Open post

Formation Friday – Examine our Love & Commitment – December 29, 2023

2024—Time to Examine our Love and Commitment

• CONVERSION: the letting go of one’s ego…”

• “One is dying to a false self that tries to BE God, that tries to always be in control.”

• This is a reversal, a “TURNING TOWARD” the Holy Spirit at work within us.

– Francis and Jesus by Murray Bodo, OFM

What can I do to make some beneficial changes in my attitude about fraternity and fraternal life?

1- Prayerfully participate in electing and supporting my local Council.

· Pray for them every day.

· Use my God-given talents to collaborate on and assist with all projects.

+What are some ways I can support my Council?
+Do I have talents and abilities that call me to serve on the Council?

2- Love my fraternity

· Be present at gatherings.

· Listen to my brothers and sisters.

· Offer to help out.

· Reach out to excused members or to anyone who has missed a meeting. (Phone, email, card).

· Pray for our deceased members and for all those listed on your fraternity prayer list or prayer line

· Take note that for Franciscans, fraternity is a way of life (not just another “thing to do”).

+What talents do I have to offer my fraternity?
+Do I participate willingly in fraternity activities?

3- Love our Rule

· Be sure that I am aware of what I promised at profession.

· Read, pray and meditate on the Rule—perhaps one or two articles each day.

· Think about how the Rule leads me closer to Christ.

+When was the last time I read the Rule?

+Do I make the effort to relate the Rule to my everyday life?

4- Love Scripture

· Be aware that St. Francis based everything he said or wrote on Scripture.

· Resolve to read a little Scripture each day.

· Pray the Liturgy of the Hours because it helps us to pray in fraternity (with the entire Church) and is filled with Scripture.

+Do I read Scripture each day? (How can I make time to do this?)

+Do I go from Gospel to life and life to the Gospel? (Do I understand what that means? How would I explain it to someone new or to a non-Secular Franciscan?

5- Strive for daily conversion

· Attempt to be a little better each day.

· Make use of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

· Remember that we are the “Brothers and Sisters of Penance.”

+Do I review my actions and relationship with God each day?
+How have I changed since I first became a Franciscan? How have I changed since last week?

BEST FOR LAST

6- Love the Eucharist and be changed by it

· Attend Mass on Sundays and Holy days and every day if I can

· Take advantage of opportunities for Adoration—holy hours or just a visit to the tabernacle

+What is my relationship to Jesus in the Eucharist?

+Do I often visit with Jesus when there is an opportunity to attend Adoration?

As we enter 2024, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in everything you do!

The questions above are to answer in your journal and then to discuss in fraternity.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

2024 — Es hora de examinar nuestro amor y compromiso

• CONVERSIÓN: soltar el ego de uno … “

• “Uno se está muriendo a un falso yo que trata de SER Dios, que trata de tener siempre el control.”

• Esta es una inversión, un “GIRAR HACIA” el Espíritu Santo obrando dentro de nosotros.

– Francisco y Jesús de Murray Bodo, OFM

 

¿Qué puedo hacer para realizar cambios beneficiosos en mi actitud sobre la fraternidad y la vida fraterna?

1- Participar con oración en la elección y apoyo de mi Consejo local.

• Orar por ellos todos los días.

• Usar mis talentos dados por Dios para colaborar y ayudar con todos los proyectos.

 

+ ¿De qué formas puedo apoyar a mi Consejo?

+ ¿Tengo talentos y habilidades que me llamen a servir en el Consejo?

2- Amar mi fraternidad

• Estar presente en las reuniones.

• Escuchar a mis hermanos y hermanas.

• Ofrecerme para ayudar.

• Comunicarme con los miembros excusados o con cualquier persona que se haya perdido una reunión. (Por teléfono, correo electrónico, tarjeta).

• Orar por nuestros miembros fallecidos y por todos los que figuran en la lista de oración o línea de oración.

