Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] Speaker A: Welcome to a special edition of our diocesan podcast, Big City Catholics, with Bishop Robert Brennan, the diocesan bishop of Brooklyn, and myself, Father Christopher Henu. This week, bishop is recording, while away in Assisi, the beginnings of his retreat with a group of priests from the Diocese of Brooklyn. I invite you now to take a listen to this special edition.
[00:00:31] Speaker B: I'm here with one of my classmates, Father Joseph Miller. Father Miller and I know each other for 40 years. We started seminary 40 years ago, late August, early September, and we were ordained a week apart. Ordained deacons together, ordained a week apart. And I'm so glad. Now we're serving together in the diocese of Brooklyn. Father Miller is over at St. Mary's, star of the Sea and St. Gertrude, and has a real sense of franciscan spirituality. So I'm going to end. Father Joe, please begin us with prayer.
[00:01:04] Speaker C: It's a privilege to be able to speak with you as we're sitting here in the shadow of the Basilica of St. Francis. The prayer I'd like to share with you is a prayer that St. Francis has written, and it's the prayer before the crucifix. Just a quick word about the prayer. This is a prayer that Francis wrote himself, but he committed to memory, and it was passed down through oral tradition with the friar miners. And it's the prayer that Francis prayed as he was discerning his own vocation, as he was trying to figure out what did God want him to do. It's a prayer where Francis actually asks for things for himself. And when you read through Francis's works and words, he doesn't do that. And this prayer he does. In the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Most high, glorious God, enlighten the darkness of my heart.
Give me right faith, sure hope and perfect charity. Fill me with understanding and knowledge that I may fulfill your command. Amen. This is a prayer that St. Francis committed to memory.
And the church that he was working out at the time was the church of San Damiano. It was an old church falling apart. Not a lot happening there. There was a nice old pastor there that liked Francis, and he let Francis hang out there. Literally crashed there. Well, Francis would pray that prayer before this cross, known as San Damiano. There were syrian monks in Assisi, and these style of crosses were all over the place. But Francis felt this particular one in the church of San Damiano was special to him.
And it was while praying this prayer before this crucifix that the words of Christ came to Francis. Basically, Francis, rebuild my church as you can see it's falling in disrepair. And Francis, being the literalist that he was, actually went out, sold some clothing and goods that his father had, and bought the building supplies, and went about literally trying to rebuild the church of San Damiano. So there we have it, the cross of San Damiano, in which the bishop and I literally saw today during our tour of Assisi, we went to.
[00:03:19] Speaker B: We started out before we got into the serious talks of the retreat. We had a little bit of a tour of Assisi, I guess, just to set the pace and to get a sense of the city. We started off with mass at the basilica of St. Francis, and then we went to the basilica of St. Clair, where that cross is hanging. And that really is very powerful. You look at it, you think, okay, these are nice words, but enlighten the darkness of my heart. You get that sense that Francis, at this time, before he really understood God's call, he felt a lot of darkness in his heart.
[00:03:51] Speaker C: And that's one of the things brother Bill, short of. Franciscan friar, gives a great, great talk on the San Damiano cross, and that's the one thing he told us about. And he said, people don't realize this. We all think of Francis as the troubadour, almost like the clown of God. And yet Francis, at this point in his life, was going through the dark night, as we see so many of our saints did. And Francis was really. He was begging God, and he said, francis never did this. He's saying, give me, give me, give me. And his brother Bill would say, deme, deme, deme. In the italian. Give me these things. Sure enough, it happened. Be careful what you pray for, folks. You're going to get it.
[00:04:26] Speaker B: I always say that before confirmation. I pray that, come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful. It concludes with, send forth your spirit, O Lord, and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth and say, be careful what you pray for, because God's saying, I'll send the spirit to you, and I'm going to send you out into the world.
