The XI General Chapter of the SFO has begun. It started, as in the programme, at 6.00 P.M. of November 5, 2005, in Assisi, next to the Church of the Porziuncula, more or less at the spot Saint Francis held his famous Chapter of Mats.
The participants of the Chapter had been arriving all during the day, and the Presidency had been working since November 1^st in the same house for the last preparations. They finished their work at noon, to be able to welcome the members of the Chapter.
The Chapter started with a prayer service, during which the General Minister and Vice-Minister distributed bread to the participants, a sign of welcome and a rememberance of Saint Francis who broke the bread with his brothers on the last day of his life. You can find the full text of the prayers on the site.
At the close of the prayer, all participants went in procession to the Chapter hall, where the General Minister, Encarnación del Pozo welcomed the participants, extending a special greeting to those who have been working with such eagerness and for so many months on the planning and organization of the Chapter. She said: "The Chapter unfolds in the context of 800 years of the prayer of St. Francis at the foot of the San Damiano cross and 40 years after the closing of the Second Vatican Council. It is at this time that we brighten thei eight century of the birth of our Patroness, St. Elizabeth of Hungary. At this partricular moment in the history of humanity, in the one in which we live with a certain perplexity and during which we face so many sufferings coaused byu violence and natural catsthohies, I want to reming you of the objectives of this Chapter:
To offer to the Secular Franciscan Order illumination and concrete proposals in order to live the vocation with conviction, with faith and with hope, and to develop the sense of the mission to which we are called -- using the clear testimony of our own lives and courageous initiatives, to go beyond ourselves in order to meet Christ, the true center of our existence and to make following Him the reason for our life."
Fr. Ivan Matic, in name of the Conference of General Assistants greeted the participants and stressed that the "novitas" had been present in the Church and in the world from the time that Francis heard the voice of the Crucified. The Franciscan novitas is always tangible because it finds its source and freshness in the Holy Gospel."
The National Minister of Italy, Rosa Galimberti, welcomed the participants and wished them also some sweet moments together with the hard and bitter work.
A special gesture was made on behalf of Anette Duveen, who through the National Minister of the USA donated part of the proceeds of selling her house for the new International secretariat.
The day was concluded with the evening meal.