Question regarding Franciscan Saints and Blesseds that were "Cordbearers"

[JReducation]

I am well on my way to becoming a Secular Franciscan. A bit of the above seems to apply to my fraternity and ones like it in this region… and also applies to myself of course. You don’t hear about any of us in the news relating to issues listed above or any of us being heavily involved in service to the poor, the sick, the dying etc. Perhaps part of it is due to that most of us really are very ordinary people and the fraternities are ageing… a lot.

About half of our local fraternity is a year off or less to making the final decision to become Secular Franciscans (if accepted) - so that does show recent growth. We do meet once per month and that’'s about it except for the ‘homework’ and finding our way to becoming a Franciscan in our personal and working lives. I feel it’s not enough to leave it just at that but I really don’t know how to develop things a little in the direction of what our Br JR is suggesting above.

Personally I believe I have a calling to help the aged, those with dementia and the dying but this would not be something that my fraternity would be suited towards (considering age and training). We did send off a letter, as a group, to a leading politician protesting about abortion at election times. A few in the group are involved in general parish activites, and one in general charities. We are a loving and I think devout group but is that enough these days?

The bold is mine. I really like your last question. I believe that the soil is fertile for our Secular Franciscan brothers and sisters to become a very powerful presence among Catholics. Everytime I revisit Franciscan history, especially the lives of our Holy Father Francis and our Secular Franciscan saints, there is one thing that jumps out at me. There was always a strong sense of mission to evangelize those who did not know the Gospel. However, the greatest emphasis was always placed on evangelizing Catholics and it was the Secular Franciscans who responded to this dimension of the Franciscan Missionary Vocation.

Because most Secular Franciscans are either married or are deacons and priests attached to dioceses, they did not have the freedom of movement to go to the foreign missions. Nonetheless, they were true missionaries at home. They evangelized the Catholic laity and secular clergy around them. Men like Thomas More did battle with a dissenting king and the clergy who supported him. Women like Elizabeth of Hungary were the predecessors to today’s Mother Teresa, impressing upon the people of her time the dignity of the poor, the sick and the dying. Louis King of France set the standard for moral government. In fact, the Franciscan Sisters did not come from the Poor Clare Nuns. They came from the Secular Franciscans. Most were Secular Franciscan women who joined forces to combat the ills of illiteracy, child abuse, and the hopelessness of poverty and illness. They were eventually separated from the Third Order Secular and incorporated into the Third Order Regular. That’s how we came to have the millions of Franciscan Sisters who have faithfully served the Church since the 17th century.

The Secular Franciscan Order has always planted a seed of the Gospel among Catholics who were lost, confused, hopeless, poor, abandoned, oppressed, and in a state of error. As we can see, Jesus statement to Judas is still applicable today. “The poor shall always be with you.”

Today, the poorest of the poor are many of our Catholic brothers and sisters who dissent on critical issues such as abortion, contraception, euthanasia, infanticide, illegal immigration, the death penalty. These are truly poor. As I think about it, they are poorer than those who are materially poor, because though they belong to a Church where the fulness of truth subsists, they are not aware of it or they believe that they can pick and choose what to believe and what to obey.

Let us remember the words of profession made by the entire Franciscan family. "I promise to obey . . . " If we are to be obedient, then should we not obey God’s call to evangelize our Catholic brothers and sisters?

What would our Holy Father Francis expect of us?

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[joandarc2008]

Brother JR - funny how you always pop up at the most appropriate times in my life. I made an appointment today to talk to one of the Brothers about Vocations. As I look to where formation was taking me and where I have been I keep getting the feeling that it wasn’t enough. Still looking at going back to school - giving myself a “five year” plan so to speak to take care of anullment,debt, and masters degree. I would like your (name removed by moderator)ut though - I seem very drawn to the lifestyle of the Franciscan Brothers of Life and was overjoyed to hear that there was a Sisters of Life as well. Do they operate in the same manner as the Brothers? Can you share any of your experiences with these ladies?

 

[JReducation]

Brother JR - funny how you always pop up at the most appropriate times in my life. I made an appointment today to talk to one of the Brothers about Vocations. As I look to where formation was taking me and where I have been I keep getting the feeling that it wasn’t enough. Still looking at going back to school - giving myself a “five year” plan so to speak to take care of anullment,debt, and masters degree. I would like your (name removed by moderator)ut though - I seem very drawn to the lifestyle of the Franciscan Brothers of Life and was overjoyed to hear that there was a Sisters of Life as well. Do they operate in the same manner as the Brothers? Can you share any of your experiences with these ladies?