[00:04:41] Speaker C: Bishop, as you did say, though we began our day this morning inside the basilica, and again, the bishop and I sitting out here on an outdoor veranda, but to our left is this mighty building, the basilica of St. Francis. And we had the opportunity this morning to celebrate mass at the tomb of St. Francis. It was more or less, as I said to you, bishop, I said, it was after mass that the enormity of this all hit me, that here we are with, as the Franciscans would say our brother Aphrata Francis, what an occasion to be on retreat here in Assisi. And for our retreat group to literally celebrating mass at the tomb of St. Francis, it was. It was.
[00:05:20] Speaker B: It was quite overwhelming, I think, for you particularly. We spoke about this, but we were ordained about 35 years, and you're the one with the great franciscan spirituality, and yet this is your first trip to Assisi.
[00:05:32] Speaker C: Well, I could thank the franciscan brothers of Brooklyn for that. As a graduate of St. Francis prep and the brothers taught us about St. Francis, we knew who St. Francis was. We knew that the San Damiano cross was a franciscan cross. We knew that October 4, besides being a day off, was also going to be the feast day of the founder of franciscanism, St. Francis. So I've been waiting to come here. I've been hoping to get here with this pilgrimage. God brought me here at this point in my life, and for certain reasons, and they're becoming very apparent as we continue our journey here.
[00:06:06] Speaker B: And that's what makes this such a powerful retreat. I did a retreat like this years ago from Rockville center. I joined a retreat group that was spending the week. And this, unlike other retreats, it's sort of the city is the retreat house, the whole city, and we need this. As priest, this is something, actually, we are required to take retreat. That's a real important thing in our lives. We should be spending some time away in prayer, spending intimate time with the lord. But it's also a chance for us to build each other up and encourage each other on the way.
[00:06:36] Speaker C: You mentioned earlier, you know, the fraternity of the priesthood, there's about 14 priests there. Some we know, some I know, and some I don't know as well. And this is a great opportunity, and we're all united in this pilgrimage. It's really. It's a great way to build camaraderie, to build fraternity amongst our own priests, our brother priests.
[00:06:54] Speaker B: Here we are now in this beautiful, beautiful city. A lot of walking, boy, we've done a lot of walking and a lot of walking up hills, and everything's about ten or 15 minutes away, so they say. But we're having a good time doing it and getting our exercise in. But you have a good background in franciscan spirituality. You've taken some of the courses, so you know what you're looking at. What are some of the experiences that either a short time that we hear or that you're looking forward to during this week?
[00:07:19] Speaker C: The one thing that always caught my mind, my ear, too, was Francis use of the word footprints. Francis doesn't use footsteps. Francis talks about following in the footprints of Jesus, and he takes that from the first letter of St. Peter. So Francis loved to quote the scriptures, Francis, and they have his actual breviary, and he has all these scriptural quotes in it. Francis was just such a great prayer and great contemplative, and for him, you know, dropping his scriptural quotes, and this was big to him, because Francis was walking in the footprints of Jesus. That was his life's calling. That's what he was going to do, and that's what he knew God was calling him to do. And as the little brothers, the friars, miners, started to follow him, he said that to him, we are walking in the footprints of Jesus. And yesterday, when we began our retreat and you celebrated mass in Greccio, we saw the area, the grotto, where Francis had the living nativity scene. So it hit me then that we, our group was literally. We were literally walking in the footprints of Francis, who dedicated his life to walking in the footprints of Jesus. And here we are today, continuing our walking up the hills and down the hills and going to the basilica this morning, and our footprints brought us to the tomb of St. Francis. We went to the basilica of St. Clair, where we saw the San Damiano cross and where St. Clair is buried and the footprints that Clare imposed upon her sisters. When Clare was founding the second order of Franciscans, she used that same exact term, that we are to walk in the footprints of Jesus. And as a retreat, pilgrimage. And with all the walking we're doing, it's just overwhelmingly evident that what we are called to do is walk in the footprints of Jesus, and we're doing that by walking in the footprints of Francis. This week.
