Franciscans and the Liturgical Life:: Let Us Praise, Adore, and Give Thanks

Chapter Five: Franciscan Devotions and Postmodern Culture

Chapter Five FRANCISCAN DEVOTIONS AND POSTMODERN CULTURE Daniel P. Grigassy, O.F.M. Introduction At the time of the eight-hundredth anniversary of the birth of St. Francis in 1982, nine friars minor in the United States formed a group that called themselves the Committee for Franciscan Liturgical Research (CFLR). They produced a sizeable book titled Franciscans at Prayer made up of nine chapters, including common texts and litanies , private prayers, prayers for a chapter, special times of prayer, prayers in sickness and death, devotions, blessings, selected psalms and canticles, and hymnody.1 Paragraph 5 of the collection (there are no page numbers) states: The present (1983) edition of Franciscans at Prayer is being prepared for the members of the Order of Friars Minor in North America for their private use for a period of five years. During that time the Committee for Franciscan Liturgical Research hopes to test the selection of prayers and the usefulness of the devotions contained in the book. As more friars become aware of the book and of the ongoing project to revise it, friars will bring to the attention of the CFLR other devotions, prayers, and hymns which ought to be included. Five years later, in 1988, no word was heard from the Committee on a revision of the book. We are still waiting. Franciscans would rather engage the marketplace in popular preaching and evangelization than revise a liturgical book. On Holy Thursday 1992, the Italian text of a pastoral letter was issued by the ministers general of the Franciscan Families titled “On 1 Franciscans at Prayer (Pulaski, WI: Franciscan Publishers, 1983). Daniel GriGassy, O.F.M. 72 Liturgical Life.” It was published in Acta Ordinis Fratrum Minorum2 and the English text followed soon thereafter in Greyfriars Review.3 The Cord reprinted the pastoral letter4 followed by four commentaries by friars from each of the Order’s branches (O.F.M., O.F.M. Conv., O.F.M. Cap., and T.O.R.), representing the general ministers who authored it. At the time of preparing the issue, we thought it would become a prime source of reflection and a catalyst for discussion in local communities . In the months and years that followed, to my knowledge, the pastoral letter was never discussed. The issue of The Cord did not stimulate discussion. Franciscans would rather engage the marketplace in popular preaching and evangelization than discuss and debate a pastoral letter from their leaders. Franciscans have never been associated with things liturgical as the Benedictines have been. Nor have the Jesuits. More comfortable in the library than in the sanctuary, Jesuits before the liturgical reform and renewal of the last forty years were caricatured as fumbling through the Missal, desperately trying to figure out what came next. The old expression, “Lost as a Jesuit in Holy Week,” told the story. An effective Jesuit liturgy has been described as a religious rite “when no one gets hurt.”5 Before, during and after Vatican II, some formidable liturgical scholars and practitioners emerged from the Society of Jesus. In June 2002, over 120 Jesuits gathered in Rome from forty-two countries for a week of deliberation on the role of liturgy. Twenty non-Jesuit collaborators joined them. The Jesuit superior general desired the scope of the symposium to be broadened beyond Jesuit life and mission to ways in which the Society might put its life and membership at the service of the Church. Franciscans would not have a symposium on the role of liturgy in their life or in the life of the Church—up to this moment! I am delighted that the title of this year’s Franciscan Symposium at the Washington Theological Union is “Let Us Praise, Adore and Give Thanks: Franciscans and Liturgical Life.” May it be the first of many such symposia ! The title that was assigned to me was “Franciscan Devotions and Postmodern Culture.” First, I will attend to that slippery term “post2 Acta Ordinis Fratrum Minorum 111.2 (1992): 85-93. 3 Greyfriars Review 6.3 (1992): 267-278. 4 The Cord 43.6 (1993): 162-169. 5 Keith F. Pecklers, S.J., ed., Liturgy in a Postmodern World (New York: Continuum, 2003), 2. Franciscan Devotions anD PostmoDern culture 73 modern” and come to some understanding of it. Then I want to consider the phenomena of devotions unique to our Franciscan tradition within “a” postmodern culture, that of America, viz., North America...