The National Franciscan Youth and Young Adult (FY/ YA) commission was formed in 1995, and members have contributed articles to the TAU-USA since its inception in 1996. In looking back at the very first FY/YA commission article published, it is interesting to note that right from the start, the intention of the commission has been to motivate Secular Franciscans to understand our role in accompanying youth.
When we were very young, we learned that we have five basic senses that help us collect information and process the world around us. ... We are called by our profession to let the Gospel values guide the way we perceive, interpret, and interact with the world around us. With our basic senses in mind, let us ask ourselves these questions and reflect on our answers.
When we were very young, we learned that we have five basic senses that help us collect information and process the world around us. We see, we hear, we smell, we touch, and we taste. Our senses give us an awareness of the world around us.
In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us.
As part of our Franciscan charism, we have the idea that not only do we need to look to our own wellbeing, but we must also consider the welfare of others who surround us, even if our own life is not going the way we want it. For this, we have the example of St. Francis and his encounter with the leper. Francis was going through a major conversion point in his life (as he would for most of his life).
This Prayer of the Church and the Profession of the OFS Rule direct our witness and mission to build a more fraternal and Gospel-centered world. In St Francis’ day, and in our own day, the members of the Franciscan Family are in a continuous struggle to build an alternative society.
With the death of Fr. Lester Bach, OFM Cap, Secular Franciscans lost a friend, mentor, author, spiritual assistant, and beloved friar on Feb. 2, 2020.
During the Easter season, we read at Mass about the growth of the early Christian community as described in the Acts of the Apostles. “These remained faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers."
How is prayer experienced as a hunger? How does the Spirit pray through us “in groans that are too deep for words?” How do we “pray always?”
It is with the heaviest of hearts that I write this. Once again, we are at a moment in time when yet another unarmed person of color is brutally and viciously murdered at the hands of those sworn to protect and serve. And yet, this time something is different.