BY Keith Warner OFM

Indicating the whole world with a sweeping gesture, he said to her: "All this is our cloister."

- St. Francis to Lady Poverty

Itinerancy, or moving through the world, is one of the most important features with distinguishes early Franciscanism from other forms of spirituality. Francis knew Benedictine monks quite well, having spent time with them, but he chose a spiritual path which would take him on the road and through the world. At its heart, this aspect of Franciscan spirituality draws its inspiration from Jesus, who moved among us during his life on earth.

Francis understood Jesus as both a traveler and a transient. Francis wrote of Jesus' birth, life and death as taking place "along the way." Jesus lived "on the road," but he also is "the Way" for us, his followers. Francis wrote several times of wanting to walk in the footprints of Jesus. Note the language: The Poor one from Assisi did not want just to follow the path, but actually to place his feet in the footprints of his Lord and Savior. Francis wanted to express his passionate love for Jesus by imitating him as closely as possible.

For most monks, the monastery and the individual cell or room, was the prime location for encountering God. This kind of thinking is absent in Francis' spirituality. His practice was based on carrying the Lord in one's heart, combined with encountering him in the leper and the poor. Francis really did see the whole world as his cloister.

Classic monastic spirituality speaks about the monk "fleeing the world." Francis also spoke of fleeing the world, but his meaning, I believe, was different. Francis withdrew from the economic, political, and social structures which were out of touch with the Gospel life, but at the same time, he encountered the world in a new and more profound way. He made himself poor in the incarnation, and he made himself a pilgrim and a stranger.

Ultimately, Francis was not a pilgrim in that he fixed Jerusalem or a holy shrine as his destination. Pilgrimage for Francis was living out Gospel values in this world, with all the tension that occurred between the two. His affection was toward Jesus, and his destination the kingdom of heaven.