Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.
Today, by celebrating the Feast of All Franciscan Saints, we praise men of renown who follow St. Francis to sanctity. The Seraphic Order has been, at all times, a cradle of holiness. This is the reason for its spiritual vitality, which makes it perpetually flourish. There are three Orders, each with several branches. 
The role of the First Order is followed by the Crown Franciscans, the Capuchins, the Conventuals, the Franciscans of the Immaculate, the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, and other Institutes. Our sisters also follow the role of the First Order, because they have the same charism as the Friars.
The Second Order consists of the various families of Poor Clares. They adapt to the Franciscan world to cloistered life. 
The Third Order was originally composed of laypeople who live Franciscan life in the world, according to a rule adapted to their state of life. But there are now also regulars of the Third Order, who are dedicated to some particular apostolate, such as teaching, caring for the sick or the poor, or Eucharistic adoration. 
There are Franciscan Saints from every walk of life and every people. There are Martyrs, Doctors of the Church, Priests, Religious Brothers, Laymen, Virgins, and Married Women. The Franciscan love of property does not exclude Holy Kings and Princesses, such as King St. Louis IX and St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Simplicity does not exclude the learned, such as St. Bonaventure, Blessed John Duns Scotus, and Blessed Gabriele Maria Allegra. Franciscan Saints are an immense multitude gathered around the Great Paparella, the Little Poor Man, bearing the seal of the Living God. 
Eighty-five years ago, a revised edition of an old Franciscan Martyrology already listed 5,373 holy persons, of whom 315 had been recognized as Saints and Blesseds. Subsequent beatifications and canonizations have surely increased the latter number, especially since the pontificate of St. John Paul II began.
The reason why we celebrate the feast of all Saints of the Franciscan Order on this day is that on November 29, 1223, Pope Honorius III solemnly confirmed the rule of the First Order written by St. Francis. Today is the 800th anniversary of that approval.
The Franciscan rule had already been approved verbally in 1209 by Innocent III, but that rule then was developed and reached its definitive form in 1223. The connection with today's feast is that the rule shows those who profess it the way to sanctity, and those who observe it perfectly can already be canonized. The rule of St. Clair adapts that of the Friars to the cloistered life of nuns, while that of the secular Franciscans adapts it to life in the world, so that the rule of the Friars is fundamental for all Franciscans.
St. Francis called the rule the Book of Life, the Hope of Salvation, the Mirror of the Gospel, the Way of Perfection, the Key of Paradise, the Pact of an Eternal Covenant. It is the Mirror of the Gospel because its principles are the choice parts of the Gospel, charity, obedience, poverty, chastity, love for enemies, prayer, humility, patience. It is the Way of Perfection that Franciscans must follow. No Franciscan can become a saint except by following it, and anyone who observes it perfectly is a saint. Therefore, it is the Key to Paradise.
It is a Pact of an Eternal Covenant for whose observance God promises eternal life and the right of profession. Today's Gospel teaches the counsel of poverty. Poverty is what we must have to be perfect, and that is the disposition, detachment from worldly goods in order to reach perfection, a disposition that seems to have been necessary in the case of that young man.
For St. Francis, Gospel poverty means having nothing of one's own and not just materially.
He used to say that a man had not yet given up everything for God as long as he held on to the money bag of his own opinions. So, obedience and charity, or rather obedience and chastity, are logically implied by a thoroughgoing poverty. A man with nothing of his own cannot claim the right to do his own will. A man with nothing of his own cannot give himself to another in marriage.
This poverty is the imitation of Christ, who became poor that by his poverty we might become rich. The Incarnation is the highest and deepest poverty. The Godhead is rich with all things.
Christ's humanity is so poor that it does not even possess itself. And so, the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. He who feeds the birds of the air and the fish of the sea and the beasts of the field, he must in Mary's womb receive not only all his nutrition from a creature, but even his oxygen. His humanity does not belong to himself.
It is not the humanity of a human person, but of a divine person.
And this poverty makes us rich. The most perfect poverty that we can practice is that of unlimited consecration to the Immaculate, giving her everything that can be given, so as to be her sons as Christ was her son, and keeping nothing for ourselves.
Providence has made the anniversary of the definitive Franciscan rule also the first day of the novena of the Immaculate Conception. The Immaculate Conception is the golden thread of Franciscan history. The doctrine is implicit in the writings of St. Francis. The solidity of the doctrine was first demonstrated by Blessed John Duns Scotus. For centuries, Franciscans defended and promoted it. And finally, Blessed Pius IX, a Franciscan Tertiary, defined the dogma. 
With the truth now unassailable certain, what remains to do is to live that truth. Or as St. Bonaventure said, the main purpose of theology is to make us good. It is a practical science. Franciscans are called to repair the Church, and they must do so according to its heavenly model or type, which is the Immaculate. They must begin with themselves, conforming themselves to the Immaculate by the imitation of her virtues.
And the most effective means of doing this is consecration to the Immaculate. This is a path to sanctity for Franciscans to follow and to teach to everyone. This is the fullest form of that devotion to the Immaculate Heart that God wishes to establish in the world. This is the surest and easiest path to sanctity. 
But like any path to sanctity, it requires courage and determination to reach its goal. But yet a great crowd of witnesses urges us on and is ready to help us with their intercession. So as St. Augustine says, fortified by their heavenly protection, let us also run the path which alone leads to our true homeland. Before us is a shining example of the faithful servants of Christ. No excuse can justify our laziness. The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and those who do themselves violence take possession of it. It is an immense kingdom. Whoever therefore wishes to be blessed, let him hasten to heaven, whose gates are closed only to those who exclude themselves. 
Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.