I have had little contact with the Sisters of Life. You can contact them via their website.

www.sistersoflife.org

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[Marauder]

Brother JR, nice to see you again.

You commented on current SFOs activism.

I think one of the problems that I have seen in SFO (or it could be a strength) is that most
fraternities that I have seen tend to see the activism as an individual calling. Some people are called to help the poor, some are called to lobby politics, some are called to help prisoners, thus the fraternity as a whole may not do much to help any of those things, but the individual may. Usually the minister, council or individuals within the fraternity will talk about different things, like the Franciscan Action Network, Haiti, or the Franciscan Center near us the needs support and give those as things that people can do. They may even make a fraternity donation but taking the next step of actually volunteering time to those things is usually left up to the individuals. Having the fraternity as a whole doing those things doesn’t seem to work because you have various people of different ages, interests, home life that can’t seem to come together at particular times, etc.

I am not speaking for all fraternities because every one is different, but that is what I have seen in the local ones.

This could be a strength because people are helping out with what they are interested in and multiple things are supported but which is better, 20 people helping one organization 20 strong or 20 people helping 10 organizations with 2 people each. I know finding common interests is never easy, you have some people that think helping Haiti is the most important thing in the world for the community to support. You have others thinking going to the state capital is the most important and then you have another group that thinks praying at abortion clinics is the most important and another group that thinks helping the local poor is the most important. I know my fraternity has members that support all the above, some of the above, or one of the above. Its a tough call for what the fraternity council should do and support.

 

[joandarc2008]

I have had little contact with the Sisters of Life. You can contact them via their website.

www.sistersoflife.org

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

Thank you Brother.

 

[joandarc2008]

Brother JR, nice to see you again.

You commented on current SFOs activism.

I think one of the problems that I have seen in SFO (or it could be a strength) is that most
fraternities that I have seen tend to see the activism as an individual calling. Some people are called to help the poor, some are called to lobby politics, some are called to help prisoners, thus the fraternity as a whole may not do much to help any of those things, but the individual may. Usually the minister, council or individuals within the fraternity will talk about different things, like the Franciscan Action Network, Haiti, or the Franciscan Center near us the needs support and give those as things that people can do. They may even make a fraternity donation but taking the next step of actually volunteering time to those things is usually left up to the individuals. Having the fraternity as a whole doing those things doesn’t seem to work because you have various people of different ages, interests, home life that can’t seem to come together at particular times, etc.

I am not speaking for all fraternities because every one is different, but that is what I have seen in the local ones.

This could be a strength because people are helping out with what they are interested in and multiple things are supported but which is better, 20 people helping one organization 20 strong or 20 people helping 10 organizations with 2 people each. I know finding common interests is never easy, you have some people that think helping Haiti is the most important thing in the world for the community to support. You have others thinking going to the state capital is the most important and then you have another group that thinks praying at abortion clinics is the most important and another group that thinks helping the local poor is the most important. I know my fraternity has members that support all the above, some of the above, or one of the above. Its a tough call for what the fraternity council should do and support.

I think the most important thing for all of us to remember is that smallest unit of the Franciscan Order is not the individual - it is the Fraternity. Remember - St Francis had no Rule to write until he had Brothers.

 

[Marauder]

I think the most important thing for all of us to remember is that smallest unit of the Franciscan Order is not the individual - it is the Fraternity. Remember - St Francis had no Rule to write until he had Brothers.

Yes I realize that, but I am just writting about what I see happening.

Some within the fraternity will say that the fraternity is there to provide the support to the brothers and sisters, not actually do the work, that is what the individuals are for. Saint Francis sent his brothers out 2 by 2 into the world. Even during St. Francis’ day the community was there to support each other, you don’t really see a lot of the equivalent of today’s group work projects. It wasn’t really until communties came together to support things like hospitals, leaper colonies, schools, etc. that you found entire Franciscan communities working together to support the same thing (unless you count when the group was extremely small and what St. Francis did, they did.)

 

[JReducation]

Brother JR, nice to see you again.

You commented on current SFOs activism.

I think one of the problems that I have seen in SFO (or it could be a strength) is that most
fraternities that I have seen tend to see the activism as an individual calling. Some people are called to help the poor, some are called to lobby politics, some are called to help prisoners, thus the fraternity as a whole may not do much to help any of those things, but the individual may. Usually the minister, council or individuals within the fraternity will talk about different things, like the Franciscan Action Network, Haiti, or the Franciscan Center near us the needs support and give those as things that people can do. They may even make a fraternity donation but taking the next step of actually volunteering time to those things is usually left up to the individuals. Having the fraternity as a whole doing those things doesn’t seem to work because you have various people of different ages, interests, home life that can’t seem to come together at particular times, etc.

