The following video explores a conversation between Brother Leo and St. Francis.
This week of Prayer for Christian Unity
January 19, 2012 By
The traditional period in the northern hemisphere for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is 18-25 January. Those dates were proposed in 1908 by Paul Wattson to cover the days between the feasts of St Peter and St Paul, and therefore have a symbolic significance. In the southern hemisphere where January is a vacation time churches often find other days to celebrate the week of prayer, for example around Pentecost (suggested by the Faith and Order movement in 1926), which is also a symbolic date for the unity of the church.
Mindful of the need for flexibility, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity invites you to use this material throughout the whole year to express the degree of communion which the churches have already reached, and to pray together for that full unity which is Christ’s will.
St. Francis and the issue of war.
January 18, 2012 By
What if we did what we say?
As followers of the little poor man of Assisi, we profess to try, with God’s grace, to live our lives according to our Rule and the Gospel. To follow Christ, as Francis did, to the best of our ability, according to our state in life. I might ask myself when was the last time I examined the life of Francis to see how he followed Christ? When was the last time I read the original intent Francis had for his Third Order (Secular Franciscan) members to live out their profession?
Read the full reflection now. Written by Ray Hardwick, sfo, National Peace and Justice Commission Member
Why is the SFO called ‘Secular’?
January 13, 2012 By
The early lay followers of St. Francis were probably known as the Order of Penance. That title expressed a conversion of life on the part of its members. Like Francis of Assisi, the members of the Order of Penance tried to carry the spirit of the gospel into their daily lives in the midst of their world and society.
Later these lay followers became known as the Secular Third Order of St. Francis. The word third distinguished the order from the First Order of St. Francis consisting of priests and brothers living in community with the three religious vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. It also distinguished the order from the Second Order of St. Francis, known as the Poor Clares, in which religious women lived a cloistered community life with vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. The word secular further distinguished the order from other groups of religious men and women belonging to religious orders observing a rule based on the Rule of St. Francis. When Pope Paul VI revised the lay or secular Rule of the Third Order, the official title became the Secular Franciscan Order.
The accent on secular is to make it clear the order is for people living in the mainstream of life. As Lester Bach, O.F.M., put it in Franciscan Way of Life: A Commentary on the Rule of the Secular Franciscan Order: “The secular Franciscans live in the world, i.e., not joined to or in convents, monasteries or friaries. The ‘place’ of holiness for Secular Franciscans is in the marketplace of the world, in the homes and neighborhoods where they dwell.“
The members of the Secular Franciscan Order are to infiltrate society from within. By their presence in its midst, they are to change society for the better. The title does not indicate that God is separate from society or the created world. It rather speaks of the desire of its members to make God ever more present to daily life.
Please see AmericanCatholic.org for the “Why Secular?” for the original article.
History of the Franciscan Crown Rosary
January 12, 2012 By
The Franciscan Crown (or Seraphic Rosary) is a rosary consisting of seven decades in commemoration of the Seven Joys of the Virgin, namely, the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity of Jesus, the Adoration of the Magi, the Finding in the Temple, the Resurrection of Jesus, and the Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin. The Franciscan Crown has been called the Franciscan Rosary, the Seraphic Rosary or the Rosary of the Seven Joys of Our Lady. The practice originated among the Franciscans in early 15th-century Italy.
The Franciscan historian, Father Luke Wadding (1588-1657) dates the origin of the Franciscan Crown to the year 1422. In 1442 an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary took place in Assisi, to a Franciscan novice named James. As a child, he had the custom of offering daily the Virgin Mary a crown of roses. When he entered the Friars Minor, he became distressed that he would no longer be able to offer this gift. The Blessed Virgin appeared to him to give him comfort and showed him another daily offering that he might do: to pray every day seven decades of Hail Marys, meditating between each decade on one of the seven joys that she had experienced in her life. Friar James began this devotion, but one day the Director of Novices saw him praying and an angel with him who was weaving a crown of roses, placing a lily of gold between each of the ten roses. When the novice had finished praying, the angel placed the crown upon him. The Director asked Friar James what this vision meant. After hearing the explanation, he told the other friars and soon this devotion spread throughout the Franciscan family.
Here is a guide for praying the Franciscan Crown.