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BODILY PENANCE: CONFESSION

AND COMMUNION

• Life of Penance

• Works of Penance

• The Perpetual Fast Today

• The Sacrament of Penance

• The Sacrament of the Eucharist

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CHAPTER III, 8-15
8
The sisters shall fast at all times. 9They may eat
twice on Christmas, however, no matter on what day it
happens to fall. 10 The younger sister, those who are
weak, and those who are serving outside the monastery
may be mercifully dispensed as the abbess sees fit. 11But
the sisters are not bound to corporal fasting in time of
manifest necessity.
12
They shall go to confession, with the permission
of the abbess, at least twelve times a year. 13 They shall
take care not to introduce other talk unless it pertains to
the confession and the salvation of souls. 14 They should
receive communion seven times [a year], that is, on
Christmas, Thursday of the Holy Week, Easter,
Pentecost, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, the
Feast of Saint Francis, and the Feast of All Saints. 15
The chaplain may celebrate inside [the enclosure] in
order to give Communion to the sisters who are in good
health or to those who are ill.

Life of Penance

“To do penance” is the expression employed by St.

Francis and St. Clare to denote the sort of life according to
the Gospel embraced as a result of their “conversion”. And
it is precisely that state of permanent conversion where
“what is sweet becomes bitter and what is bitter becomes
sweet” that constitutes the essence of a “life of penance”.
This is otherwise known to be the biblical meaning of
penance.
Bodily beatings makes no sense to a Christian unless
they be an answer to that demand of ongoing turning back
to God, adherence to Christ, faithfulness to the Spirit,

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crucifying little by little our sinful tendencies so as to reach
freedom in the life of the “new man” created in holiness of
truth (Eph 4, 24) and thus fulfilling in our body all the
hardship that still has to be undergone by Christ for the
sake of his body, the Church (Col 1, 24).
Clare lived fully up to the end of her life, in imitation
of Francis, that spirit of conversion that is a requirement of
purification. In the Testament she encourages her sisters to
not faint away along the “narrow path that leads to life”,
lest we stray away from it “through our fault, negligence, or
ignorance.

Works of Penance

The evangelical spirit of penance, that is certainly real,

demands the practice of penance and is expressed in the
works of penance. Whoever feels called to seriously follow
the Crucified Redeemer by cooperating with Him in the
work of personal salvation and that of all men, experiences
then the urgency to getting united to Him at renunciation
and even at afflicted pain, willingly looked/sought for, i.e.
mortification.
At the beginning of her surrender to the Lord with
youthful generosity Clare opened herself to that longing for
bodily sacrifice which surpassed sometimes the limits of
prudence. She abstained from all food three times a week,
and most of the days and on Lent she fasted on bread and
water. She wore on her skin a very rough cilice and slept
on a couch of vine twigs with a log for a pillow. “The
sisters wondered how her body could hold itself up.”1 And
that is the way she continued till her body undermined in
the prime of her life. Francis ordered her to restrain her
fast and to sleep on a straw mattress.2

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 Hard on herself, she was on the contrary gentle and
thoughtful with the sisters regarding bodily penance3 not
imposing on others what was her own personal vocation
nor subjecting outer maceration to a uniform regulation.
She allowed ample margin to the initiative and capabilities
of each one.
In fact, the practice of fasting and abstinence was
extremely rigorous at San Damiano and Francis was forced
to temper them. The most authentic testimony is the
answer given by St. Clare to the consultation of St. Agnes
of Prague:
“Except for the weak and the sick, for whom St.
Francis advised and admonished us to show every
possible discernment in matters of food, none of us
who are healthy and strong should eat anything
other than Lenten fare, either on ferial days or on
feast days. Thus, we must fast everyday except
Sundays and the Nativity of the Lord…. And on
ordinary Thursdays everyone may do as she wishes,
so that she who does not wish to fast is not obliged.
However, we who are well should fast everyday
except on Sundays and Christmas. During the
entire Easter week 4 as the writing of Francis tells
us, and on the feasts of the blessed Virgin Mary and
of the holy Apostles, we are not obliged to fast,
unless these feasts occur on a Friday.” (3LAg, 31-
36).
Such was the norm at San Damiano circa 1238, when
Clare was writing this letter. Immediately afterwards
though, a tone that best shows us the mildness of her
dealing with others, she tells Agnes:
“But our flesh is not bronze nor is our strength
that of stone. No, we are frail and inclined to every
bodily weakness! I beg you, therefore, dearly
beloved, to refrain wisely and prudently from an
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 indiscreet and impossible austerity in the fasting
you have undertaken. And I beg you in the Lord to
praise the Lord by your very life, to offer the Lord
your reasonable service and your sacrifice always
seasoned with salt. (3LAg, 38-41).

