Institute of The

Fascicule 2

Institute of the

Franciscan

Missionaries of Mary

LIVING OUR NAME

PART II

«…FRANCISCANS…»

NB - This Fascicule 2 is entirely devoted to Part II of our journey: TheFranciscan Family, and how we belong to it

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PART II - «FRANCISCANS»

At the heart of our “larger” Family

Belonging - Knowledge- Spirituality

INTRODUCTION

“Larger family”

When we speak of a “larger family”, we are thinking of the opening out of more restricted human families to a group of other communities with various affinities, common interests, and more or less recognised links. Through alliances made across the generations, and through the bonds of friendship it creates, every family is usually called upon not to close in on itself, but to open out to others, thus widening the circle of affection and solidarity, and keeping itself from particularism and individualism.

As it is with a natural family, so is it with a spiritual family with its own characteristics.

“Larger” spiritual families in the Church of today.

The Church of the twenty-first century emphasises the presence within it of communities made up of members with different life commitments, but sharing the same evangelical spirituality and aiming at the same apostolic and contemplative ideal. Submitted to the hierarchical authority – which has to recognise in them the inspiration and a gift of the Spirit, - and far from being a “church within the Church”, they are called to be a precious spiritual yeast within parishes and dioceses.

They are essentially of two kinds:

- The “New Communities” - often called “charismatic” - which evolved in the 20th century in totally new, sometimes disturbing forms.

- The “SpiritualFamilies”, fruit of the maturing of a “charism” over a shorter or longer period of time. This charism, animated by a spirituality, and incarnated in a “way of life”, is normally transmitted by a founder/foundress to an Order or a religious Congregation; its spirituality/way of life is then shared with others: priests, religious, lay people. The Franciscan Family is one of these, like many other families, Dominican, Carmelite, Ignatian, Foucauld etc. Each family chooses its own form of organisation according to what suits best its common goal.

Our belonging to the Franciscan Family

This presupposes mutual knowledge and the creation of bonds at different levels; we shall reflect on this in the following pages.

--A – Our bonds of belonging (pp. 5-7) – First of all, we recall briefly our canonical belonging to the Franciscan Family, what in the Church makes us its juridical members by right as a religious institute

Then, after looking at its history and the existential bond that binds us to it (B), we shall look at our spiritual belonging (C).

- B – Knowledge of the family and its history

(pp. 8-39) -

So that we may better understand the broad outline of Franciscan spirituality, we shall begin by listening to this Family speak of itself as a living organism, in which we have our place.

We shall do that in the central part of this text. That will help us to know the Franciscan Family better through its history, the “larger” Family of which our religious family is a part, along with others, all together sharing in its spirituality and way of life, each according to its own charism. This will lead us to reflect on our existential bond with it.

- C -The Spirituality that unites the whole Family in communion (pp. 40-60) – After recalling the Spirituality lived by Francis, we shall attempt a synthesis of this Spirituality, which was defined and developed over centuries, and which gathers his Family together in communion. It is the vision of faith that nourishes our Charism and inspires our Way of life.

- After a brief conclusion, we shall pass on to the Transition between Part II and Part III of this Document, concerning our religious Identity.

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A –OUR BONDS OF BELONGING to the Franciscan Family

Ø  the canonical bond

- 1 – This is found first of all in the Decree of approbation of our Constitutions by the Sacred Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, dated 21 November 1985. This concerns the Constitutions rewritten in 1978 according to the directives of Vatican Council II, first approved temporarily in 1979, then definitively in 1985. The slight modifications introduced by the General Chapter of 2008 and approved by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life (CICLSAL) on which we now depend, do not change the earlier approbation of these Constitutions, as the Decree notes.

On the subject of our belonging to the Franciscan family as an Institute, this is what the Decree states, briefly but clearly.

‘…The specific aim of the Institute, which belongs to the Third Order of Saint Francis, is to announce the Good News to those to whom Christ has not yet been revealed, to those among whom the Church is least present, with preference given to the poor.

… May the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, constantly striving to follow Christ in the light of the original charism of the Institute, live their vocation with renewed commitment and a great fidelity to the Fundamental Code approved by the Holy See, consecrating themselves to Eucharistic adoration and to the evangelisation of peoples, and offering their lives for the Church …’.

The Decree authenticates in a way, what is written in the “identity card” of the Institute, which precedes the first chapter of the Constitutions(p. 24):

“…It belongs to the Third Order Regular of St. Francis, while observing its own Constitution …”

In all the juridical decrees which follow each other at the beginning of our Constitutions to confirm their orthodoxy and the legitimacy of our belonging to the Church, we like to discover occasionally warmer tones of encouragement and appreciation, such as these of Cardinal Agnelo Rossi in 1979, wishing that the new Constitutions might be welcomed by us

“… as a sure guide in their daily commitment to follow Christ by the practice of the evangelical counsels after the example of Saint Francis and be for them a source of inspiration for an ever more generous collaboration of all the Sisters in the work of evangelisation.”

- 2 - Our institutional bond with the Franciscan Family is confirmed once more by the presence at the beginning of our Constitutions, of the ““Rule of Life of the Brothers and Sisters of the Third Order Regular of Saint Francis”, the Rule to which not only our legislation but also our spirit should conform.

“1 This is the form of life of the Brothers and Sisters of the Third Order Regular of Saint Francis: to observe the holy Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by living in obedience, in poverty and in chastity. As followers of Jesus Christ after the example of Saint Francis, they are obliged to make more and greater efforts to observe the precepts and counsels of Our Lord Jesus Christ. They are bound to deny themselves as each has promised to God.