[00:09:22] Speaker B: And you mentioned St. Clair, of course, the basilica for St. Clair. She's entombed there, but the cross is what stands out. That San Damiano Cross is there in the church of St. Clare. But Clarendez was an important figure in franciscan spirituality and herself. She was unique at her time because she wrote the rule. She wrote the rule for the sisters, and a lot of people resisted that thinking. A woman writing the rule for a woman's congregation. And at that time, the women's congregations were more genteel. They were founded around monastic life. But with Fer, she was imposing the same kind of spirituality as Francis. And in the end, you mentioned Brother Bill Short. I was listening to one of his talks, and he talks about on her deathbed, Pope went to her and said, claire, is there anything I can do for you? And she says, yes, just one thing, a signature.
And he finally signed the bylaws for the rule of her community.
[00:10:17] Speaker C: And when you read the history of the rule of St. Francis, when Francis originally submitted it, it was like two or three sentences, and basically it was follow the gospel. And Francis was very content with that. And the pope kind of looked at it, didn't say no. And it was basically, you know, I have this young man here with a bunch of followers that are looking to live the gospel of Jesus. But they tried to dissuade Francis. They said, listen, we don't need another rule. Why don't you adopt the benedictine rule? Why don't you adopt the cistercian rule? These are already out there. They're good. They will work for you. And Francis said no. He said, they have their cloisters. They have the monasteries. We don't have a cloister. Our cloister is the streets. Myself and my brothers are to belong in the streets. And Francis went about creating his own rule, which eventually was given the thumbs up. But then after Francis did it, as you said, Bishop Claire did the same thing, and that was unheard of for a woman religious. And she was asked to do the same thing, adapt or adopt one of the rules that's out there already. And she said no. But Frances got away with it more than she did. She wound up living, and the sisters in the second order, much more of a cloistered life, because at that point in the history of the world, ladies were not out working outside of the churches. They were all inside the cloisters. So there was that adaptation.
[00:11:38] Speaker B: But.
[00:11:39] Speaker C: And while they did have a stricter rule of life than the brothers, Claire established her own way of living.
[00:11:44] Speaker B: And, you know, another thing you talk about, Francis determination, simply follow the footprints of Jesus. And it was a literal translation of the gospel. One of the things I picked up from brother Short, and again, thank you, brother William Short. Thank you, Father Joe, for introducing me to his work. But another thing I picked up from him is that there was a change in the whole economic life that basically cities centered around monasteries, monasteries, and centered around feudal cities. And people measured wealth by land and worked for the land, stayed put. And now, with the growth of a business class, merchants that were growing, things started to change. And we often talk about the gospels becoming more accessible to people with the printing press. But really, even that moment time of Francis life, people had a new access to the gospel, because what would happen is they could see the gospel, read it, it would be in Latin, but the Italians figured it was close enough, and they had an access, and so there was an availability of the gospel to ordinary people. And Francis picked up on that, and his followers picked up on that. And so that's another reason why I think Gretcher was so important, so profound, because he took that Christmas riot. I just figured when I would tell the story about Gretchi, I would say, ah, you know, he was just trying to spark a little bit of faith, like a revival, like what we're doing now with the eucharistic revival sparked a light of faith. But really, he was taking what he was reading and seeing in the gospels and bringing it to life to give it to people. So when you really know the footprints of Christ, you're in a position to follow the footprints.
[00:13:24] Speaker C: And one of the things about St. Francis was he used to put himself down a lot. He also had a good sense of humor. He used to refer to himself as illiteratus, which we would say as illiterate. But there actually is some specific items that Francis wrote that is in the possession of franciscan scholars, and two of them are letters to brother Leo. And when they were analyzed by handwriting experts, when they were analyzed by linguists, they realized that Francis had a very good command of Italian and had a very good command of Latin.