• Tener en cuenta que para los franciscanos, la fraternidad es una forma de vida (no simplemente otra “cosa que hacer.”)

 

+ ¿Qué talentos tengo para ofrecer a mi fraternidad?

+ ¿Participo de buena voluntad en las actividades de la fraternidad?

 

3- Amar nuestra regla

• Asegurarme de estar al tanto de lo que prometí en la profesión.

• Leer, orar y meditar en la Regla, tal vez uno o dos artículos cada día.

• Pensar en cómo la Regla me acerca a Cristo.

 

+ ¿Cuándo fue la última vez que leí la Regla?

+ ¿Me esfuerzo por relacionar la Regla con mi vida diaria?

 

4- Amar las Escrituras

• Tener en cuenta que San Francisco basó todo lo que dijo o escribió en las Escrituras.

• Tomar la determinación de leer un poco de las Escrituras todos los días.

• Rezar la Liturgia de las Horas porque me ayuda a rezar en fraternidad (con toda la Iglesia) y está llena de Escritura.

 

+ ¿Leo las Escrituras todos los días? (¿Cómo puedo apartar tiempo para hacer esto?)

+ ¿Paso del Evangelio a la vida y de la vida al Evangelio? (¿Entiendo lo que eso significa?) ¿Cómo se lo explicaría a alguien nuevo o a una persona que no es franciscano seglar?

 

5- Esforsarse por la conversión diaria

• Intentar mejorar un poco cada día.

• Hacer uso del Sacramento de la Reconciliación.

• Recordar que somos los “Hermanos y Hermanas de la Penitencia.”

 

+ ¿Reviso mis acciones y mi relación con Dios todos los días?

+ ¿Cómo he cambiado desde que me profesé como franciscano? ¿Cómo he cambiado desde la semana pasada?

 

LO MEJOR PARA EL FINAL

6- Amar la Eucaristía y ser cambiado por ella

• Asistir a misa los domingos y días santos y todos los días si puedo

• Aprovechar de las oportunidades de adoración: horas santas o simplemente una visita al tabernáculo.

+ ¿Cuál es mi relación con Jesús en la Eucaristía?

+ ¿Visito a menudo a Jesús cuando tengo la oportunidad de asistir a la Adoración?

 

Al entrar en 2024, ¡pídale al Espíritu Santo que lo guíe en todo lo que haga!

Las preguntas anteriores son para responder en su diario y luego para discutir en fraternidad.

 
 
 
Diane F. Menditto, OFS
Vice Minister, National Fraternity, Secular Franciscan Order USA
Listen – Discern – Go Forth National Theme 2022-2025

 

Christmas at Greccio (1223)

(This article originally appeared in the TAU-USA Fall 2023 Issue #110)

by Bret Thoman, OFS

Greccio grotto where the first nativity scene took place

This year, the Franciscan Family continues to observe a series of eight-centenary commemorations. In 2023, we are reflecting on two important events that occurred 800 years ago: the Approval of the Later Rule and the reenactment of Christmas at Greccio.

Not far from Rieti, in the northernmost part of the eponymous valley, is the hill town of Greccio. Home to just about 100 residents, the village is famed for an event that took place in 1223. Within a grotto nestled within a cliff, here, St. Francis of Assisi reenacted the first nativity scene.

Referred to locally as the “New Bethlehem,” St. Francis desired to recreate a living nativity scene (with live animals and hay) in order to render the feast of the birth of Christ more real. Before this event, the feast of the Nativity of Christ was a minor feast in the liturgical calendar of the Church.

St. Francis had been to Greccio several times and was close to a local knight and tertiary named Giovanni (John).

Francis told John that he wished to “enact the memory of that babe who was born in Bethlehem: to see as much as is possible with my own bodily eyes the discomfort of his infant needs, how he lay in a manger, and how, with an ox and a donkey standing by, he rested on hay” (Thomas of Celano, First Life, Chapter 30).