I am not speaking for all fraternities because every one is different, but that is what I have seen in the local ones.

This could be a strength because people are helping out with what they are interested in and multiple things are supported but which is better, 20 people helping one organization 20 strong or 20 people helping 10 organizations with 2 people each. I know finding common interests is never easy, you have some people that think helping Haiti is the most important thing in the world for the community to support. You have others thinking going to the state capital is the most important and then you have another group that thinks praying at abortion clinics is the most important and another group that thinks helping the local poor is the most important. I know my fraternity has members that support all the above, some of the above, or one of the above. Its a tough call for what the fraternity council should do and support.

I can see what you’re saying about distributing manpower. But I also see the danger of losing something that has always been very important to the Franciscan family, probably more important than to other families. The term here is “family”.

Franciscans have deliberately avoided dispersing themselves in order to preserve the family. For the Franciscan, the family is his or her first ministry. Therefore, the preservation of the family requires joint apostolic ventures not individual ones. Among Franciscans, individual ventures have always been the exception, not the norm. The Church has always encouraged the Franciscan family, especially the Secular Franciscans, to preserve their charism and character.

I also see the problem with age. This happens among religious too. The older members are not as mobile as the younger members. They often become the prayer warriors. But an order that does not make itself visible is destined to die by attrition. Observe the Franciscans of the Renewal. Of the many new Franciscan communities, they are the fastest growing community. Why? Because they have Fr. Benedict on EWTN. This brings them into several million homes every week. Communities like mine, that work in pregnancy centers, hospice, in front of abortiuaries, men’s education programs, and other less visibile ministries are not growing as quickly. Whether you’re a religious or a secular community, you need exposure. The first moral duty of every religious family is to perpetuate itself. You are a gift to the Church. You must protect that gift and make sure that it does not die through neglect. I say a gift, because your order has something to offer the Church that no other order can offer.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[Marauder]

I can see what you’re saying about distributing manpower. But I also see the danger of losing something that has always been very important to the Franciscan family, probably more important than to other families. The term here is “family”.

Franciscans have deliberately avoided dispersing themselves in order to preserve the family. For the Franciscan, the family is his or her first ministry.

Not sure if this is taking things way off thread and might need to be started somewhere else but I can see both sides of the “discussion”. Not every group is going to have a Fr. Benedict and a venue like EWTN. (Although the Conventual friary near us is putting all their daily Masses on the internet now.) Our fraternity tends to grow because we have people visible in lots of places. We have some people that volunteer at the local friary and new members are attracted by them. We have some that volunteer at the Franciscan Center downtown and some come from them. Some volunteer in their local parish, some new people come in through them. If instead of doing all of that we put all our effort into say the group that supports the Haiti missions, then we would be providing lots of support to them but a lot less people would see us.

Which is better the approach the St. Francis took toward preaching where he sent his group out 2 by 2 and then they came back to community? Or the entire community doing projects like rebuilding Churches? I think it probably changes group to group, situation to situation.

 

[JReducation]

Which is better the approach the St. Francis took toward preaching where he sent his group out 2 by 2 and then they came back to community? Or the entire community doing projects like rebuilding Churches? I think it probably changes group to group, situation to situation.

First, let’s talk history. The image of St. Francis sending the brothers out two by two has been inappropriately exploited. Our Holy Father did this at a time when there were less than 10 brothers. By the time that he died he was creating stable fraternities with larger numbers. It was never his intention that the brothers live and work in twos. It was a matter of necessity when the order was very young. This comes out very clearly in his rule for hermitages. There must be at least four brothers, two mothers and two hermits. He also structured his fraternities with superiors, vicars and subordinates. You obviously have more than two.

On the other hand, he did not advocate the large numbers that the monks practiced. The fraternities were to be small enough to be families. Too large and you have institutions, not families. The ideal is the balance. You have enough brothers and sisters to have a family, but not a number that is so large that it becomes institutionalized. That would be contrary to the Franciscan ideal.

My suggestion to your order is to pick up on the small family model that Francis left us. A small family, in his mind, had several brothers and sisters working and living together. If you ask for a magic number, I would say that anything below three is too small and anything above 10 is too large. If you have a fraternity with 30 brothers and sisters, they can minister in teams of three to five and still reach a larger portion of the population.