We ought to read the “letter” of this precept of the Rule

in the light of this recommendation. No mention at all is
made about penance as such. Perpetual fasting is kept but
with the charitable flexibility the Saint understood it. It is
left up to the abbess’ prudence exempting from the
common law three kinds of sisters: the “young ones” for
being at the age of growth; the “weak ones” needing better
food or on account of sickness or of work to be done; the
“extern sisters” by reason of greater fatigue.5

Perpetual Fasting Today

The “letter” of the Rule admits no ambiguity: “Let the

sisters fast at all times.”6 St. Clare borrows from St.
Francis’ Rule this statement: “But the sisters are not bound
to corporal fasting in time of manifest necessity.” We are
to see this statement not only as a criterion of natural right
but also one of an amplitude on the lookout for future
situations that might arise.
When trying to apply this important point of the Rule
to our times according to the right criterion of adaptation,
an unavoidable question presents itself: is it still enforced,
in its literal sense? Regarding abstinence, the answer is not
difficult. Abstinence is no longer attached to fasting at
today’s Church legislation and since the Rule makes no
mention of it, there is no room therefore for a sound
adaptation of that practice to times and places.

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 The motu proprio “Ecclesiae Sanctae” (n.22) says that
the special penitential practices of institutes should be
revised “so that the members may in practice be able to
observe them, adapting new forms also drawn from modern
conditions of life.”
In effect, trying stubbornly to maintain in the
legislation the rigorous practice of fasting, knowing
beforehand that the majority of the sisters would be unable
to keep it, is empty formalism and pharisaic vainglory. The
matter of perpetual fasting should be seen in the light of the
Constitution Paenitemini of Paul VI and of later Church
discipline that have in mind the different trends of modern
life, so different from those of the past (kind of
nourishment, traveling, forms and schedule of labor) and
propose for today other ways of penance not less
efficacious and more consonant with the longings of
modern society. (In the Middle Ages, there were hardly
any other pleasures but that at table.) We should
furthermore think over the physical frame of the body,
poorer nowadays, and above all the more rationalized and
sustained labor at the monasteries. In addition to that, St.
Clare’s daughters are now spread throughout the continents
and have to adjust and adapt their life to new climates,
customs and to different forms of nourishment.
It is not yet so easy giving an answer to the question:
What attitude would have Clare adapted today?
Let us see how this point of the Rule became
actualized in the revised Constitutions.
It begins by affirming the concept and the need of the
“spirit of penance” in a Gospel sense, i.e. as an attitude of
conversion and ongoing renewal without which the works
of penance would be meaningless. The first means of
penance of the religious is “the very Gospel life we
embraced” with its manifold self-denials attached to it”:
separation from the world, the wants of poverty, the
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humiliation of our frailty, the hardship inherent in work
faithfully done, fraternal communion, and the patient
bearing of the trials of earthly life. And all of this in union
with the sufferings of Christ “for the sake of his body, the
Church.” (Col 1, 24).
A distinction is to be made between the “penitential
times” of the entire Church and those of the Franciscan
tradition: the so called St. Martin’s Lent, Advent, the main
Lent, and all the Fridays of the year.
As regards “fasting”, the Constitutions quotes the
Rule’s prescription: “Let the sisters fast at all times”
except on Sundays and solemnities. The General
Constitutions adds: “If it could not be kept somehow for a
just reason, it belongs to the monastery Chapter to
determine the days and mode of fasting”. And that of the
Capuchins’: “Let the monastery Chapter determine the
manner of fasting according to the custom of each region.”
As regards “abstinence”, the first one decrees: “In
addition to the prescription of the universal or local Church,
let the Order’s tradition be kept.” And for the Capuchins’:
“It is up to the monastery Chapter to determine the days of
abstinence from meat or from other food, in addition to
those prescribed in the universal Church.” (Can. 1251).
It is left to the monastery Chapter to appoint the other
exercises of bodily penance and mortification that are to be
practiced in common according to existing customs. (Gen
CC, art. 83-87; Cap CC, 88-93).

