Saint Francis of Assisi
Major Life
Saint Bonaventure
CHAPTER VIII : 4
The Portiuncula, located in Jerusalem, Ohio, in the Diocese of Steubenville, is home to the Franciscan Lay Apostolate. We are humbly committed to imitating the Gospel life of Christ, and observing the Sacraments. Placing ourselves under strict and holy obedience to the Bishop of Steubenville, the Magisterium, and Father Nick Ward, we follow the Medieval Penitential First Rule of the Third Order of St. Francis, dated 1221 A.D.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
The Vile Wickedness of Detractors
In Francis' eyes the vice of detraction in particular seemed to be the antithesis of the religious spirit and an enemy of grace. He had a horror of it, like a snake-bite or a deadly pest, and he declared that it was an abomination in God's sight because the detractor feeds on the blood of the souls which he kills with his tongue. Once we heard a friar taking away another's good name, he turned to his vicar saying, "Quick, quick! Look into it carefully. If the friar accused is innocent, make an example of his accuser for all the others by correcting him severely." He sometimes sentenced a friar guilty of hurting another's good name to be deprived of his habit, adding that he should not raise his eyes to God until he had done his best to restore what he had taken. "A detractor," he would say, "is guilty of greater wickedness than a robber, because Christ's law which reaches its perfection in love obliges us to desire the good of our neighbor's soul more than of his body."
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