Why do we ignore the brothers' vocation?

[JReducation]

Br. JR,

I am so touched at your comments and your knowledge. I have strong feelings about promoting vocations. If I hadn’t met my fiancee I probably would have started the process of becoming a priest. I however am in formation in the S.F.O. I feel we need to promote a way of life for men to become priest and brothers, more so the priests.

The subscript is mine.

You say you are in formation for the Secular Franciscan Order and I am glad for that. But have you not been paying any attention to our Holy Father Francis? Have you noticed, which is the largest number of Franciscans in the world? Let me break it down for you.

There are currently more than one mmillion Franciscans in the world. Of that, over 800,000 are secular men and women. More than 300,000 are sisters. About 400,000 are non-clerical brothers and about 50,000 are ordained brothers. Do you know why there are such few ordained Franciscans and so many seculars? Because our Holy Father Francis did not try to manage or direct God’s call.

Vocation ministry means to help others hear the voice of God and respond. It does not mean that we drive men or women in whatever direction we believe they need to go or in a direction that meets our needs. That is not what Francis wants.

If we are to be a true Franciscan, we must first of all value poverty above all things. Franciscan poverty is the acceptance of God’s will no matter what the cost. If a man is to be a priest, let God call him and let him respond freely. Do not hinder him, nor drive him. Francis would not want us to do that.

In fact, if we read the rules that our Holy Father wrote, the priesthood is never mentioned. The reason is simple. It’s not that we do not value it. On the contrary, we love our priests. The reason why it’s not mentioned in the rule is because Francis understood how easy it is to develop a clerical mentality.

We begin to think, “We need priests to celebrate mass for us and to hear our confessions.” Francis observed the use of the pronoun “our” and did not like this statement. Nothing should be about us. It’s all about Him.

Therefore, as faithful sons and daughters of our Holy Father Francis, we promote His voice. We encourage people to stop and hear his voice. We encourage people to respond to his voice.

We encourage men and women to give whatever he takes and take whatever he gives. That’s the true meaning of vocation ministry.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[JReducation]

Where do lay people fit in?

The secular lay man and woman have a very special place in the Church, which is neither among the consecrated or the ordained, but in the secular state. The mission of the lay person is to bring the Gospel into every sphere of the secular world, especially government.

Picture the crowds in the scriptures. John the Baptist points to Jesus and tells them, “Behold the Lamb of God.” John is the religious brother. Then we see Christ who says, “Take and eat or your sins are forgiven” This is Christ the priest. But move along to the mount where Christ teaches the disciples the beatitudes, where he multiplies the fishes and the loaves and when he says, “Go and make believers of all men.” In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke tells us about the first Christians who came together and put everything that they had at the feet of the Apostles and everything was distributed among them. Here is the special vocation of the lay person, to turn the world around and open it up for Christ through service to each other and the “breaking of the bread”.

The lay person fulfills God’s plan as a spouse, parent or a single person who works to ensure that every dimension of daily life in society reflects the Gospel and complies with the teachings of the Church. Only the lay person can do that. The consecrated religious and the ordained deacon, priest or bishop can only teach the laity what to do and say. But the doing and saying, in the secular world, is the work of the laity.

Today, the greatest mission of the laity is to defend life from conception to natural death. Only the laity has the power to turn the culture of death into a culture of life.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

Br JR,
Do you know how many of those in the Secular Franciscan Order are secular priests?

 

[melchesidechpio]

The subscript is mine.

You say you are in formation for the Secular Franciscan Order and I am glad for that. But have you not been paying any attention to our Holy Father Francis? Have you noticed, which is the largest number of Franciscans in the world? Let me break it down for you.

There are currently more than one mmillion Franciscans in the world. Of that, over 800,000 are secular men and women. More than 300,000 are sisters. About 400,000 are non-clerical brothers and about 50,000 are ordained brothers. Do you know why there are such few ordained Franciscans and so many seculars? Because our Holy Father Francis did not try to manage or direct God’s call.

Vocation ministry means to help others hear the voice of God and respond. It does not mean that we drive men or women in whatever direction we believe they need to go or in a direction that meets our needs. That is not what Francis wants.

