May the Lord give you peace!
October is one of my favorite months. The weather starts to get a little
cooler, the leaves change color and begin to fall from the trees, the full moon
seems bigger and brighter when it makes its appearance, squirrels are busy
gathering acorns and making nests in the trees, and the daylight gets shorter by a
minute or so each day.
It’s the month of the rosary, Respect Life month, breast cancer awareness
month, and the month in which I was married 45 years ago.
As Franciscans, we celebrate the Transitus of St. Francis and his feast day,
coming together as family, grateful to be on this path of shared spirituality.
We Secular Franciscans are “called to make our own contribution, inspired by the person and message of St. Francis of Assisi, towards a civilization in which the dignity of the human person, shared responsibility, and love may be living realities” (General Constitutions, Art. 18.1).
Catholic social teaching focuses on the dignity of the human person in one of its foundational themes. Every person has value (dignity) because they are created in God’s image and likeness.
In our social environment today, it seems to me that we are seeing, hearing, and experiencing examples that do not value or dignify each and every person.
Our Trinitarian God is relational; and because we are created in God’s image, we, too, are
meant to be in relationship. Article 13 of our Rule guides us in our Franciscan way of relating to people. Two key points, I feel, are accepting people both as a gift of the Lord and an image of Christ. It is quite a challenge to live and apply our Rule, in case you haven’t noticed since you began your Franciscan journey.
As this month of October continues, I ask you to reflect upon “Who are my brother and my sister?” and “What steps can I take to accept people as a gift of the Lord and an image of Christ?”
May God help us to grow and abound in love for Jesus and for one another by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Thank you, dear brothers and sisters, for your prayers offered for my recovery from hip
replacement surgery; because of God’s will and your prayers, I’m doing very well. Thank you for re-electing me as your regional minister to serve you for a second term. I am humbled and grateful for your loving support. God bless you and keep you!
Peace and all good,
DorothyAnn
DorothyAnn Rowland, OFS, Brothers and Sisters of St. Francis Region’s minister, is a member of Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Fraternity, Hilton Head Island, S.C.
Category Archives: Minister’s Message
Welcome to 2019
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Cry out with joy to the Lord, all the earth; serve the Lord with gladness! Since the Third Sunday of Advent, the word that God keeps giving to me to ponder is JOY. It speaks to me in various readings in the Liturgy of the Hours, in my daily encounters with life, and in my search for who I am and who God wants me to be.
Our Franciscan spirituality calls us to be joyful in all circumstances. Not always easy, especially when there is disharmony, stress, deadlines, pain, and heaven only knows what else in our daily lives. I trust you are all familiar with St. Francis explaining perfect joy to Brother Leo. If not, it’s in The Little Flowers of St. Francis (Fioretti); or, you can always “google” it. I’m sharing the following from The Assisi Project website, an excerpt from “St. Francis Explains Perfect Joy”:
“Finally, St. Francis said: ‘Brother Leo, please listen to me. Above all gifts of the Holy Spirit, that Christ Jesus gives to his friends is the grace to overcome oneself, to accept willingly, out of love for Him, all contempt, all discomfort, all injury, and all suffering. In this and all other gifts, we ourselves should not boast because all things are gifts from God. Remember the words of St. Paul: ‘What do you have that you did not receive from God? And if you did receive it, why do you oast as if it were not a gift (1Cor 4:7)?’ But in the cross of afflictions and suffering, we truly can glory because as St. Paul says again: ‘May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world (Gal 6:14).’ Amen.”
So, cry out with joy, all the earth, serve the Lord with gladness!
And, don’t forget to serve your brothers and sisters in fraternity with gladness and joy; plus your family, friends, Church, and ________________. (You fill in the blank, as the list goes on and on.)
Let’s really live our vocation!
Which reminds me. This year of 2019 is a Chapter of Elections year for our BSSF Region, to be held in August at our Annual Regional Gathering. May the Holy Spirit enrich you to live your vocation more fully by considering serving on your regional council.
Please note that this year’s Annual Regional Gathering is Aug. 9, 10, 11, at Ridgecrest Conference Center, near Asheville, N.C. In response to your requests to have more
interaction/sharing with other fraternities, we are planning opportunities for this. Also note that our National Fraternity Priority for 2019–2021 is “Fraternity Life.” Please see “News from the National Executive Council: National Priority for 2019–2021” on page 18 of the 2019 Winter Issue of Communio.
Your Brothers and Sisters of St. Francis Regional Executive Council wishes you God’speace, love, joy, and all good as we continue our Franciscan journey together!
Joyfully, your sister in Christ and St. Francis,
DorothyAnn
DorothyAnn Rowland, OFS, Brothers and Sisters of St. Francis Region’s minister, is a memberof Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Fraternity, Hilton Head Island, S.C.
