Sharing the Vision – News from The NEC
Daily Boosters for our Vocation through Email; Chapter 2023; National Fraternity Council Meetings; Connecting with Our Members; Ritual Update; Duns Scotus Board ...
OFS Quinquennial Museum, Phoenix, Az.
Last August’s Quinquennial was indeed a special event. More than 600 attendees from all over the United States participated. We had inspiring speakers, stimulating breakout sessions, multiple opportunities for prayer and singing, perusing our many vendors for books, religious supplies, totes, pictures and what have you, and, of course, there was our OFS Museum. ...
CIOFS Presidency at work
Tuesday’s meeting began with Minister General Tibor Kauser giving a formation talk on servant leadership. Leadership is tied to community; that is, a leader needs a team to move ahead with a project or strive for a goal. So, he said, a leader helps form and protect community, and helps members grow in their OFS vocation. ...
Secular Franciscans: TAU vs. Habit
As in most families, certain topics “pop up” for discussion every so often and need clarification. Some topics are simply a matter of majority opinion; others are a matter of “tradition” and should we/can we change the tradition; but some are a matter civil or Church law. Whether or not Secular Franciscans “wear a habit” is a topic that falls into the latter category. ...
Franciscan Living – How to Go Among the Saracens in Our Lives
St. Francis is known as a peacemaker, and for the Peace Prayer, which, although not written by St. Francis, reveals his thoughts about peacemaking. However, I still have questions about how St. Francis actually demonstrated this in real life. ...
Youth-Friendly Fraternities Like a Family Meal
The commission has spoken many times about the importance of creating youth-friendly fraternities. Why is this essential and what does this really mean? The simple answer to the first question is, it’s essential because if a young person is interested in joining a YouFra (Franciscan Youth Fraternity), at this point they have nowhere to go with that desire, except to us—the Secular Franciscans. There are only a few official YouFra groups in the United States. ...
Building Relationships – One Broken Soul at a Time
The priorities for the National Fraternity for the next three years are Vocations, Relationships, and Communications. All are incredibly important to who we are as Franciscans. At a brainstorming session at our recent in-person National Executive Council meeting in St. Louis, Missouri, I shared my thoughts on the three priorities: “We must build relationships with better communications in order to bring in vocations.”...
Eucharistic Revival – Stage Two
The Bishops of the United States are calling all its Catholic members to a deeper relationship with God through a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. This year 2023 – 2024 is designated for “Parish Renewal”. We, the Franciscan “people in the pews” should be in the forefront of this renewal ...
National Fraternity Centenary Task Force
...the National Fraternity has appointed a task force to help our celebrations to be as widespread and universal as possible. ... 2023 is going to be a busy year for us, with TWO centenaries to help celebrate, as well as planning our work. The NEC has asked us to plan a face-to-face event at Chapter and a Zoom event open nationwide each year and to create a common calendar of centenary events from across the country. We are also creating/collecting resources and ideas for centenary celebrations and posting them on our section of the website: https://www.secularfranciscansusa.org/franciscan-centenary-celebration/ ...
Return to the Canticle
It is further testament to the authenticity and originality of St. Francis that even though we encounter the Canticle often and in different ways, his song retains its power to inspire us. Even so, we should not take the Canticle for granted. Using our imaginations, we can bring fresh insights to the poem. We can find ways to keep his voice resonating anew for us. Consider a few thoughts along these lines: ...