the sanctuary for the superior for certain liturgical functions. For example, during profession of vows the superior presides from the chair of Francis, we call it. He sits there and when the novice comes up to make vows the chair is moved in front of the altar. The superior sits and the priest who is celebrating the mass stands next to him. The novice kneels in front of the superior and places his hands in the hands of the superior to profess his vows. It is the superior who gives him the blessing and accepts the vows in the name of Francis and the Church, even though profession of vows is a liturgical act.
We do have some interesting traditions. We have had stringed instruments and wind instruments in our liturgy since about 1209, except in parishes. Parishes do not belong to us. We follow the bishop. But in our own chapels and oratories we have always had them and we have had non ordained brotthers preach since 1209 in our chapels and oratories.
Francis did write music, mostly in Italian and French, but a few pieces in Latin too. The most famous piece is All Creatures of Our God and King. Another famous piece was the prayer that is said during the Stations of the Cross, “We adore you oh Christ and we bless you, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.” and the revelation of the cross at Good Friday services, “Behold the Wood of the Cross”. The original melodies were lost in a fire. But the Church adopted them for common use and new melodies have been written.
Francis reason for not allowing the Liturgy of the Hours to be chanted and not allowing the brothers to learn Gregorian chant was to protect the order from becoming an order of priests or an order of monks. Any priest could join the order and still can, but he must be willing to be a brother in the truest sense of the word. He scrubs toilets, he works as a janitor, nurse, secretary, teacher, pastor, chaplain, cook, whatever is assigned to him. The idea is to keep the number of men that we ordain very low. This protects the individual and the order.
When you have too many priests and they are involved in priestly ministry they tend to be away from the house a great deal. The idea was that they would be with the community for prayer, meals, recreation, silence, lectio divina, retreats, chapters and other community functions. Also that they not be contaminated by the laity. Francis was terrified of the laity. To this day the more traditional communities of Franciscans spend very few hours a day among the laity. My own community spends only four hours a day among the laity. The Franciscans of the Eternal Word spend much less than that. The Franciscans of the Immaculate even less, maybe two hours a day, three at the most.
We were not to be monks, but not to be totally apostolic either. It is a mixed life. That’s why you see the mandatory Liturgy of the Hours, just like monks and priests, but then you see the reciting rather than the chanting. We had the stringed instruments, rather than the organ. That came much later and it never totally replaced tamborines and string instruments, because Francis played tamborines and string instruments.
You will find that most Franciscans have a very powerful attachment to Francis. I sometimes get the impression that the only other group that is as attached to their founder are the strict Benedictine reforms such as Trappists, Cistercians and Camaldolese and now Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity. Franciscans tend to be looking over their shoulders all the time to see whether Francis would approve. or not. He was a very powerful man.
In 1978, when Pope Paul VI lifted the ban on chanting the office, most communities did not take advantage of it for fear of offending Francis. It is done on very special occasion when we believe that Francis would like us to do so. Today there is no danger that we will become an order of monks or an order of priests. We’re older and very large.
By the way, those hymns that Francis wrote are called laudas, meaning hymns of praise. None of them are really very loud or over the top. They are very solemn and beautiful, but they do praise the Lord.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
Good Lord, why would that be a controversial subject? You’d think it would be a given!
), I’ll add that I’m also a self-taught guitarist. However, I’ve never really thought of playing the guitar myself at mass, as I’m mostly familiar with blues-rock and progressive rock styles of playing.