Portiuncula: Francis' first response to "Rebuild My Church"

Today is the feast of the Portiuncula.  It is a special day for Franciscans throughout the world as we celebrate the presence of a very small Church in Assisi which St. Francis made famous.  St. Francis had an experience where he believed the icon of the crucified Christ in San Damiano spoke to him telling him to “Rebuild my Church”.  Francis had often prayed in a very small, abandoned and broken down Church in a wood of oak trees.  Francis took the message quite literally and, carrying stones from Mount Sabasio, began to rebuild by hand this little Church named St. Mary of Angels.  Francis referred to this portion of land as the Portiuncula.  Eventually he came to understand that the Church Christ was calling him to rebuild was really the “people of God”.

Even with his growing awareness of what the message from the cruicified Christ really meant, Francis Sacred Place.  After Francis’s death as the masses came to visit Assisi this little Church was sacred and fragile and too small to accommodate tourists and so the Friars built a basilica to house the portiuncula

continued to love this little Church and made it a physical and central focus for the Franciscan order.  He slept only feet from the Church and when the Friars had their Chapters it was always at the Portiuncula that they would gather.  When he was dying he asked to be carried to this

Some biographers of Francis repeat a legend that as Francis  prayed in this chapel for the people of Assisi, Jesus and  Mary asked him what he wanted for them and he asked the Lord to grant a full pardon of sins to all who came to visit the church of Portiuncula (from vespers on August 1 to sundown on August 2) and Jesus nodded to him.  The outside fresco on the front of the Portiuncula by Johann Friedrich Overbeck depicts this event of Jesus and Mary granting to Francis the "Pardon of Asssi".  At the base of this fresco there is a small rectangular fresco with the Latin words Haec est porta vitae aeternae ("This is the gate to eternal life").  That was Francis desire for all who entered that little Church and his desire for all "the people of God" who were the Church he was called to rebuild.   It is said Francis immediately went to the Pope with the same request; he recognized the significance of hierarchical approval.   Plenary Indulgences were very rare in  those days and certainly not for just visiting a little chapel but the Pope said YES.  Since the Portiuncula is far to travel, for most of God's people,  over the years, various Popes have extended the indulgence to any Franciscan Church or Chapel.  

When you go to Assisi and enter this little portion of sacred land and sit within the old chapel walls even the dirt speaks to you, you can truly feel the presence of Francis.  As you recognize that these stones are the very same ones that Francis placed to firm up the structure you have an experience of the sacredness of place.  Joseph Campbell tells us "your sacred space is where you can find yourself time and again."  Trust me I don't get there "time and again" but my heart goes there frequently because it somehow felt like "home" to me.  We have to sit still and let Sacred Places tell us their secrets.  The walls of the Portiuncula have a lot to say.  I clearly have a Franciscan bias but it is truly holy ground.  Assisi on October 4th; I wonder what the walls of the Portiuncula will say to him! 

And as I ponder my experience of sitting in that little chapel years ago I can’t help but believe that our new Pope, the Francis of our day, has surely received the same message of our brother, Francis of Assisi, to “rebuild my Church”.  There is no question that he has internalized the awareness of Francis of Assisi and desires to rebuild “the people of God.”   Pope Francis plans to visit

Pope Francis is a Pope of the People who has an unquestionable bias to those who are most weak and vulnerable.  He calls each of us to examine our lives so that we can live as authentically as Francis of Assisi and this present man who has taken Francis as his patron.  May he continue the ardent journey of rebuilding our Church and may we as loyal Franciscans and as the People of God join him daily in that venture.