Finding Saint Francis

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Marauder said:
That is something you will have to overcome on your spiritual journey, especially if you want to become a Franciscan.
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It’s why I’m here. And 437 other crummy personal attributes.
It is good that you see yourself in his admonitions, to not see yourself in any of them would show someone with way to much pride to fairly evaluate themself
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.

Well, of the 28 I think I am not too concerned about #1. There was another one I thought I wasn’t too bad about but I just looked and can’t find it. Oh well.
No reason to do that. If you feel uncomfortable talking in such a large thread …
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Thanks, Jim, but my problem is I ALWAYS feel comfortable talking anyplace I am with anyone who appears. 😃

God bless you for taking the time to respond so thoroughly.
 
iloveangels said:
You’re welcome again.

Isn’t that table of contents awesome? That’s all the stuff I had to hunt down.
Formation should be much better now.
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Wow, I’m so lucky to be a fly on this wall. Especially because if I had walked in cold and someone had started talking about “the FUN manual” I am not sure how far my eyes would roll before I could stop them. Now I will simply be grateful I am not catching rainbows and so many people worked so hard to create something so comprehensive.

I really enjoyed the TAU articles and the references to defining Franciscan spirituality for SFOs. Reading that gave me a nice feel for the spirit of the organization, I think.

Here’s my admonition of the day #25. I’m thinking of writing an article on Admonitions for Forum Posting and this makes me think of PM gossip, much more destructive than most think, IMO:
Blessed (is) the servant, who would so love and fear his own brother when he is far from him as when, for example, he is with him. And would not say anything behind him which he cannot, with charity, say before him.
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Julia_Mae said:
Wow, I’m so lucky to be a fly on this wall. Especially because if I had walked in cold and someone had started talking about “the FUN manual” I am not sure how far my eyes would roll before I could stop them. Now I will simply be grateful I am not catching rainbows and so many people worked so hard to create something so comprehensive.

I really enjoyed the TAU articles and the references to defining Franciscan spirituality for SFOs. Reading that gave me a nice feel for the spirit of the organization, I think.

Here’s my admonition of the day #25. I’m thinking of writing an article on Admonitions for Forum Posting and this makes me think of PM gossip, much more destructive than most think, IMO:
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FUN is just an acronym. LOL.

IT means “For Up to Now,” which is a short phrase that brings to Franciscans’ minds something that St. Francis said. He said, “Brothers and Sisters, let us begin, for up to now we have done nothing.”
 
iloveangels said:
FUN is just an acronym. LOL.

IT means “For Up to Now,” which is a short phrase that brings to Franciscans’ minds something that St. Francis said. He said, “Brothers and Sisters, let us begin, for up to now we have done nothing.”
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Yes, I saw in the magazine. Coincidentally (sure) I just read it today when I finished Thomas of Celano’s First Life:
  1. But though the glorious father was now complete in grace before God, and shone among the men of this world by his holy deeds, still he was ever thinking how he might set his hand to enterprises of greater perfection, and (like a skilled knight in God’s camp) challenge the foe and kindle new wars. He purposed, under Christ his captain, to do great things, and even while his limbs were failing and his body as good as dead, he hoped to triumph over the foe in a fresh contest; for true virtue knows no limit of time, the expectation of the reward being eternal. Therefore he burned with a great desire to return to the beginnings of humility, and rejoicing in hope by reason of boundless love he thought to bring back his body–though now reduced to such extremity–to its former subjection. He was wholly cutting off every care that might be a hindrance to him and was completely hushing the din of all anxieties, and even while he was of necessity moderating the former rigor on account of his infirmity, he would say,** “Let us begin, brethren, to serve the Lord God, for hitherto we have profited little or nothing.”** He counted not himself as yet to have apprehended, and remaining indefatigable in his purpose to attain new sanctity, ever hoped that he might make a beginning. He wished once more to return to the service of lepers and to be held in contempt as he had once been. He purposed to fly from intercourse with men, and betake himself to the remotest places, that so, having put off all care and laid aside anxiety for others, the wall of the flesh (while he was still in the body) might alone separate him from God.
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I should check and see if he put it in his testimony or something. Maybe you know. Interesting how this was his attitude so near the end of his life. It must be in some writing, too. I’ll look out for it, I’m just reading them all through right now.

But still, if it came at me out of the blue as simply “Fun” and I’d never heard of this manual before, I’m sure I’d respond poorly, so thank God for this thread and your discussion and links. Or thank Francis, I s’pose.
 
Julia_Mae said:
Yes, I saw in the magazine. Coincidentally (sure) I just read it today when I finished Thomas of Celano’s First Life:

… Interesting how this was his attitude so near the end of his life. It must be in some writing, too. …
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Not so much. I have read that he mellowed some at the end of his life, when he saw the big picture of what had happened in his lifetime and he knew he was leaving a large family of dedicated brothers and sisters behind him. He lost control of the order near the end of his life, you know, and accepting that was among his final acts of detachment.

I’m not saying that he was remarking on their willingness or quality or anything like that. Francis didn’t do things like that. Rather, I don’t think Francis, in his human estate, ever would have believed he could give enough to the God with so much humility he would be born in a barn. I think it was just as simple as that. All detached, he was saying something like, “oh, it was nothing; glad to do it.” And he wasn’t just being obsequious or pretentious like you sometimes see. Francis wasn’t like that.
 
Julia_Mae said:
Yes, I saw in the magazine. Coincidentally (sure) I just read it today when I finished Thomas of Celano’s First Life:

I should check and see if he put it in his testimony or something. Maybe you know. Interesting how this was his attitude so near the end of his life. It must be in some writing, too. I’ll look out for it, I’m just reading them all through right now.