If we are to be a true Franciscan, we must first of all value poverty above all things. Franciscan poverty is the acceptance of God’s will no matter what the cost. If a man is to be a priest, let God call him and let him respond freely. Do not hinder him, nor drive him. Francis would not want us to do that.

In fact, if we read the rules that our Holy Father wrote, the priesthood is never mentioned. The reason is simple. It’s not that we do not value it. On the contrary, we love our priests. The reason why it’s not mentioned in the rule is because Francis understood how easy it is to develop a clerical mentality.

We begin to think, “We need priests to celebrate mass for us and to hear our confessions.” Francis observed the use of the pronoun “our” and did not like this statement. Nothing should be about us. It’s all about Him.

Therefore, as faithful sons and daughters of our Holy Father Francis, we promote His voice. We encourage people to stop and hear his voice. We encourage people to respond to his voice.

We encourage men and women to give whatever he takes and take whatever he gives. That’s the true meaning of vocation ministry.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

I am sorry I misspoke. I meant that we ought to encourage vocations in understanding what vocations are. I truely agree with what you are saying. I just used the wrong words in getting my point across. Helping others realize a potential vocation should be respectful. I admire your wisdom and pointing out where I lack.

 

[rachael_maria]

Thank you for your answer regarding where lay people fit in. I wanted to be a sister but can not because of anxiety issues that I have. Which leads to my next question.

Saints have a strong awareness of the Church, while at the same time, they pay close attention to what is immediately before them. They are balanced people. That’s probably why all of them are so sane, that psychology and psychiatry can’t describe them. Their sanity is off the charts.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

Are you saying that mentally ill people can not be saints? I was told that there have been saints who struggled with mental illness like St. Benedict Joseph Labre and St. Margaret Mary. It would seem to go against the universal call to holiness if sainthood required that we all be off the charts in psychological health. Not many of us are.

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

Are you saying that mentally ill people can not be saints? I was told that there have been saints who struggled with mental illness like St. Benedict Joseph Labre and St. Margaret Mary. It would seem to go against the universal call to holiness if sainthood required that we all be off the charts in psychological health. Not many of us are.

I think you need to focus more on the end of what Br JR said, “That’s probably why all of them are so sane, that psychology and psychiatry can’t describe them. Their sanity is off the charts.”

Psychologists and Psychiatrists would most likely not be able to understand a Saint. Most likely, according to the world these Saints are views as not being sane. The criteria that psychologists and psychiatrists use for sanity would not apply to a Saint.

I remember when a friend of mine had some issues and a school psychologist determined that he was special needs. After some time the family tried to have him removed from the special needs class as it was no longer helping him but really just holding him back. The school system wanted to keep him in it due to funding and the school psychologist would not release him, so the family got an independent psychologist to evaluate him, and he stated that even though he is not what psychologists would call “normal” that any person who scored normal on all the tests would by definition be ab-normal as no one tests that way. With this independent psychologist the school had to relent.

For your case, for all of our cases, we are called to be saints. For a person to be recognized as a Saint by the Church, that is that the person is in Heaven, is an extraordinary thing and IMHO I do not believe that everyone in Heaven is listed by the Church as a Saint.

I know I rambled a bit but I hope I helped you in some small way.

 

[JReducation]

Are you saying that mentally ill people can not be saints? I was told that there have been saints who struggled with mental illness like St. Benedict Joseph Labre and St. Margaret Mary. It would seem to go against the universal call to holiness if sainthood required that we all be off the charts in psychological health. Not many of us are.

I would not say that at all. There are two conditions required for sanctity. 1) heroic life of virtue and 2) heroic faith and they are inseparable.

Many saints struggled with what we in Mystical and Ascetical Theology call “moods, temperaments, and passions”. The Carmelite Mystics wrote a great deal about this. What they make very clear is that sanctity is not the absence of human conditions. Sanctity is achieved despite human conditions. Benedict Joseph, Matt Talbut, Francis of Assisi, Dymphna, Paul VI, just to name a few holy people, some canonized and some on their way, had serious emotional struggles. Their lives were often emotional roller coasters. Francis of Assisi may have been bi-polar. We’ll never know. But we know that he swung from one extreme of the spectrum to the other. Paul VI, we do know, struggled with depression. Matt Talbot was a recovering alcoholic. Dymphna had an anxiety disorder. Benedict Joseph sounds like someone who had processing disorders.

