Yesterday was St. Clare of Assisi’s feast day. Our church had an evening pray service in honor of St. Clare so Dave and I decided to go. It was really, really nice. There were maybe 20+ people there. After the service, we found out that most of those present were Secular Franciscans. What is funny about that is I’d never heard of Secular Franciscans until Saturday when I saw mention of them on a blog. Whenever I have a question wandering in my head about something Catholic, it is pretty awesome how God finds a way of sending me the answer, even when I’m not really looking for it. The woman who sat in front of us turned around after the service and was telling us a bit about Secular Franciscans and about a trip to Assisi, Italy that she’d just returned from only days before. So, now I know that there are three orders (divisions) to the Franciscans. Very basically stated, First Order are the religious men (monks, priests) who live in a religious community of more than two, Second Order are religious women (nuns) and the Third Order is made up of lay people (your normal everyday folks) who work and live outside of a structured religious community. Thus, the question is answered!

Oh, and I also learned why I almost always see St. Francis of Assisi & St. Clare of Assisi linked. They came from the same town in Italy and St. Clare became a disciple of St. Francis after his own conversion. She outlived him by nearly 30 years so when there were questions about following the rules of the Franciscan Order, in those early years, she was the one folks came to for clarification. She is kind of considered a co-founder of the Franciscans even though she was originally a disciple of St. Francis.

So it was an educational and prayerful evening!