Francis was part of that crowd with his father, Pietro Bernadone. They were the emerging middle class. You mentioned the economy was changing, and Francis came from a life where there was some money. They weren't all the way up with the nobility, but they weren't down with the campesinos, with the peasants. Francis was in that middle way. But it was during these conversions that Francis realized he was feeling more of a connection to the peasant people, to the poor people. And that's one of his. Nick's names is Il Povrelo, you know, the poor man. And that's why he wanted his brothers to be the Fratres Minores, you know, the lesser brothers. He wanted them to think less of themselves. But Francis, for someone that claims he was illiteratus, really was a very good writer. And one of the things he did, because there was no printing press yet, they would have to write these prayers and these directions on parchment. And Francis was signing things and writing things. But sometimes what he would do then at the bottom of that. Please share this. So Francis now was sending forth this next house to have to copy this message and send it off. And it was through this tradition that sometimes some of his messages might have been changed just a little bit, because you'll also see in these different writings, how the style of writing changed. And we see again comparing what Francis wrote from his hand, his style of handwriting, and the way he had a command of Italian and Latin that he really was, for his time, a bit of an educated man.
[00:15:35] Speaker B: And yet this is what's so powerful. We talk about him walking in the footprints of Christ, because he did what Christ does. I often ask about why people choose confirmation names, and they'll say, Francis. And I said, why? Well, because he took care of the poor. He went a step further. He became poor. He became poor. He emptied himself completely. And what a profound moment. This morning I was in St. Clair's. I was a little. I'll confess, I slept in a little this morning, getting used to everything else, the time change and the long day yesterday. And so I was really trying to catch up on my prayers when I could. And I was thinking, oh, when am I going to do this? I wanted to do the office of the readings. Finally we had some time. We were able to make close to a holy hour right there in that church. And there I was under the cross, praying the office of readings, and it was the hymn of Philippians. Though he was in the form of God, Jesus did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at, but that rather he emptied himself. He emptied himself coming among us as human. He emptied himself even to death on the cross. Francis did what Jesus did. He became poor. He emptied himself, literally stripping himself, taking off his clothes and everything. We had the chance to visit the archbishop. You and I ran into him yesterday.
[00:16:56] Speaker C: Archbishop Dominic?
[00:16:57] Speaker B: Yes, Archbishop Dominic, who came to visit Brooklyn a year and a half ago, he brought us the relic of blessed Carlo, but he was showing us that room. Actually, they're doing the archaeological takes. We saw the door that Francis would have went through, and he gave us a beautiful reflection on emptying ourselves and giving ourselves over completely to Christ, because that's what Christ did.
[00:17:19] Speaker C: One of the current themes of the writing of Saint Francis in following the foot's prince of Jesus is the theme of humility. And Francis just showing true humility, as you just said, to that perfect example. But then saying, you know, again, if we're saying Francis has got this true humility, well, who's his model? Whose footprints is he following? The footprints of Jesus. And what did we see yesterday? The reenactment of the nativity scene and the birth of Jesus, you know, in squalor, in a manger, or however we want to look at that. But, you know, Jesus choosing the Lord, choosing to come into the world in the way that he did. And Francis, just so perfectly for him, was able to adapt that lifestyle for himself.
[00:18:02] Speaker B: It was just he saw and appreciated the humanity of Christ. And he himself followed and so identified with it. And everybody knows this story. He so identified with Christ that toward the end of his life, he bore the stigmata.
[00:18:16] Speaker C: And that's something that Francis tried to hide. He didn't admit it, he didn't flaunt it, but it was really at his death, when he wanted to die naked on the ground, that when the brothers went to clean and washed the body, they saw the five wounds of Christ. And they saw it and they looked at it and they didn't speak about it, because Francis, being the humble servant that he was, knew he was not worthy for this. But yet he's so identified with Christ that he bore this. And when you bear the stigmata, you're talking about legitimate wounds.
[00:18:48] Speaker B: Yeah. It's not just a decoration.
[00:18:49] Speaker C: Yeah. You're talking about pain. And Francis bore this pain all in the name of Jesus. And why? Because Jesus bore this pain, and Francis, in the footprints, was doing what Jesus did. Nothing more, nothing less. And again, that humility of Francis just following Jesus.