A Special Message: Regional Minister’s report to the Region from the National Gathering of the SFO
From the National Minister’s report to the Order
From the Conference of National Spiritual Assistants (CNSA)
Father Lester Bach, OFM Cap., president-in-turn, reminded us that a saint is one through whom the light shines (picture the effects of light through a stained glass window). The light of Christ is in us — whether we let it out or not. We must clean our house so we can let it shine through. We need to know "who we are"; for example, our Rule about the love of Mary is not about praying the rosary. Father Lester challenged us to look at the vitality of our fraternities. What are we doing, he asked, to enhance the vitality at regional and local levels? Nothing that we do should diminish the purpose of fraternity. It is not our Order — pray to let the Holy Spirit lead. "We cannot guarantee our salvation," he said. "We must give courageous witness "(Greek translation of witness is martyr).
- The emerging fraternity is assured that a province of the First Order/TOR has accepted the altius moderamen for the fraternity. This assures the presence of a local spiritual assistant now and for the future. It bonds the fraternity to that province. Without such assurance, the altius moderamen does not exist as the Church requires. It brings into doubt the possibility of being canonically established if this has not been done. It is not good to appoint an SA at the last minute before canonical establishment. ―The spiritual and pastoral care of the SFO, entrusted by the Church to the Franciscan First Order and the TOR, is the responsibility, above all, of their general and provincial ministers. The altius moderamen, of which canon 303 speaks, belongs to them. The purpose of altius moderamen is to guarantee the fidelity of the SFO to the Franciscan charism, communion with the Church and union within the Franciscan family, values which represent a vital commitment for the secular Franciscans (SFO General Constitutions, Article 85.2).
- The spiritual assistant is a normal part of fraternity life and should be appointed early in the process of a developing fraternity. He/she gives the developing group a realistic experience of what a fraternity and a fraternity council will look like once they are canonically established. Without such spiritual assistance, the group lacks a vital ingredient of fraternity life. In addition, a suitable and well-prepared spiritual assistant is a good partner in the formation process. Waiting until the last minute does not help the developing fraternity.
To neglect the articles of the Rule would be to miss elements of our Franciscan spirit. Something of our "vision" is missing in Franciscans who look down on each other or treat each other disrespectfully or separate from people who seem to disagree with them. In our human situations, we all like to be "right" and help others to see it "our way." While this is somewhat normal in our human nature, it does not fit our Franciscan spirit. Jesus and Francis and the SFO Rule call us to unity, relationships, forgiveness, understanding, compassion, humility, gentleness, and respect for one another. In many cases dialogue is necessary. Franciscans are called to build bridges as paths to unity rather than destroy bridges and make unity impossible.
Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC)
By this time the stage was set for Kent Ferris, SFO, JPIC Commission chair. We began with prayer and then celebration of the faithful example of this year‘s JPIC Award recipient, Father Louie Vitale, OFM (see news release on page 4). We then had the review session for the webinar series, "Catholics Confront Global Poverty." Chris West, CRS community organizer, joined us in person. Then we received a Franciscan Action Network (FAN) year-in-review and were again fortunate to have guests join us: Patrick Carolan and Christy Elliott of FAN. Finally, we talked about the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops‘ Spotlight Programs project. Wait, that wasn‘t the end of the day! In the evening, there was the prayer service commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Day of Prayer for Peace! And then, the multicultural entertainers! And for the next day, a small group worked on the NAFRA statement to the Super Committee:
Formation
The following day Bob Fitzsimmons, SFO, our National Formation Commission chair, brought us up-to-date on the changes to the FUN Manual, including the publication of a Spanish version. Bob reminded us of the importance of formation. It is not just academic but is meant to inform the whole person of our identity, charism, gift, and presence. We need to form Franciscan people who share Francis‘ Trinitarian vision: a relationship of love overflowing. We are a fraternity of equals (leaders animate and serve). We cherish minority —esteeming others above self.
We are Gospel people seeking to imitate Jesus, and we recognize God as Lover inviting us (the beloved) into relationship. All creation is gift. Learn to embrace our littleness (lesser brothers). The reality is this: If we cannot share a gaze of love with people, we cannot do it with Jesus.
Youth
During this gathering we also heard from Jessica Hardinger, a representative of the youth who attended World Youth Day. She described the event as a gathering of one faith with many cultures. It was an experience of both chaos and miracle, a pilgrimage uniting so many Catholic youth and clergy. More than 14,000 priests concelebrated. She thanked the SFO for supporting the youth who attended from the United States. They were accompanied by Father Kevin Queally, TOR (CNSA).
Quinquennial
We then heard from Patrick Mendes, SFO, regarding the 2012 Quinquennial. Registration forms and information on the Q can be found on the NAFRA Web site (nafra-sfo.org).
Database
While the Computer Committee (the Computer Committee takes care of the Database, supports TAU-USA distribution, the List Servers for communications, and the Web site) was not on the agenda, the committee would like all of us to be aware of the following in regard to the NAFRA database. This year, the National Executive Committee has decided that we need to add Profession date to all new members going forward, as this is required at many levels of the Order for record keeping and identification. We‘d like to get that for all past members, as well; but it isn‘t required to update the old members now. It will mean that newly Professed can’t be marked as Professed and won‘t get the TAU-USA without this information.
Getting Together
Throughout the week we experienced time for prayer, fellowship and sharing among all participants and guests. The 30 regional ministers were assigned to geographic groups in which we met for some period of time each day to discern and share our experiences with one another.