The site was a cave on the face of a cliff some three kilometers (2 miles) from the village. With John’s assistance, animals were led to the grotto and hay and a manger were installed. St. Francis, a deacon, served at the Mass. The liturgy came to life spectacularly. The people gathered entered into the mystery of the incarnation in an entirely novel way as they saw with their eyes what Christmas meant.

Afterwards, an altar was constructed over the manger and a small church was built around the grotto. A similar Mass was celebrated the following year. In time, the practice spread to other parts of the region, then all of Italy. Soon, people everywhere began reenacting Christmas in such a way.

The hermitage of Greccio stands out prominently on the side of a cliff.

Today, Greccio is visited by tens of thousands of pilgrims each year. A hermitage staffed by OFM Franciscan friars safeguards the grotto where St. Francis recreated the first creche. Around the cave is an ancient hermitage where St. Francis and the early friars lived in the early thirteenth century. It includes a primitive refectory and dormitory. Above it is the newer hermitage (that is, from the mid-thirteenth century), built during the era of St. Bonaventure, the Minister General of the order. The small, wooden cells can be visited along with the ancient choir and church.

Next to the old church is a modern church with a display of hand-crafted creches along an upper corridor. Particularly striking are those from the school of Naples, known for a long tradition of artisanship and nativity scenes. The message is that the birth of Jesus was not an event that took place remotely in a faraway age and place; rather, our Savior is with us here and now

The grotto where the first nativity scene took place

The hermitage of Greccio stands out prominently on the side of a cliff.

Christmas at Greccio (1223)

Come, Let Us Welcome Him

Tibor Kauser, CIOFS General Minister, invites Franciscans to welcome Jesus into our midst like St. Francis of Assisi did 800 years in Greccio.  He addresses the beauty of the birth of Jesus in his Christmas letter to the world’s Secular Franciscans.

Jesus became a living miracle, and Tibor encourages us to bring this miracle alive today.  “This year in this simple message for Christmas I invite you all: Let this be the real gift of Christmas for us too; let Jesus come alive for us. Jesus has become a man, the word has become flesh (Jn.1:14), so that may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity. (Ordo Missae)”

St. Francis designed his first nativity to bring our Lord Jesus to the people of his time, and we are encouraged to do the same today.

“In Greccio there was no nativity scene. There were no statues around but living people. I invite you all to experience this miracle, together with Saint Francis, being those around the ‘Christmas crèche.’ Let us be the living family, in which Jesus can be born and can find a warm family spirit,” Tibor said.

Tibor also addresses the world’s wars and suffering, encourages us to pay less attention to the material side of Christmas, and devote our prayer and attention to the miracle that occurred in Bethlehem when Jesus Christ was born.

Read Tibor’s complete Christmas letter to Franciscans.

(En Español)

Come, Let Us Welcome Him

Open post

Formation Friday – The Centenary of Christmas at Greccio & newly granted Plenary Indulgence December 22, 2023

The Centenary of Christmas at Greccio

and the newly granted Plenary Indulgence

…Celebrating the centenary of Christmas in Greccio as a Franciscan Family is an invitation to pause before the mystery of the Incarnation to contemplate the greatness of divine love for humanity. The Son of God also becomes the Son of man, he becomes one of us, our brother (cf. Letter to the faithful, 2nd edition 56). Our faith in the Incarnation drives us to discover the seeds of the Word ( semina Verbi) present in all cultures and in contemporary society, so that the seeds of humanity found there may flourish. In addition, it urges us not only to defend life, but also to become instruments

of life and humanity in our families and fraternities, to reach out to those who are no longer considered human but are disposable members of society. The concreteness with which Francis of Assisi celebrated the mystery of the Incarnation in Greccio invites us to recover the awareness that “we are keepers of a good that humanizes, that helps to lead a new life. There is nothing better to transmit to others» ( Evangelii Gaudium 264)… ( Centennial Franciscan Family Conference 2022).