[00:19:05] Speaker B: Now we have to laugh a little bit, because, as you mentioned, we were looking out at the basilica of St. Francis, and he really inspired so many people, so many followers. People who followed him became themselves Franciscans. He formed the order. St. Clair formed the second order. And yet, as soon as he died, what did we do?
[00:19:27] Speaker C: Francis wanted to be humbly buried. He didn't want any big fanfare. He had a location for it, as we were told this morning. He wanted to be buried in an area where four prisoners had been buried. And it almost sounded like a potter's field type of situation. And Francis wanted to be buried there. And they did. And they promptly, then within a year, started. Well, they moved him once, I think they said. But after they buried him here, literally the day of his canonization, which was two years later, they started building this magnificent basilica, and part of it was burying him under rocks, because at that point, they were afraid of all the people coming to look for relics, because Francis was known to be a holy man. People came to him at the time of Francis, while he was living for healings. People came to him because he was known to be a blessed man. And back then, people recognized this, and they started going after bodies. Whatever habits there were, they really wanted to prevent that. So in one sense, while they went against Francis wishes, what they created was a shrine, a pilgrimage. As we see, now, just all these people walking by us and the amount of young people there today, the amount of young people in the basilica was truly amazing, wearing their tao crosses. And it's just such an attraction that he still has worldwide. This little man, literally, they said he was five foot eight at the most from Italy here. This attraction to the world. Why? Because he lived as Christ. Nothing more, nothing less.
[00:20:59] Speaker B: Beautifully said. You know, folks, we're talking to you, giving you some of the reasons why we're so looking forward to this retreat for this time away and for the prayer and see where God leads us. But we're sharing with you some of the reasons for our enthusiasm. But we have a ways to go. As I mentioned, we're recording this at the beginning on Tuesday, just as we're about to enter into the seriousness of it. So I'm going to ask you, please pray for us. By the time this releases on Friday, we'll be in time of retreat with our conferences, and we'll be looking forward to bringing this experience.
Talk about being on the mountain. We're on the mountain. A transfiguration with the Lord. Looking forward to bringing the graces back, hopefully in our daily lives. Pray for us. I'll be praying for all of you, for the church in Brooklyn and in Queens, and we'll be united in that prayer.
[00:21:49] Speaker C: Bishop, as we conclude, would you be able to give us all your blessing? And even though it's from the book of numbers, it's now become the official blessing of Saint Francis.
[00:21:57] Speaker B: It's a blessing I use a lot because in the book of numbers, we use that on January 1. And it says, when you pray, say this. And that's what Moses was told. When you bless, people say this. So I often use it. But you told me that there's a particular way that the Franciscans would use this.
[00:22:14] Speaker C: They like to use the word the Lord. Francis was very trinitarian, Father, son and spirit. And so some of the translations we see today use the pronoun he, which is fine. But Francis was like no trinitarian. He wants to use the word the Lord three times.
[00:22:30] Speaker B: So here we go.
[00:22:31] Speaker C: The Lord be with you and with your spirit.
[00:22:34] Speaker B: The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and to be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. And may the blessing of Almighty God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit descend upon you, and your families remain with you forever and ever. Amen.
[00:22:52] Speaker C: Amen.
[00:22:53] Speaker B: Thank you for joining us for this week's edition of big City Catholics. Next week, we'll be joined by Father Thomas Ahearn, who is the director of the mission office and works with the propagation of faith here in Brooklyn, but also with Father David Costello from Limerick, Ireland, who is now serving in Boston because he's the head of the St. James Society. And so we look forward to that podcast next week. God bless you and have a wonderful week.
[00:23:21] Speaker A: Thanks for listening, and thanks for joining us each and every week as we release our diocesan podcast, big city Catholics. We hope that you'll join us again next week for another edition.
[00:23:31] Speaker B: God blessed.