The Secular Franciscans is the largest Franciscan Order. It have a great obligation to the family, to make the Franciscan message and life visible and known. It has become very dependent on the friars and the lay sisters doing this. Whether you have one Secular or five working in a ministry, the Franciscan must make itself present.

I was on the coordinating committee for the state Respect Life Conference. As I walked through the 400 participants, men and women walked up to me and said, “Brother, I’m a Secular Franciscan.” My reaction was not what they were waiting for. The first thing that I said to every single one of them was, “Who would have known?”

When they asked me what I meant I pointed out to two things. 1) This conference has been in the plans for a year. The entire State of Florida knew about it. Every parish in the State has been advertising it. Not a single Secular Franciscan came up and said, “I’m a Franciscan and I want to help. What can I do?” The second thing that I pointed out to was 2) How am I supposed to recognize you? I’m wearing my habit. Where is your’s?" Not a single one of them wore the Tau to the Conference.

If you have a crowd of 400 Catholics involved in pro-life ministry and there are 30 Secular Franciscans in the crowd, I want to see 30 Taus. I don’t want to wait for you to come up to me and tell me that you’re family. I should be able to spot you in the crowd, the same way that you spot me because of my grey habit.

You see, there are those moments when the Secular Franciscan presence can shine and are wasted. These men and women at the Conference do great work across the state. But who would have known that they are Franciscan?

It was sad that the other religious orders, secular institutes, and lay organizations were identifiable and recognizeable. They even had tables in the corridors with information about them. This is one example of what I say is a wasted opportunity to make the Franciscan presence observeable.

This ties in with the OP. We began with Joan of Arc. How do we know that Joan was a chordbearer? She made it known. How do we know that Thomas More was a Secular Franciscan? He made it known. How do we know that Columbus was a Secular Franciscan? He made it known. In fact, there is an interesting story about Columbus. When they spotted land, he ran into the captain’s quarters and put on the full habit. This was the days when the Secular Franciscans wore a tunic, scapular and chord. He wanted to set foot on land as a Franciscan. It was important to him. I ran into about 30 Seculars who were unidentifiable. It was sad that they came from fraternities from all over the state and were not identifiable to their own brothers and sisters. There were friars from four branches of the family. All were identifiable. There were sisters from three branches, all identifiable. There were at least 30 SFO members. None were identifiable.

I always point to the great SFO saints. They were identifiable by the way they lived, their ministries and their chord, habit or other symbol. When they met, they were happy to see each other. They didn’t get a “Who would have known,” as a response.

I deliberately responded that way, because these men and women who are active in such important ministries need to realize that other people are not mind readers. A Secular Franciscan is called to be a saint. Sanctity begins with fidelity.

I work with the local SFO as a Spiritual Assistant and I’m ruthless with them on this point. I tell them that unless they are willing to look at their saints and listen to them, they are going to miss some great lessons on Franciscan living in the secular world. It’s not enough to have some pious devotion to the patrons. Devotion means immitation.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[Marauder]

Brother JR I really appreciate your responses as always. It really helps because believe it or not I am not going by the two by two approach. I appreciate the more focused approach but it is hard to “fight” the entropy that seems to develop. In our fraternity many of the new members have been trying to start up fraternity wide outreaches. Everytime something is tried things don’t seem to pan out because of the things I mentioned in my previous posts. We tried to form up an outreach to the excused members of the fraternity figuring this would be a good start and not real hard to do. The one thing we were needing from the “older” members was the connection to the excused members because we figured people appearing out of the blue to do this wouldn’t be the best thing. We couldn’t get any support from the older members for various reasons. Currently the primary fraternity support we provide is assisting with the local friary that we meet at. Helping at events, providing food, helping in the gift shop, helping with Mass, etc. Like I said before that is where most of our new members come from so it is both beneficial to us and to the friary, but many of us think more should be done on a fraternity scale, but most seem attached to the other idea. I personally have a tough time doing this because I have a 2 year old and a 6 year old and a wife that needs support so I have been requested not to take the leadership roles at least for a couple years.

As for being identifiable. I wear my Tau cross everywhere. The only time I take it off is to sleep, shower, and sometimes do work around the house. I am an usher at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and had to get special permission to wear it with my uniform (since the official policy is NO additions to the uniform.) Several people in our fraternity are the same way, but not all.