The Sacrament of Penance

Penitential life has its sacrament that obtains for us

God’s mercy, reconciles us with the Church, purifies us
from evil and strengthens us in goodness. Within the

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practice at that time, The Rule bids the sisters to confess “at
least twice a year”. We know however, that the Saint was
not pleased with that minimum but that she went often to
confession, forming the young sisters too in the esteem of
frequent and sincere confession. The Rule adds a serious
summon to the responsibility of each sister: “they should
take care not to introduce other talk unless it pertains to
confession and salvation of souls”.
It would seem that there were by then sisters who
found in the secret dialogue with the confessor a sort of
compensation for the want of communication taken on
while binding themselves to cloistered life. The warning
has not lost force at present, since one may fall even today
into the weakness of taking the opportunity of confession
as an escape valve either to be in touch with the outside
world or to fill up the confessor’s ears with the internal
miseries of the community.
There are two objectives that the Rule grants as good:
accusation of ones sins and spiritual direction. In fact, “to
treat the wellness of her soul” with a director is the right of
every sister acknowledged by the Rule. Anything else is
foreign to the confessor’s mission.
For a long time, a rigid discipline has been vigorously
enforced in order to prevent possible abuses; canon norms
speaks about ordinary, extraordinary, and occasional
confessors. In the occasion of the Council everything has
been simplified in favor of a greater trust in the uprightness
and responsibility of both the sisters and the confessors.
Even the rigidity of the norm of weekly confession has lost
ground as it could have easily deduced into a routinely
practice of little penitential effectiveness.
The current Constitutions emphasize the importance of
the Sacrament of Reconciliation not only as a means to
obtain God’s forgiveness but also of purification and,
individual as well as community renewal. A minimum
frequency of twice a month is suggested, though making it
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easy to those who would want to benefit from the grace of
this sacrament more often. Each monastery will have an
ordinary confessor but the sisters will not be obliged to
present themselves to him according to the reigning
principle that everyone’s freedom should be fully honored
regarding confession and spiritual direction. For the
appointment and confirmation of the ordinary confessor,
the whole community will be consulted, novices and
postulants included. The sisters may confess to any
confessor duly approved, setting aside the discipline of
cloistered life. The ordinary confessor as much as possible
should belong to the Franciscan family. (Gen CC, art. 68-
70; Cap CC, 87).

The Sacrament of the Eucharist

The Rule does not speak about the Eucharistic

celebration. It was an element of the daily liturgical life
that did not need any rules. Neither did Francis mention it
in his Rule. Nevertheless, we know how much he wished
to see the brothers gathered together everyday for the only
mass of the fraternity at every place they were.7 We also
know with what veneration and love St. Clare used to take
part at the celebration and how intensely she held the
Eucharistic life. The depositions at the canonization
Process speak about the skill with which, during her illness,
she used to prepare the corporals that she had distributed
among the poor churches of the region, and described her
emotions and her physical appearance, at approaching the
sacred table.8
Holy Communion was administered through a little
window (1Cel 117) under both species, according to the
usage that exist then, since Urban IV’s rule disposed: “At