But still, if it came at me out of the blue as simply “Fun” and I’d never heard of this manual before, I’m sure I’d respond poorly, so thank God for this thread and your discussion and links. Or thank Francis, I s’pose.
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Probably when someone goes into formation, they won’t be given the whole binder, so they wouldn’t see something like FUN BOOK on the cover right off the bat. LOL

I’m guessing that they’ll see handouts, a small folder at a time, or something of the like, depending on the budget and style of the director. Some of the big binder also looks to be information for the formation director.
 
So when I was reading the TAU magazine I saw a section from the different regions and wondered which one I might be in. I am in, according to the map I found the Fr. Solanus Casey region.

Who?

This is a YouTube youtu.be/duCZtkuaZjQ of an episode of Unsolved Mysteries, of all things, about him. This is his Wiki page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solanus_Casey

As he is declared “venerable” I believe I’ll start asking him to pray for me right away. He’s very “Francis-ish” in terms of the humility of his station.

I could use humility.

A lot.

I used to climb mountains when I was young and lived in Colorado. Nothing fancy with pitons, in Colorado there are a lot of non-technical climbs to fairly dizzying heights. The trick is: don’t look up. You might think you’ll never get there.

I wonder if venerable people have prayer cards?
 
iloveangels said:
Probably when someone goes into formation, they won’t be given the whole binder, so they wouldn’t see something like FUN BOOK on the cover right off the bat. LOL

I’m guessing that they’ll see handouts, a small folder at a time, or something of the like, depending on the budget and style of the director. Some of the big binder also looks to be information for the formation director.
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OH! I didn’t think of that. But they’ll be using this now, right? I’ll report back. My daughter says closing is Dec 30th. She is moving in Jan 2nd. I am planning a trip up there right after Christmas to meet some Franciscans.
 
Julia_Mae said:
So when I was reading the TAU magazine I saw a section from the different regions and wondered which one I might be in. I am in, according to the map I found the Fr. Solanus Casey region.

Who?

This is a YouTube youtu.be/duCZtkuaZjQ of an episode of Unsolved Mysteries, of all things, about him. This is his Wiki page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solanus_Casey

As he is declared “venerable” I believe I’ll start asking him to pray for me right away. He’s very “Francis-ish” in terms of the humility of his station.

I could use humility.

A lot.

I used to climb mountains when I was young and lived in Colorado. Nothing fancy with pitons, in Colorado there are a lot of non-technical climbs to fairly dizzying heights. The trick is: don’t look up. You might think you’ll never get there.

I wonder if venerable people have prayer cards?
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Yes, you’re out east. Solanus Casey served for a while in New York, if I remember correctly. I love Solanus Casey. There are several books on him and they’re very good. He was a wonderful OFM Cap.

Here: solanuscasey.org/
 
Julia_Mae said:
OH! I didn’t think of that. But they’ll be using this now, right? I’ll report back. My daughter says closing is Dec 30th. She is moving in Jan 2nd. I am planning a trip up there right after Christmas to meet some Franciscans.
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They should be using the new program, I hope. The old versions people were using weren’t as good, and that’s the reason we have a new one, I’m pretty sure. This one also sounds more interesting than the old versions I’ve seen.

That’s not so far from now. That’s only about 2 weeks from now. 🙂
 
To those that keep asking what Brother JR, he is OSF or Order of Saint Francis. It is basically on of the many Third Order Regular branches. He isn’t a member of SFO but has served as spiritual adviser to a fraternity and attended events. He also has a degree in theology. I am sure he can tell you more of his history. He knows more about SFO then most members and definitely knows more about Franciscan history and Franciscan inner workings then me.
 
Coming in late - I am currently starting my formation for the third time due to a series of moves - I am in Inquiry. I have been in formation for a period of 20 months. I am currently under the new formation program. So I may be able to provide a little insight on that.
 
iloveangels said:
Probably when someone goes into formation, they won’t be given the whole binder, so they wouldn’t see something like FUN BOOK on the cover right off the bat. LOL

I’m guessing that they’ll see handouts, a small folder at a time, or something of the like, depending on the budget and style of the director. Some of the big binder also looks to be information for the formation director.
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The methods of formation have always varied fraternity to fraternity. In the recent past there was the primary formation materials that most fraternities used, but there were other books that were used by different fraternities. That is what is so good about this new book is they are trying to make sure everyone uses the same materials. Of course there will probably be some stubborn formation teams, but that is the beauty of having the internet now, you can know about this stuff. When I was in initial formation I had to find out all this information on my own. That is one of the reasons I started the Franciscan Spirituality social group on here as a place to allow people to find and talk about things in the process.

As for whether you will only get pieces of the FUN book during formation as you go. At least in the fraternities I have been associated with, the process was that you paid for and got the entire book at once. It covered the entire process from Inquiry through candidacy. This allowed you either to just read the chapter of the month for formation, or if you were real interested in other things that you weren’t covering yet you could read ahead or read whatever interested you. This also allowed you to skip around a little if something made more sense to have a different time then in the exact order in the book. As an example if there is a chapter that talked a lot about Francis’ death you might want to read that section in October instead of the month it would have occurred if you followed the chapters exactly.

Also don’t forget that if you enter formation right now (remember that you have to visit for at least 3 months before you can become an inquirer) they still might not be using the new FUN manuals. Just like the church as a whole, it does take a little time for things to make it out to the individual fraternities and the individual fraternities to come up with how they will deal with it.
 
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