About Us

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=225 BGCOLOR="#990033" TEXT="#080000" background="01ee1c00ddthgj.png"> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="95" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 46 WIDTH="91"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="46" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="91" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> <B>relationship</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>The Leper's Song</B></div> <bR> <div> Those rich boys sing and dance</div> <div> in their blessed holy poverty.</div> <div> They leave behind the brocade patterns</div> <div> for humble tunics in simple tatters.</div> <bR> <div> The rich boys, they live with us</div> <div> in a preferential option for the poor.</div> <div> We, we are their mentors.</div> <div> We, we are their doors.</div> <div> How we love them and protect them,</div> <div> for love, it is the lore.</div> <bR> <div> The rich boys feed us food.</div> <div> They wash our sores.</div> <div> They wipe our tears.</div> <bR> <div> We, we watch their moods.</div> <div> We see tenderness and fear.</div> <div> How they love us and protect us.</div> <div> This kind of love, it does sear.</div> <bR> <div> If this song seems callous,</div> <div> and on our pain does transgress,</div> <div> if the rich boys seem narcissistic</div> <div> then you are twice blessed.</div> <div> The rich boys sit with us</div> <div> in unseemly poverty.</div> <div> We, we are their mirrors.</div> <div> We, we are their keys.</div> <bR> <div> Don't hold your hand in protest</div> <div> you are no leper, no blessed boy.</div> <div> Lady Poverty is not that simple</div> <div> our blessed Francis rightly guessed.</div> <div> Don't hold your hand in protest </div> <div> You are no prisoner but are free.</div> <div> Your jailer is not outside you</div> <div> as we can plainly see.</div> <bR> <div> The rich boys and the lepers,</div> <div> we dance hand and hand.</div> <div> In moments there is wisdom.</div> <div> In moments life is grand.</div> <div> The rich boys and the lepers</div> <div> a fierce embrace we do avow.</div> <bR> <div> Yes, appearance is deceptive.</div> <div> Appearance is a ruse.</div> <div> Flesh falls quickly from all bones.</div> <div> Life has its basic rules.</div> <bR> <div> Take off your wonderful notions.</div> <div> Grab your partner hurry quick.</div> <div> We have only this moment in time</div> <div> for our fabulous famous magic trick.</div> <bR> <div> Don't try to add this up.</div> <div> It is subtraction you must do.</div> <div> One and one embraced does not equal two.</div> <bR> <div> <I>Holy Madness</I></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFCC80" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="558" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#990000" BORDERCOLORDARK="#660066" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#339999 > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 14 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="home"><U>home</U></A><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#339999" FACE="Symbol" >   ·   </FONT><B>About Us</B><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#339999" FACE="Symbol" >   ·   </FONT><A HREF="id14.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Francis"><U>Francis</U></A><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#339999" FACE="Symbol" >   ·   </FONT><A HREF="id17.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Clare"><U>Clare</U></A><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#339999" FACE="Symbol" >   ·   </FONT><A HREF="annoymous_one.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="One With No Name"><U>One With No Name</U></A><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#339999" FACE="Symbol" >   ·   </FONT><A HREF="id49.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="benefactors and donations"><U>benefactors and donations</U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 73 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="0d14e490.png" border=0 width="78" height="73" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#6633CC" FACE="Tempus Sans ITC" ><B>The Fourth Order of Francis and Clare </B></FONT></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B> </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="home"><U><B>home</B></U></A><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#6633CC" FACE="Arial" ><B>  </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#6633CC" FACE="Tempus Sans ITC" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id52.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sept 03"><U><B>site guide</B></U></A></FONT></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> About Us</div> <bR> <div> The vision of the Fourth Order was given to Barbara Flaherty and Richard Blanchfield  independently. Both had something important to share with each other. Both saving it until they could talk in person. What a shock! They both began to tell each other about the Fourth Order!</div> <bR> <div> Francis of Assisi formed three orders in his life: the friar minors, the poor sisters of Clare and the third order of ordinary men and woman. Those three Christian orders have blossomed through the eight centuries since Francis' death. Now two people were given a vision of a fourth order.