For discussion or to comment on in your journal

+Is our daily life, with its joys and difficulties, a privileged place of encounter with the Lord?
+Share your experiences.

+Does the way we celebrate Christmas and other liturgical festivals reflect the simplicity, poverty and humility that +Francis of Assisi desired?

+Share your experiences.

Special resources from the CIOFS website, including the letter regarding the Plenary Indulgence available during the Christmas season.

https://ciofs.info/2023/10/26/plenary-indulgence-on-the-occasion-of-the-eighth-centenary-of-christmas-at-greccio/

Quote from the letter granting the Plenary Indulgence:

“During this Centenary, on 17 April 2023, we addressed the following petition to the Holy Father: “in order to promote the spiritual renewal of the faithful and increase the life of grace, we ask that the faithful receive a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions from 8 December 2023, the Solemnity of Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to 2 February 2024, Feast of the Presentation in the Temple of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by visiting the churches run by Franciscan families throughout the world and stopping in prayer in front of the nativity scenes set up there. Likewise, those who are sick or unable to participate physically can equally benefit from the gift of plenary indulgence, offering their sufferings to the Lord or carrying out practices of piety.”

The Apostolic Penitentiary favorably welcomed the request, granting the right to announce it publicly.

 

“Therefore, in all the churches entrusted to us for pastoral care,

it will be possible for all the faithful

to receive a plenary indulgence, under the usual conditions,

from 8 December 2023 to 2 February 2024.”

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Formación 22 de diciembre 2023
Por favor, comparta con su fraternidad local

 

El centenario de la Navidad en Greccio y la nueva indulgencia plenaria concedida

 

…Celebrar el centenario de la Navidad de Greccio como Familia Franciscana, es una invitación a detenerse ante el misterio de la Encarnación para contemplar la grandeza del amor divino por la humanidad. El Hijo de Dios se hace también Hijo del hombre, se hace uno de nosotros, nuestro hermano (cf. Carta a los fieles, 2ª redacción 56). Nuestra fe en la Encarnación nos impulsa a descubrir las semillas del Verbo (semina Verbi) presentes en todas las culturas y en la sociedad contemporánea, para que florezcan las semillas de humanidad que allí se encuentran. Además, nos insta no sólo a defender la vida, sino también a convertirnos en instrumentos de vida y humanidad en nuestras familias y

fraternidades, para llegar hasta aquellos que ya nadie considera humanos, sino sólo descartables de la sociedad. La concreción con la que Francisco de Asís celebró el misterio de la Encarnación en Greccio nos invita a recuperar la conciencia de que «somos depositarios de un bien que humaniza, que ayuda a llevar una vida nueva. No hay nada mejor para transmitir a los demás» (Evangelii gaudium 264)… (Centenario Conferencia Familia Franciscana 2022).

 

Para discutir o comentar en su diario

 

+Nuestra vida cotidiana, con sus alegrías y dificultades, ¿es un lugar privilegiado de encuentro con el Señor?

+Comparta sus experiencias.

+¿El modo en que celebramos la Navidad y otras fiestas litúrgicas reflejan la sencillez, la pobreza y la humildad que deseaba Francisco de Asís?

+Comparta sus experiencias.

Recursos especiales del sitio web del CIOFS, incluida la carta sobre la Indulgencia Plenaria disponible durante la temporada navideña.

https://ciofs.info/es/2023/10/26/plenary-indulgence-on-the-occasion-of-the-eighth-centenary-of-christmas-at-greccio/

 

Cita de la carta concediendo la Indulgencia Plenaria:

“Dentro de este Centenario, el 17 de abril de 2023, dirigimos la siguiente petición al Santo Padre: “Con el fin de promover la renovación espiritual de los fieles y acrecentar la vida de gracia, pedimos que desde el 8 de diciembre de 2023, solemnidad de la Inmaculada Concepción de la Bienaventurada Virgen María, hasta el 2 de febrero de 2024, fiesta de la Presentación en el Templo de Nuestro Señor Jesucristo, visitando las iglesias que las familias franciscanas tienen en todo el mundo y deteniéndose en oración ante los pesebres allí montados, los fieles puedan obtener la Indulgencia plenaria en las condiciones habituales. Asimismo, quienes estén enfermos o físicamente incapacitados para participar, también podrán gozar del don de la Indulgencia Plenaria ofreciendo sus sufrimientos al Señor o realizando prácticas piadosas”.