2 The Brothers and Sisters of this Order, like everyone who desires to serve the Lord in the holy, catholic and apostolic Church, resolve to persevere in true faith and penance. They desire to live this evangelical conversion in a spirit of prayer, poverty and humility. […]

3 The Brothers and Sisters promise obedience to the Pope and to the Catholic Church.

In the same spirit they are to obey those who have been entrusted with authority in the fraternity.

Wherever they are or whatever situation they are in, they should diligently and fervently show reverence and honour to one another. They should also foster unity and communion with all the members of the Franciscan Family.

(Rule and life of the TOR, chapter 1)

- 3 a - Chapter I of our Constitutions resumes in a few words our Franciscan belonging when Article 5, after mentioning the different aspects of our charism, adds:

“We realise our vocation within the Franciscan way, living the Gospel in the midst of the world and following in the steps of the poor and humble Christ, in simplicity, peace and joy.”

- 3 b – But there is a juridical element in this bond to strengthen our fidelity and help us not to stray from this “path”, the element that specifies the authority of the minister general of the Friars Minor (OFM) towards the Institute. We find this in Chapter VII of the Constitutions, “At the Service of Unity”, in the part devoted to the ‘Service of Government’, and more specifically under ‘General level’

“172 - The General Chapter elects the superior general and six councillors. The minister general of the Order of Friars Minor presides at the election of the superior general; the latter presides at the election of the councillors.…”.

We can make two remarks here. First, in the Constitutions of before Vatican II, the minister general also presided at the election of the general councillors; the Church now gives more weight to the authority of non-clerical persons in the internal government of religious institutes. – Second, this presidency places the Institute canonically in the Franciscan Family through an organic link with the Order of Friars Minor; in fact, in a religious congregation, even one of pontifical rite, but totally independent of a clerical Order, it is the bishop of the place where the General Chapter is held who has to ratify the election of the superior general. This hierarchical power is here transferred to the minister general OFM.

In her government, if the superior general then has

“full and complete authority over the Institute: that is, over provinces, communities and sisters …” (Const. art. 176),

she also has the responsibility of maintaining links with the Order of Friars Minor and its minister general, and of referring to him for all important business:

“177 – She ensures the Institute’s relations with the Holy See and with the Order of Friars Minor.

She consults the minister general about serious matters concerning the Institute; and is directly in contact with him for the maintenance of the Franciscan spirit.”

She is especially to consult him in order to advance or postpone the General Chapter or to convoke an extraordinary General Chapter. (Const. art. 171).

To sum up:

At the end of this rapid reflection on our “institutional bond” of belonging, this appears under two forms, at the general level that of canonical (juridical) dependence as regards relations with the minister general of the OFM[1]; - and the other which commits each one of us to a contract of existential covenant of communion, with the other institutes who profess, like us, the Rule of the Third Order Regular. This covenant makes us interdependent in the same “way of living according to the Gospel”, inaugurated by Francis, and allows us to create together a common history in the Church.

Ø  spiritual and existential bonds

“How far are we truly Franciscan? We have our own charism, which existed before our insertion into the family of Francis. Was this belonging, which began rather late, (1885, eight years after the foundation of the Institute), desired only in order to have the canonical support of something solid? In our country, relations with the Franciscans are good, but go no further”. This question, asked aloud one day, is certainly present in the unvoiced thoughts of some of us, and deserves to be taken seriously.

Mary of the Passion answered this herself when she sent to the Institute the circular of 19 November 1882, announcing our Franciscan adoption, and the reasons that led her to request it (cf. Biography by M.M. Jehanne chap. 6; and in the “Memoirs” chap. 3, and “Rome, my spiritual homeland” p. 179):

ü  To give the Institute the support of a spiritual family solidly rooted in the Church, and have it share in its spiritual treasures.

ü  To respond to her own long-standing attraction (22 years) towards Francis, the poor and simple Gospel man.

ü  To help her sisters to live “in the world” without being “of the world”, and to find in the Gospel the guide for their life.

ü  To welcome the invitation of Pope Leo XIII, calling baptised Christians to follow in large numbers the way marked out by Francis, in order to be a ferment of renewal for the world.

ü  Further, she insists that, as we have to work all over the world, with all kinds of clergy, we should firmly keep and study the spirit of St. Francis.

ü  It involves becoming deeply rooted in the spirituality, rather than being a matter of jurisdiction (which applies only to certain specific points at the general level).

Numerous later texts of Mary of the Passion, whether general letters for the whole Institute, or personal ones, reveal how far the spirit she wished to transmit to the FMM was impregnated by Franciscan orientations which were both very spiritual and very practical.

***

But do we have a clear idea of what this Family is today? Now we are going to ask it to help us know it better, through a brief history of its 800 years of existence. This will lead us to reflect on our existential bond with it.

The following presentation is based partly on the Franciscan documents of the various branches, available on the internet, especially:

- the two presentations of the Franciscan Family (FF) made by Fr. Giacomo Bini ofm, dated 26.10.2000 and 01.06.09;

- and the Letter of the Conference of the Franciscan Family (CFF) to the whole Family, dated from Rome on 29.11.06 in view of preparing together the 8th centenary of the Movement, and signed by all the leaders of the Conference - : the 4 Franciscan Ministers, the Minister of the SFO and the President of the IFC-TOR.

This document also borrows a lot from, among others,

- the “History of the Franciscan Orders”, cf. wikitau.org, site of the Franciscan Encyclopedia online, animated by Br. Luc Mathieu ofm, historian and theologian;

- the presentations offered by the Capuchins on franciscain.net,