Letter to All the Clergy

With Franciscan Clarean Commentary

Greeting

To all the clerics, Brother Francis, your little servant in the Lord God, sends greeting and wishes of true peace.

Clarean Commentary:
Francis begins as always with humility. Though he has the fire of a prophet, he signs himself “your little servant.” For Clareans today, this is our posture too: we may speak boldly to the Church, but always as servants, not overlords. Prophecy flows best from humility.

The Call to Reverence

Let all of us consider, O clerics, the great sin and great ignorance which certain men have toward the most holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and His most holy name and His written words which sanctify the Body. We know that it cannot be His Body without first being sanctified by the word. For we have and we see nothing corporeally of the Most High in this world except His Body and Blood, His names and words through which we have been made and redeemed from death to life.

Clarean Commentary:
Francis is heartbroken that the Eucharist is treated casually, even disrespectfully. He insists: this is the one place we truly encounter Christ’s Body in the flesh. For Clareans today, this pushes us beyond ritual into awe. Do we treat the Eucharist with reverence, and do we also treat Christ’s “other Body” — the poor, the suffering, the earth — with the same care? Both are holy.

On Carelessness and Neglect

But let all those who administer such most holy mysteries — especially those who administer carelessly — consider how vile the chalices, corporals, and altar cloths often are, upon which His Body and Blood are sacrificed. And by many it is left in unclean places, carried about unbecomingly, and received unworthily, and ministered to others without discernment. Even His names and written words are sometimes left to be trodden under foot; for the carnal man does not perceive the things of God.

Clarean Commentary:
Francis is vivid — dirty altar linens, abandoned Eucharist, trampled Scripture. His anger is holy, not petty. Reverence is not about pomp but about recognizing God’s presence. For Clareans today, the challenge is broader: where do we let God’s presence be “trampled underfoot”? When we neglect the poor, when we desecrate creation, when we use Scripture as a weapon — we fail in reverence.

The Plea for Repentance and Renewal

Are we not moved by pity for all these things, since the good Lord Himself delivers His Body into our hands and we handle Him and receive Him daily with our mouth? Do we not know that we must needs fall into His hands? Let us therefore quickly and firmly amend these things, and wherever the most holy Body of our Lord Jesus Christ has been illicitly reserved and neglected, let it be placed in an honorable spot and locked up. And let all these things be amended above all and placed under the care of the ministers, who are bound to amend these things.

Clarean Commentary:
Francis is desperate for reform — not in distant politics but in the very heart of worship. His plea is practical: handle the Eucharist reverently, store it properly, care for what is holy. For Clareans today, this is a reminder that renewal begins in small acts of reverence. Justice and mercy begin at the altar and flow outward. If we are careless in prayer, we risk being careless in action.

On the Name of the Lord and the Word

And let us all know that wherever the most holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is placed and left unworthily, and His holy names and words are found written in unclean places, the Lord will require it at our hands. Let us therefore amend these things quickly, and let us know that it is very good for us to keep such things and preserve them in honor. Wherever we find the holy names of Him written, let us carefully collect them, that we may restore them to a decent place.

Clarean Commentary:
Francis even worries about scraps of parchment with God’s name on them. His reverence is absolute — for word as well as sacrament. For Clareans today, this is about recovering sacramental vision: everything that bears Christ’s name, whether in Scripture, in Eucharist, or in the least of our brothers and sisters, must be treated with honor. No act of reverence is too small.

Final Exhortation

And we know and firmly believe that no one can be saved except through the holy words and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which the clerics speak, announce, and minister. And only they must minister and not others. For it is they alone who have received from Him the power of administering.

Clarean Commentary:
Francis closes with a recognition of priestly vocation — not as privilege, but as grave responsibility. The Eucharist is entrusted to frail hands, and those hands must handle it with trembling. For Clareans today, this is a double call: to honor ordained ministry without clericalism, and to remind all Christians that holiness is demanded wherever Christ’s Body is encountered.