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the middle of the grille, let there be a little window through
which the chalice may be introduced at the moment of
communion so that by his hand the priest could administer
the Sacrament of the Lord’s Body.”
We are accustomed to see the Saint represented as
clasping in her hands the ciborium with the Sacrament 9 in
memory of the miracle worked at the Saracen’s assault. It
is really more than fancy. It expresses the place that
Christ’s Eucharistic presence is held in her spirituality.
The Rule’s prescription about receiving communion
“seven times a year” may seem nowadays inconceivable to
us. At that time, it was a lot, since the frequency of the
Eucharistic food had been reduced to a minimum. The
Lateran II Council, held in 1215, had to confine itself to
bind the faithful to confess and receive communion at least
once a year in view of the progressive withdrawal from the
Eucharistic table. Fervent Christians received communion
thrice a year. But those seven communion feasts were
dates looked forward to with spiritual eagerness at San
Damiano. The chaplain entered the cloister and the mass
was celebrated with the intimacy of a family “for the sound
and the sick”. The Rule so disposes.
The frequency of Eucharistic communion has altered a
lot from the time of St. Clare. It has been going on
progressively recovering the ecclesial conscience of the
primary objective of the institution of the Sacrament
through which Christ gives himself as living nourishment
to the faithful. By the time of St. Bonaventure it was
already normal that the novices would receive communion
every Sunday. In the fourteenth century, the Constitutions
of the Franciscans established that the brothers who are not
priests would do it every fifteen days, a norm that was
followed too at the Poor Clares monasteries. In the
fifteenth century, the Constitutions of St. Colette prescribed
that the sisters would go to confession every fifteen days
“so as to enjoy a greater purity of soul and body, and their
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fervor and love to the Most Holy Body of the Lord may
grow”. They were to receive communion every Sunday
besides the seven solemnities pointed out by the Rule.10 In
the sixteenth century, it became frequent practice to receive
communion during the week, and even daily with the
confessor’s license. From the pontificate of St. Pius X, as it
is well known, daily communion has become normal.
Vatican II teaches that partaking at Holy Mass is not full
without Eucharistic communion, and thereby recommends
that the faithful attending the holy sacrifice receive too the
Lord’s Body. (SC, 55)
No wonder then that the Constitutions take for granted
the daily mass attendance and communion therein. They
are rather concerned about the spirit the sisters partake with
at the Eucharistic celebration and the role that the mystery
of faith and love should play on the daily life of each sister
and on the community through a sedulous Eucharistic cult.,
in a particular way at those monasteries that, either by
founding or by grant, enjoy the practice of the Eucharistic
adoration. (Gen CC, art. 60-63; Cap CC 66-700.
In addition to the numerous monasteries that maintain
the commitment of “perpetual adoration”, there are at
present several groups of Poor Clare communities with that
specific mission: “Sacramentine Poor Clares” (10
monasteries in Ireland, Italy, Mexico and Portugal); “Poor
Clares of Perpetual Adoration” (26 monasteries in Europe,
Asia and USA); “Capuchin Poor Clares Sacramentarias”
(14 monasteries in Mexico, Philippines and Europe).11

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Footnotes to Chapter 5:

1. Proc., I,7; II, 5-8; III, 4ff; IV, 5ff; VII, 4; VIII, 3; X, 4,7;
XIII,4. What the Saint really did was to take seriously the
rigor of Hugolinus’ Rule regarding fasting: “The sisters are
held to the following observance of fasting: they should fast
daily at all times, abstaining likewise on Wednesday and
Fridays, outside of Lent, from fruit or vegetables and wine,
unless a principal feast of some saint occurs and should be
celebrated on those days. If fruit or fresh vegetables are
available on these Wednesdays and Fridays, they should be
served to sustain the sisters. But they should fast on bread and
water for four days a week during the greater Lent, and for
three days a week during the lent of St. Martin. They may
also do this of their own free will on all solemn vigils.” (Rule
of Hugolinus, 7)
2. Proc., I,8; II,8; IV,5; X,7.
3. Proc., II,6; IV,5.
4. That is the translation from the Latin expression, “in omni
Pascha” F. Godet at “Claire d’ Assise: Escrits”, Paris 1985, p.
109. Omaechevarria translates “at all Paschs”, based on the
“Glossariuim” of Du Cange; according to him, the term
“Pasch” was used in Italy for all major festivities.
5. The evangelical flexibility already existed at Hugolinus Rule:
“The very young sisters or the old and those who are
altogether debilitated physically or mentally should not be
permitted to observe the law of fast and abstinence. They
should be mercifully dispensed in regard to food and fasting
according to their weakness.” Hugolinus’ Rule, 7)
6. For a right interpretation of this norm, a little detail may serve.
From the previous text of Hugolinus’ Rule “They should fast
daily at all times”, she drops the adverb “daily”.
7. Lt Ord., 30-33
8. Proc., I,11; II,11ff; III,7; IV,14; IX,9)
9. It is anachronistic to set at the hand of the Saint the
“ostentation” that was not being practiced at that time.
Besides, it did not answer to the historical event as the sisters
described it at the Process. The Saracens had already entered
the cloister, and the frightened community had sought shelter
at the dining room; Clare requested the little case containing

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 the Blessed Sacrament be brought and prayed with full
confidence. At this point she heard an inner voice reassuring
her of divine assistance, and so she encouraged the sisters.
They realized then that the hideous guests were gone. (Proc,
II,20; III,18; IV, 14; VII,6; IX,2; X,9; XII,8; XIII,9; XIV,3.)
10. “Constitutions of St. Colette”, chap. 5,1; ed. “Seraphicae
legislationis textus originales”, Quaracchi 1897, 122 ff.
11. Cf. “Elenco dei Monasteri. Monache Francescane di vita
contemplative”, Assisi, 1984; “Monasteria Monialium Ordinis
FF.MM. Capuccinorum spiritualiter consociatarum”, Roma,
1990.

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