Pax et bonum

 

[joandarc2008]

Thank you Br JR and if I can get permission I will be reading your full response at our next meeting on Saturday.

 

[albertziggy]

Hi Br. JR,

Just wrote to say that I appreciate your replies to our fellow Secular Franciscan brothers and sisters. I, too, will be sharing them with my fraternity.

Like Marauder, I wear the TAU at all times, especially in public. I am often reminded of the same comment you made some months back. On one occassion, my minister and I were mistaken to be friars though…

albertziggy

 

[roveau]

The bold is mine. I really like your last question. I believe that the soil is fertile for our Secular Franciscan brothers and sisters to become a very powerful presence among Catholics. Everytime I revisit Franciscan history, especially the lives of our Holy Father Francis and our Secular Franciscan saints, there is one thing that jumps out at me. There was always a strong sense of mission to evangelize those who did not know the Gospel. However, the greatest emphasis was always placed on evangelizing Catholics and it was the Secular Franciscans who responded to this dimension of the Franciscan Missionary Vocation.

Because most Secular Franciscans are either married or are deacons and priests attached to dioceses, they did not have the freedom of movement to go to the foreign missions. Nonetheless, they were true missionaries at home. They evangelized the Catholic laity and secular clergy around them. Men like Thomas More did battle with a dissenting king and the clergy who supported him. Women like Elizabeth of Hungary were the predecessors to today’s Mother Teresa, impressing upon the people of her time the dignity of the poor, the sick and the dying. Louis King of France set the standard for moral government. In fact, the Franciscan Sisters did not come from the Poor Clare Nuns. They came from the Secular Franciscans. Most were Secular Franciscan women who joined forces to combat the ills of illiteracy, child abuse, and the hopelessness of poverty and illness. They were eventually separated from the Third Order Secular and incorporated into the Third Order Regular. That’s how we came to have the millions of Franciscan Sisters who have faithfully served the Church since the 17th century.

The Secular Franciscan Order has always planted a seed of the Gospel among Catholics who were lost, confused, hopeless, poor, abandoned, oppressed, and in a state of error. As we can see, Jesus statement to Judas is still applicable today. “The poor shall always be with you.”

Today, the poorest of the poor are many of our Catholic brothers and sisters who dissent on critical issues such as abortion, contraception, euthanasia, infanticide, illegal immigration, the death penalty. These are truly poor. As I think about it, they are poorer than those who are materially poor, because though they belong to a Church where the fulness of truth subsists, they are not aware of it or they believe that they can pick and choose what to believe and what to obey.

Let us remember the words of profession made by the entire Franciscan family. "I promise to obey . . . " If we are to be obedient, then should we not obey God’s call to evangelize our Catholic brothers and sisters?

What would our Holy Father Francis expect of us?

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

How blessed are we Br JR to have you advise us specifically on some of the neglected aspects of the Franciscan Secular Order. I hope I will be able to bring some of your ideas and suggestions to my fraternity over the next few meetings. It might be a good start to introduce a topic, ‘Is this enough?’ and examine what we can do to promote ourselves among Catholics (we are fairly invisible in all the surrounding parishes), what we may be able to do for Catholics who find themselves out of the loop, such as Catholics in nursing homes.

I appreciate what you wrote above and your subsequent suggestions and observations. One important detail I noted is in public recognition in the form of wearing the tau. The other brothers and sisters in my fraternity who are also ‘novices’ assumed that we were not permitted to wear the tau until we were professed. I’ll bring that up in our next meeting and if it is ok with the Minister we can start wearing the tau to Mass, work and in public That’s a start anyway.

Brother, if you think of anything else, from time to time, that might put us junior Franciscans in the way of progress toward the path of St Francis, please use this thread or a new one to give us some more to think about and act upon.

I must say though that ignorance is no excuse on our part because we do have such rich source material on our dear saint - some written by those who knew him, such as Thomas of Celano, plus we have so many Franciscan saints to explore. But sometimes we need a push because we must relate/translate those things on St Francis and the message of the Gospels to the present day and the circumstances of our fraternities.

May the Lord bless you and the Franciscan Brothers of Life.

 

[JReducation]

Hi Br. JR,

Just wrote to say that I appreciate your replies to our fellow Secular Franciscan brothers and sisters. I, too, will be sharing them with my fraternity.

Like Marauder, I wear the TAU at all times, especially in public. I am often reminded of the same comment you made some months back. On one occassion, my minister and I were mistaken to be friars though…

albertziggy

Being mistaken with friars is better than being msitaken with Buddhist monks.

