SFO International Council - Weekly edition
Volume: 4 - N. 2 - 1998 - January - II
From: The Letter of the CFF
"Above all, seek the Spirit of the Lord and his holy operation"
(Part -II)
9. Alongside this principal duty attention may certainly also be given to other interests and other types of "service of the Spirit" (2 Cor 3:8). The Holy Spirit - as the Second Vatican Council affirmed - is at work also outside the visible boundaries of the Church, to guide the development of the social order and give everyone "the possibility of coming into contact with the paschal mystery of Christ"1.. It is up to us Franciscan men and women to play our part in maintaining in life and developing "the spirit of Assisi" which has been given its highest expression in the meeting of the heads of all the religions promoted by John Paul II around the tomb of Saint Francis in 1986. A spirit of dialogue, of peace-making, of respect for creation.
We should not forget, either, that the first visible effect of the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost was that of uniting in the one faith many different peoples. He is the Spirit of unity and he is present wherever unity is created or reinforced: between the partners of a marriage, in the community, in the whole world. To be noted also is that one of the most precious "fruits of the Spirit" is peace (cf. Gal 5:19).
10. In our own days the Holy Spirit has raised in the Church a great variety of ecclesial movements which are one of the more visible signs of the "new Pentecost" hoped for by Pope John XXIII on the occasion of the Council. We must learn to appreciate this "grace of the Spirit" which is diffused in the Church today, seeing in it an effective invitation for our life and presence in the Church.
Let us also keep in mind that some components of the great Franciscan Family have in recent years received special impulses towards renewing their lives by force of the Spirit, thanks to the formulation of their Rule. On 8 December 1997, in fact, occurred the 15th anniversary of the approval of the "Rule of the Brothers and Sisters of the Third Order Regular of Saint Francis", and on 26 June 1998 there will be commemorated the 20th anniversary of the approval of the renewed Rule of the Secular Franciscan Order. It is worth while giving due attention to these anniversaries in order to build a greater understanding and a determination to render an authentic service to the Spirit in the Church.
Indications and proposals
11. On the basis of what we have just indicated as a possible "service to the Spirit" in today's Church we would like to offer some simple suggestions of a practical and operational kind.
The primacy of the Spirit
12. For the Franciscan Family the most precious fruit of this year dedicated to the Holy Spirit should be a renewed effort to restore primacy to the spirit . Not only in a quantitative sense, by giving more time to prayer, but also in a qualitative sense, by bringing it about that every activity - manual, academic, pastoral - is imbued with that "spirit of prayer and devotion to which all other things are meant to contribute", as our Seraphic Father exhorts us. To the renewal of the Franciscan charism may equally be applied what Pope John Paul II had to say of the renewal of the Church in general after the Council: it "cannot become a reality in any other way than in the Holy Spirit, that is to say with the help of his light and his power" 2.. This is the opportune moment to commit ourselves to making our Franciscan churches and houses and, as far as possible, our SFO Fraternities, into authentic "centres of spirituality". Let us, for example, examine ways of making available "schools of prayer", "times of the Spirit", a well-qualified "spiritual direction", the practice and the spread of the "lectio divina" or a meditative and shared reading of spiritual texts (especially Franciscan ones).
The spirit of unity
13. The children of Francis and Clare are called to live the spirit of unity especially among themselves, developing constantly closer bonds of esteem, of concord and of collaboration between the different Franciscan Families, recalling in the words of Dante that the first companions of Francis edified the world most of all by "their concord and their joyful semblance" 3.. We want to insist, as we did in last year's pre-Jubilee letter, in inviting to an ever closer communion and collaboration within the great Franciscan Family. We ask that as far as possible our forces be united in various fields: for example in formation, in particular as regards properly Franciscan formation, in spiritual animation, in cultural, apostolic and charitable fields. Within the three Franciscan Orders (with all due respect to the specific vocation of the Sisters of the Second Order) encouragement should be given to meetings even of an informal kind, to exchanges, common moments of prayer and reflection, concrete initiatives of communion and fraternity.
Ecumenical engagement should find in the Franciscan Family a particular willingness: the "spirit of Assisi" should make us particularly attentive and solicitous promoters of ecumenical initiatives.
Peace
14. We have recalled that one of the most precious "fruits of the Spirit" is peace, and we know how much our Seraphic Father himself desired to be an instrument of peace and have his Brothers spread it throughout the world, even through the manner in which they greeted the people 4.. The Franciscan Family ought to be in the "front line" wherever there is work for peace. Where ethnic conflicts of all kinds tear nations apart and create situations of high tension, we ought to be promoters of peaceful concord, even if this means accepting initiatives which require grat courage and upholding positions which are openly inspired by the Gospel and the "new commandment" of mutual love. This presupposes that in our own midst above all we take the greatest care to eliminate the remotest trace of antagonism, hegemony, or division.
The richness of the ecclesial movements
15. Different movements throw light upon the need for a more living faith, a more concrete charity, a more heart-felt and spontaneous prayer: all these are values which Franciscan spirituality puts at our disposal abundantly in our choice of life. They stimulate our Fraternities to be more alive, more amenable to renewal, more open to welcoming the new things of the Spirit, more capable of letting the demands of obedience and fraternity prevail over our personal choices and experiences. We should be ready to welcome and make use of these stimulating reminders, recognizing them asincentives to letting the rich spirituality proper to our charism grow young again and wisely drawing from them pointers for the way in which we incarnate in our lives the spirituality proper to our charism. If we do not renew ourselves we run the risk of no longer saying anything or giving anything to the Church and to the world.
Conclusion
16. We recognize that throughout the Franciscan Family the values which we have underlined in this letter already find positive and encouraging implementation. But we would invite you not to be content with what has already been done and is now being done, but to strive for new goals, always mindful of the exhortation of our Father Saint Francis: "My Brothers, we must begin to serve our Lord and God. Until now we have done very little" 5..
At the moment of writing this letter we have before our eyes the sad state of the earthquake-damaged Franciscan sanctuaries of Assisi: places which are "indispensable" to our spirituality and our living contact with Francis. While we hope for their rapid restoration so that they may remain the longed-for goal of pilgrimages, in the light of the Great Jubilee to come we pray that together with the material work there may also take place a "reconstruction" of our ever more authentic fidelity to Francis and Clare and, through them, to Christ and the Gospel.
We ask our Poor Clare Sisters for a special prayer of intercession that with the help of our Father Saint Francis and our Mother Saint Clare we may let ourselves be moulded by the Spirit as "new creatures" (cf. 1 Cor 11:7), docile to the Spirit which "renews all things" (Ap 21:5).
Rome, 1 January 1998
Fr. Giacomo Bini
Minister General OFM
Fr. John Corriveau
Minister General OFM.Cap
Sr. Carola Thomann
President FIC-TOR
Fr. Agostino Gardin
Minister General OFM.Conv
Fr. Bonaventure Midili
Minister General TOR
Emanuela De Nunzio
General Minister SFO
Sr. M. Giacinta Ibba
Secretary of the CFF
1. Cf. Gaudium et Spes, 22 and 26.
2. AAS, 73 (1981), p. 521.
3. "la loro concordia e i lor lieti sembianti" - Dante, Paradiso, XI, 76 s.
4. Cf. The Legend of Perugia, 67 (Omnibus p. 1043).
5. St. Bonaventure, Major Life, XIV, 1 (Omnibus p. 736)