The Order of Friars Minor has been going through an experience of renewal in the past few years, reflecting on its spiritual roots and looking for original ways to meet the contemporary world. The rediscovery of the “grace of the origins” aims to be a stimulus to look ahead in order to build up a better future.
To receive effective input in this direction, the Custody received the visit of Fr. Massimo Fusarelli, General Secretary of Training and Studies of the Order of Friars Minor for a brief but intense cycle of lectures. In Nazareth and Bethlehem, Fr. Massimo led two meetings with the local religious communities on the subject “Restoring the gift of the vocation with life”, in which he offered a penetrating and engrossing reflection on the topic of the Franciscan vocation.
In Jerusalem, Fr. Massimo gave a lecture on a wider-ranging subject, and the Mother-of-Pearl Room was only just big enough for the large audience, which included very many friars as well as religious and lay people attracted by the subject and the fame of the speaker. The very engaging reflection focused on “The Francisca charisma in this present period of change”. We understand the modernity of the Franciscan charisma only if taken as “a special form of access and comprehension of the Gospel, not so much as from an idea, even though theological, but from a real experience”.
Starting off from this initial intuition, the speaker described the Franciscan vision of the world as a view capable of a positive interpretation of the world and the cultures that inhabit it. St. Francis saw the world in the light of evangelic love, to the extent of being a man of the other world, “fully integrated into his time precisely because he was a pilgrim and stranger to the future city, built by God and not by the hands of man”.
It is from this prophetic attitude of seeing the world in the light of God that the Franciscan capacity to inhabit different historical situations derives, taking on the challenges that arise one after the other. Some nuclei, from the many, of Franciscan spirituality necessary to inhabit our time and fertilise it with evangelical life were suggested. Meeting the leper, decisive for the vocation of the young Francis, appears as paradigmatic of the encounter with God through the brothers. The experience of work also appears typical of the Franciscan innovation. For the first friars, work was a way of experiencing the social dimension and offering an illuminating example of life in the faith.
Thus Franciscan sensibility towards the universe, far from being reduced to merely fashionable environmentalism, has to reveal the richness of the cosmos understood as the city of man, an opportunity to experience forgiveness and reconciliation. The real harmony with the universe passes through peace with men. This is why the dynamic of peace passes through penitence, which appears as “that reversal which leads man from an instinctive life focused on his Ego to a life that is fully subjected and abandoned to the rule of God”.
The lecture was followed by a lively debate, showing how these subjects appear vital for the future of Franciscan life and for increasingly effective communication of the Gospel. On the path of faith, nobody can delude themselves that they have reached the destination. This is why it is beneficial to be able to question oneself, seeking more authentic and creative styles of life.
Fr. Carlo Serri ofm
To receive effective input in this direction, the Custody received the visit of Fr. Massimo Fusarelli, General Secretary of Training and Studies of the Order of Friars Minor for a brief but intense cycle of lectures. In Nazareth and Bethlehem, Fr. Massimo led two meetings with the local religious communities on the subject “Restoring the gift of the vocation with life”, in which he offered a penetrating and engrossing reflection on the topic of the Franciscan vocation.
In Jerusalem, Fr. Massimo gave a lecture on a wider-ranging subject, and the Mother-of-Pearl Room was only just big enough for the large audience, which included very many friars as well as religious and lay people attracted by the subject and the fame of the speaker. The very engaging reflection focused on “The Francisca charisma in this present period of change”. We understand the modernity of the Franciscan charisma only if taken as “a special form of access and comprehension of the Gospel, not so much as from an idea, even though theological, but from a real experience”.
Starting off from this initial intuition, the speaker described the Franciscan vision of the world as a view capable of a positive interpretation of the world and the cultures that inhabit it. St. Francis saw the world in the light of evangelic love, to the extent of being a man of the other world, “fully integrated into his time precisely because he was a pilgrim and stranger to the future city, built by God and not by the hands of man”.
It is from this prophetic attitude of seeing the world in the light of God that the Franciscan capacity to inhabit different historical situations derives, taking on the challenges that arise one after the other. Some nuclei, from the many, of Franciscan spirituality necessary to inhabit our time and fertilise it with evangelical life were suggested. Meeting the leper, decisive for the vocation of the young Francis, appears as paradigmatic of the encounter with God through the brothers. The experience of work also appears typical of the Franciscan innovation. For the first friars, work was a way of experiencing the social dimension and offering an illuminating example of life in the faith.
Thus Franciscan sensibility towards the universe, far from being reduced to merely fashionable environmentalism, has to reveal the richness of the cosmos understood as the city of man, an opportunity to experience forgiveness and reconciliation. The real harmony with the universe passes through peace with men. This is why the dynamic of peace passes through penitence, which appears as “that reversal which leads man from an instinctive life focused on his Ego to a life that is fully subjected and abandoned to the rule of God”.
The lecture was followed by a lively debate, showing how these subjects appear vital for the future of Franciscan life and for increasingly effective communication of the Gospel. On the path of faith, nobody can delude themselves that they have reached the destination. This is why it is beneficial to be able to question oneself, seeking more authentic and creative styles of life.
Fr. Carlo Serri ofm