 

La Penitenciaría Apostólica ha aceptado positivamente la petición, concediendo la facultad de anunciarla públicamente.

 

“Por lo tanto, en todas las iglesias que nos han sido confiadas para el cuidado pastoral

será posible obtener la Indulgencia plenaria

por todos los fieles, en las condiciones habituales,

del 8 de diciembre de 2023 al 2 de febrero de 2024.”

 
Diane F. Menditto, OFS
Vice Minister, National Fraternity, Secular Franciscan Order USA
Listen – Discern – Go Forth National Theme 2022-2025

OFS-USA National Chapter 2023

(This article originally appeared in the Fall 2023 TAU-USA Issue #110)

by Sharon Winzeler, OFS

Visitors and NEC. Front row:_Cherryle Fruge, OFS._Second row (left to right: Fr. Carlos Gines Campos Julve, TOR; Mary Frances Charsky, OFS; Kathleen Molaro, OFS; and Dina Shabalina, OFS.  Third row (left to right): Susan Ronan, OFS; Jane DeRose-Bamman, OFS; Diane Menditto, OFS; Claudia Kauzlarich, OFS; Layna Maher, OFS._Back row (left to right): Fr. John DeLaRiva, OFM Cap.; Donna Hollis, OFS; and Joshua Molidor, OFS.

Seventy Secular Franciscans, friars and visitors met at the General Chapter in St. Louis amidst a record-setting heat wave Aug. 22-27. One day the mercury soared to 104 degrees, breaking a record of 101 degrees set in 1943.

This was a visitation year, and Secular Franciscans were honored by the presence of fraternal visitor Dina Shabalina, OFS, from Ukraine, and pastoral visitor Fr. Carlos Gines Campos Julve, TOR, of Peru. Visitations are held every six years at the national level. This year’s event was at the Pallottine Renewal Center. Secular Franciscans recognized the celebration of Ukraine’s Independence Day on August 24 by singing the national anthem and providing a generous check to Dina for the Secular Franciscans in Ukraine.

Dina and Fr. Carlos spent the week talking in groups and individually with members of the National Executive Council, regional ministers and spiritual assistants.

“My hometown is thousands of miles away from this place, but this week I couldn’t feel the distance. I felt like I am at home,” Dina said.

“I appreciate very much that you were honest with us. You shared not just your joys and achievements but also your challenges,” she said.

She praised the NEC and the regional ministers for their work.

“The higher you are, the more burden of service you take upon your shoulders,” Dina said.

She praised the efforts that the Secular Franciscans were making to reach out to youth.

“I appreciate that you are looking for ways to find the young people. The young people need you. Don’t be afraid to show them who you are,” she said.

Dina was fluent in English. Fr. Carlos had an interpreter, but he delivered his closing remarks in English.

“This moment is by the grace of God. I discovered the Franciscan fraternity years ago. It helped my vocation as a friar grow,” he said.

Fr. Carlos said he saw true fraternity among those gathered and encouraged them to seek God’s grace and spiritual support in guiding the Order.

“Let’s not only use our logic and wisdom but also our faith in the grace of God because this is his work,” he said.

The chapter concluded with the recitation of the Hail Mary in many of the languages represented at the chapter English, French, Spanish, Polish, and Ukranian.

The week also included meetings, Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis on his feast day, budget adoption, the Minister’s State of the Order Address, the JPIC award, and an activity demonstration by the Centenary Committee.

OFS-USA National Chapter 2023

Scroll to top
Juan de Padilla