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Interfaith</B></div> <div> It was different, as would be expected, from the other three. It was radically interfaith. It was similar to the other three in the focus of joy, freedom and simplicity, radical love of God and others, a deep bond with creation and other creatures. The first three were a move of divine grace to answer the need in the 13th century and onward. The Fourth Order is part of the movement of divine grace to answer a need in our own time.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>The Fierce Embrace</B></div> <div> Barbara and Dick understood that the Fourth Order was about a '<A HREF="_interdependence_of_living_beings_.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Condition of Being"><U>condition of being</U></A>', a fierce embrace of self and others, a relationship with all beings. Francis was a rich man. Of all that could be noticed about Jesus of the Gospels why would he choose holy poverty? He greatly feared the lepers, the outcasts of his time. Yet his great moment of conversion occurred when he met a leper on the road. The Spirit asked him to embrace that leper and he did. In that fierce embrace he was filled with peace and love.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="055c80b0.jpg" border=0 width="200" height="267" ALIGN="RIGHT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Francis' spiritual mentor, that <A HREF="annoymous_one.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="One With No Name"><U>anonymous outcast leper </U></A>on the road, in his powerlessness and through his incurable open wounds showed great mercy upon the rich and fearful Francis. By presenting himself, by allowing himself to be embraced he initiated Francis into the path of the mysteries of holy wisdom, the divine presence in all<B> </B>things.</div> <bR> <div> The humility of both these men serves us well. In that fierce embrace, something occurred which is a mysterious third. When we offer what is broken and frail in ourselves to ourselves and to each other and when we bend to embrace the outcast in ourselves and in each other we create this mysterious third, a condition of being that is the embrace itself. In the living fully of both sides of that embrace we become godly folly and joyous humility, the children of wisdom.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Chaos of Fools</B></div> <bR> <div> The Fourth Order is a divine chaos of fools, clowns, madmen, troubadours and wandering mystics who have discovered a condition of relationship with the self and others that is called compassion: the knowledge 'I am a child of God. I come from a source and I am of that source and so are you.' Such people sing with that old song, 'I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in.' and move on and out into the world with joy. They participate with awareness in the great and beautiful interrelatedness of all beings. That is joy!</div> <bR> <div> <B>An Order  or  a Non-Order?</B></div> <bR> <div> In this sense The Fourth Order is a non-order. It simply exists because God's Spirit exists. However, Lorenz Gude, the third companion,  insisted the time for community was at hand. They began to share about the Fourth Order which now has companions on two continents.</div> <bR> <div> Francis was a madman, too mad even for his own kind. In a world so clearly divided, the Fourth Order meets the Franciscan madness in its proclamation of love and unity. We gather together, with all who would like, in <A HREF="interfaith__multifaith__transfaith.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Integrated Spiritual Community"><U>interfaith</U></A> prayers of silence, song and movement. We reflect on the <A HREF="wisdom.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Wisdom"><U>wisdom</U></A> scriptures in nature, in the great traditions and also on the wisdom scripture written in our own lives. We seek right relationship and harmony with others and creation. We practice the `loving kindness' meditation. We practice 'non-knowing' as in the  <I>The Cloud of Unknowing</I>, have a non-dualistic outlook seeking Divine presence in all things. There are simple guidelines and <A HREF="traditions_that_guide_us_.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Traditions"><U>traditions</U></A>. Within this framework individuals and groups in different localities are creative in their own way.</div> <bR> <div> Welcome to the site of the Fourth Order of Francis and Clare. You will be exposed to information about the order. We have also chosen to use this site to focus on the non order, others who through suffering and wisdom have gathered together in the spirit of compassion, presence and reconciliation, such as the Vietnam Friendship Village Project and the Sarajevo Pontanima Interfaith Choir. </div> <bR> <div> As Francis would say, <I>Pax et Bonum</I>, peace and all good to you.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="id3_m.htm" TITLE="About Us"><U>Back to Top</U></A>     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="home"><U>Home Page</U></A></div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>