Then you have Solanus Casey who had learning disabilities. John Vianney was most likely dyslexic. Reading was a challenge for him.

What they all had in common was that they capitalized on their situation. Every challenge became a means. If you measure their behaviors on our common scales such as the MMPI, Rorshach, WISC, PNSQ, or use a brain map, you will find that they had condition that was handicapping in one way, but they turned it into a means to achieve holiness.

The late great psychiatrist who spent years studying the mind of the saints, William James and later Victor Frankl, all walked away with the same conclusion. These people struggled with conditions that would have crippled other people. Yet, this was not their case. The question is why not? Victor Frankl gives the best response. They found a meaning to their condition. Frankl tells us that when man finds a meaning, even in the worse situation, he finds a purpose.

This cannot be measured by any pschometric tool known to man. We have no explanation how a person who struggles with any kind of health problem or disability can rise above it and actually embrace it, because it has a meaning to him that gives him a purpose for living. Going back to William James, the only explanation is grace. As the Carmelite Mystics teach us, grace is mediated in darkness.

Br JR,
Do you know how many of those in the Secular Franciscan Order are secular priests?

I do not . That kind of information would be known to their Superiors. We’re not allowed to have anything to do with them. The Secular Franciscan Order is completely Pontifical. Our relationship with them is only as spiritual assistants and they can fire us at will. I do know that there are many holy secular priests who were Franciscans: Francis de Sales, John Vianney, Leo XII, Pius X, Pius XII, John XXIII, Fulton Sheen and Philip Neri.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[rachael_maria]

What an insightful post Brother. Thank you for clarifying what you meant about the saints and sanity.

 

[TiggerS]

What an insightful post Brother. Thank you for clarifying what you meant about the saints and sanity.

I will second that!
Mental illness is an illness per se - just like cancer, heart or kidney disease etc. etc. - the cause of a mental illness, however, can adversely affect the mental and emotional functioning and in many instances if not most instances, it is a physical or biological factor in the brain which affects that mental or emotional functioning. Mental illness can be something of a misnomer, meaning it is not the mental functioning per se that is ill or unwell, rather biological factors in the brain and physical in origin, not mental. With modern day psychiatry and medications there are many indeed who have gone on from serious mental illness to lead normal lives of contribution to and within society. One’s doctor, dentist, lawyer, teacher indeed could be a sufferer of serious mental illness succesfully treated with psychiatry and medication - and not only those professions. Most will stay “in the closet” for sound and logical reasons sadly.

Then there can be those who struggle indeed heroically and daily, hourly, with great Faith and trust in God with very severe mental illness- and with not much at all on the human level (meaning successful treatment) to encourage that great Faith and trust in God. This is a certain heroism of Faith and trust to my mind.

I think we can still be trying even in The Church to recover from middle age type of notions and concepts connected to mental illness and not yet caught up with modern research and understanding, let alone successful treaments. The Church can still be backward on this point and the moment a person mentions mental illness, doors may close even if one can produce evidence of a long period of stability. This is stigma.

There can even be a persistent inaccurate and false concept that one is somehow spiritually reprobate on some level to become mentally ill. A distasteful type of person that Charity calls us to be tolerant towards, as distasteful as it is. This is a cruel stigma if it occurs. A sort of “we have to love them but cannot like them” type of stance.

To find meaning in life, no matter content, as Bro JRe pointed out, is of great importance. Psychiatry does state I have heard that a person is beginning a journey to potential wellness when they can view their mental illness as one of the best things that ever happened to them i.e. they find meaning in it and because of it. That is, they embrace it as a means to something better and of importance to them, rather than reject it as the cause of all their problems.

Thank you very much Brother JRe for educated and enlightened sharing - absolutely worth filing and keeping on file.

TS