That’s a great opportunity to explain to people that Francis of Assisi founded a family of orders. Then one can explain that there is an order for friars, which is broken down into many branches, according to the needs of the time and place. There is an order for enclosed nuns and there is an order for secular cleregy and secular laity. It’s important to mention the secular clergy, because many people think that the Secular Franciscans are a lay order. This is not true. You guys are not a lay order. If you were, then deacons, priests and bishops could not join it. They are not lay. You guys are secular. This includes anyone who is not bound by vows in a religious community. That’s why you can admit diocesan deacons, diocesan priests and bishops. These men are not religious. They are secular. You see all the teaching that you can do in just a few minutes? Most people don’t have a clue about the different betwee lay and cleric or the difference between secular and religious.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[albertziggy]

Being mistaken with friars is better than being msitaken with Buddhist monks.

That’s a great opportunity to explain to people that Francis of Assisi founded a family of orders. Then one can explain that there is an order for friars, which is broken down into many branches, according to the needs of the time and place. There is an order for enclosed nuns and there is an order for secular cleregy and secular laity. It’s important to mention the secular clergy, because many people think that the Secular Franciscans are a lay order. This is not true. You guys are not a lay order. If you were, then deacons, priests and bishops could not join it. They are not lay. You guys are secular. This includes anyone who is not bound by vows in a religious community. That’s why you can admit diocesan deacons, diocesan priests and bishops. These men are not religious. They are secular. You see all the teaching that you can do in just a few minutes? Most people don’t have a clue about the different betwee lay and cleric or the difference between secular and religious.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

Hi Br JR:

It is certainly a challenge telling people what the Secular Order is all about. I have often been mistaken as an ordained religious, even in the office! A classmate of mine, who is a religious cleric himself asked me if we made vows of celibate chastity. People could not seem to understand what secular orders are, no matter what explanation I give.

In our country, we have a big number of Secular Franciscan clergy - both bishops and diocesan priests. They had a conference recently. It would seem that if they would band together, they could form a religious congregation themselves. Its just sad that they could not attend the activities of the SFO. The challenge I also see is when the SFO clergy are grouped as a class different from the non-clerics.

In Christ,

albertziggy

 

[GoldenSunflower]

I don’t know if anyone is still reading around this thread… but I’ll try anyway. I am a brand new catholic, having just completed RCIA at Pentecost, and have been in contact with the local SFO for the past several months and have visited several of their meetings… which are once a month.

This last time I was told that their advisor told the minister that I would have to wait until a year after the end of RCIA before I could start any kind of formation, which is fine with me. She then added however, that a new formation group will be starting in about 3 months, and I won’t be able to do that with them… so I will need to wait until they have finished formation and been professed (a 3 year process by their structure), and then when the next formation group begins afterwards, I will be able to start with that group.

Maybe you could tell me if this is normal for the Secular Orders?

I would think that perhaps this is an indication that my calling is not to the SFO… but then afterwards (in just the last two months) I’ve had two rather ‘odd’ encounters with running into a patron saint of Lay Brothers, and other saints who were members of the SFO,…

And yes, I’d run into the Cordbearer of St Francis info things too, and am very disappointed to hear they are no longer around!!

 

[Marauder]

First off Catholic Answers prefers that you open a new thread instead of replying to old threads.

As to whether what you are experiencing is normal within SFO/OFS, the answer is yes. For me personally it took over a year, almost 2 for me to get into an Inquiry class. No matter what you have to wait 3 months before you can enter Inquiry. The 3 months is the Visitation phase. If there isn’t an Inquiry class ready for you, you have to wait. Formation is usually not handled on a one-on-one basis because like the Franciscans as a whole, everything is based on community. It helps to have others going through the process at the same time.

As to whether it is normal for them to require you to wait a period of time after converting/going through RCIA. That is very normal. ALL Orders will do this. Everyone realizes that new converts sometimes feel burning with the spirit. Most people go through phases after conversion where they are burning with the spirit then that feeling goes down. People want to make sure that joining a Secular Order is your true vocation, not just due to the temporary feelings you may get after your conversion.

If the calling is true it will be there, no matter how long you wait. If you feel truly called to be a Franciscan, attend the meetings. You will have all the rights and privileges as anyone else at the meeting, except you can’t run for office or have an official vote until after you are professed. But you can still view the fraternity, attend their meetings and participate in all the spirituality of the group. If just having to wait causes you to feel SFO isn’t meant for you, then it wasn’t.