What is your rule?
I was recently elected to life profession as a member of the Third Order of the Society of St. Francis (TSSF) – that is, as a lay member of the Franciscan order within the Episcopal/Anglican tradition. As part of my formation, I had to write a personal rule of life that conforms to the TSSF Rule. At my profession, I vowed to live by that rule, which I wrote before becoming a novice and then revised during my two-year novitiate period. (Click here to watch Arin’s Profession service in its entirety.)
A Roman Catholic Franciscan said to me that it must be much more challenging to write my own rule of life, rather than having one provided for me. Members of the Roman Catholic Secular Franciscan Order live by a shared rule of life that hasn’t changed since 1978. They do not have to write their own rule. I’m inclined to agree that how we do it in the TSSF is more challenging, because having a personal rule of life means having to wrestle with what it means to follow Christ in one’s own unique daily life.
This wrestling, I think, is the universal experience of following Christ, for all Christians. The Franciscan charism is about service to the church and the whole world around us, following the example of St. Francis in following Christ. Franciscans put that Christ-focused service at the center of our vocation, and so our wrestling is about exactly how we live that out. My service, for example, is prayer for others. I am always praying for others and keep a notebook of who and what to pray for every month. I also believe it is very important that others know they are being prayed for and to be present for them. But everyone, even the layperson who only attends church two or three Sundays a year, or doesn’t attend at all, has a rule.
Sometimes this manifests in clear ways. My partner’s “rule” includes calling her grandfather to check on his health if she ever dreams of him. Others have more “ordinary” elements to their rule: my father always sits down and watches a little bit of TV when he gets home from work, and has done so since the 1980s. The older I get, the more I really understand this habit!
Our personal rule, whether we have written it out or not, indicates our priorities. I often think about the fact that I can spend far more time watching a baseball game or a NASCAR race, both of which are several hours long, than I do praying the offices or reading scripture on most days. How we spend our finite time each day is a reflection of our personal rule. St. Francis started out as a worldly playboy, caught up in 13th-century music and fashion, before he devoted himself to Christ, and so I find him a very relatable figure.
I began the discernment that ultimately led me to become a Franciscan because I wanted to center my life, and my rule, around following Christ as St. Francis did. I could not imagine anything else being my life’s center, influencing everything that I do. I will probably fall short of my rule’s aspirations from time to time, but it is important for me to strive, at least.
And no matter what, I will keep striving to live a Christ-centered life. That is my duty as a Christian as well as a Franciscan, the very heart of the rule that guides my life. As you go about your life this week and beyond, ask yourself: if you wrote it all down, what would your rule look like, and where would one find Christ in it?
Blessings,
Arin Waters