Merħba fil-Blog ta’ L-Ordni Franġiskan Sekular!
Dan il-Blog huwa ppreżentat mill-Kunsill Nazzjonali ta’ l-Ordni Franġiskan Sekular ta’ Malta u Għawdex. Fih issibu l-attivitajiet tal-Kunsill Nazzjonali, u l-aħbarijiet tal-fraternitajiet tagħna u tagħrif ieħor għall-Assistenti kollha.
Kuntatt: 0035621236315 / 99450008
X'inhu l-Ordni Franġiskan Sekular?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-xrRVu2VHY
St Francis according to Chesterton
Watch on youtube
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Laudato Si'
Jiktbilna Papa Franġisku
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRYzejYEuug
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OFS National Council 2013
The Elected members are:
Godwin Vella Clark, National Minister and International Councillor;
Pauline Gialanzè, Vice National Minister;
Doris Bezzina, Secretary;
Franca Zammit, Bursar and substitute International Councillor;
Joyce Zammit, Director for formation;
Emily Zahra, Member;
Emanuel Muscat, Member;
Joseph Aquilina, Member.
------------------------------------------------
Read more in pages ..........
Chesterton and Francis
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Franciscan review on-line.
Spirit and Life (April - June 2014)
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/?ui=2&ik=50f4d57039&view=att&th=1457a6e2abb71ce0&attid=0.1&disp=inline&safe=1&zw
Back numbers at www.i-tau.com (section Franciscan Publications).
----------------------------------------------------
What would Francis himself say about this?
Read more in pages ..........
|
| Chesterton and Francis ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
Spirit and Life (April - June 2014)
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/?ui=2&ik=50f4d57039&view=att&th=1457a6e2abb71ce0&attid=0.1&disp=inline&safe=1&zw
Back numbers at www.i-tau.com (section Franciscan Publications).
----------------------------------------------------
What would Francis himself say about this?
LEAVE FRANCISCAN HISTORY TO THE HISTORIANS?
The statistics of the Order of Friars Minor as on 31 December 2014 have been published in Acta Ordinis Fratrum Minorum 134 (January-April 2015), n. 1, 97-99. The total number of Friars Minor in the world, together with novices, stands at 13632. The number of friars still makes the Order of Friars Minor (OFM) the largest among the religious families of the First Franciscan Order. However, the decrease in numbers of friars during these last decades has been dramatic.
One can reason, and rightly so, that numbers do not mean much, since it is not the quantity but the quality of the members of an institution that matters most. During these last decades the OFM has been at pains to try to understand what is going wrong among its rank and file. To this day no exhaustive explanation has been provided. One would have expected the last general chapter, celebrated in Assisi from 10 May to 7 June 2015, to provide us with a convincing answer. We stand to be disappointed.
Indeed, the chapter has been a great occasion to understand the importance of working together as Franciscans to revitalise our charism in the Church and in the world irrespective of historical differences. The ministers general of the other Franciscan families of the First Order, namely the Conventual and Capuchin ministers general, addressed the chapter members. The overall mood was: let’s do away with historical differences and move on together in a new approach to what binds us as one, strong family in the Church.
Well said indeed. One cannot help to agree with such an affirmation. There is, however, a point that needs to be raised as a matter of concern. One gets the impression that history has become a kind of academic exercise reserved for historians who pore over documents in ancient archives in order to provide a thrilling story of events that shaped the Franciscan family along its 800 years plus of history. To be honest, most of these historians are not even Franciscans. Gone are the days when the scholars of Franciscan history were Franciscan friars. They are now a handful. The majority of experts of Franciscan history are lay men and women, and these scholars and professors are doing a splendid and praiseworthy job, more so because they are, in a certain sense, “neutral” to the “seraphic battles” that shaped Franciscan history written by Franciscan historians.
It is, however, sad to listen to comments like: “let us leave history to historians”. It is as if we are saying that we want to forget all about our past and move on as if we have been reborn out of nothing. It is sad that the temptation to do away with history has to do with a serious lack of knowledge of our history. Indeed, the lack of knowledge of our roots is a lack of knowledge of who we are. It is a lack of knowledge of the fact that we have always been a great family, with a great message, with infinite possibilities of expression of our charism. That is what our differences have been all about.
To try to do away with differences and create a pan-Franciscan family artificially united from the top will spell disaster. We still have not learnt the lessons of history. Particularly the OFM family has never been worse off than when people at the top decreed its internal unity, or rather, unification. The mistake is that of equating unity with unification. Unity is a natural process that comes from the grass roots. Unification is imposed from the top and is doomed to a miserable failure. The Secular Franciscan Order has been forcefully unified. But is it united? One has great doubts about the possibility to create unity through a conscious effort to wipe away deep-rooted differences that are a product of history.
One could argue that history has seen many mistakes and scandals being committed in the name of autonomy and separatist expressions. This is true, but it is also true that these same divisions in the Order, which were originally judged as separatist, or even as schismatic and heretical, have developed into the great Franciscan reforms.
What is even more intriguing is the fact that, while the official Franciscan Orders are speaking about the need for unification (not because of their dwindling numbers and limited resources, or so they say), there are many other tiny and less tiny Franciscan congregations that have mushroomed ever since Vatican II. These are much less likely to accept the idea of unification. They have never been thwarted in their attempts to develop by the great Franciscan Orders, even though, honestly, they offer little else which can be added to the richness of Franciscan experience during eight centuries of history. So, I ask, what shall we do when it comes to speak about unity outside the official channels of government of the Franciscan Order? Shall we create a mega religious Order forgetting our distinctive characteristics which are being imitated by these lesser brothers of ours?
In my lessons of Franciscan history I often like to comment on the grave scandal that was caused by the poverty controversy of the early 14th century, when the general government of the Order entered into a fray in the name of an ideology of Lady Poverty with Pope John XXII. I like to state that, if the Order did not disappear from the face of the earth in that period, those events are a proof that the Order will last till the end of the world. The Order at that time was divided, just as the Church was divided. But in one thing it felt united, in protecting its raison d’être. The Order knew who it was and defended itself from a Pope who wanted it to become something else. Funnily enough, in such a disastrous moment of its existence, the Order was united. Is it so united now?
Unity is a must for survival. Unity means mutual respect, brotherly love and cooperation. It means fostering our institutions and the ideals for which they were born. But unity does not mean forgetting the sacrifices that we entailed to be who we are today. It does not mean doing away with traditions and customs that have shaped our identity kit during centuries of history. It is not true to say that we, Franciscan brothers of the First Order, are all the same and that it is high time that we become one by pulling the same rope. Do we want to become one amorphous mass of religious who are increasingly ignorant of their roots?
If this is our choice, well, then let us leave history to historians. They are becoming increasingly more expert in showing us how we tend to ignore the lessons of history, and to forget that, historia est magistra vitae. At least for those who want to keep alive the flame that our forefathers have handed down to us.
LEAVE FRANCISCAN HISTORY TO THE HISTORIANS?
The statistics of the Order of Friars Minor as on 31 December 2014 have been published in Acta Ordinis Fratrum Minorum 134 (January-April 2015), n. 1, 97-99. The total number of Friars Minor in the world, together with novices, stands at 13632. The number of friars still makes the Order of Friars Minor (OFM) the largest among the religious families of the First Franciscan Order. However, the decrease in numbers of friars during these last decades has been dramatic.
One can reason, and rightly so, that numbers do not mean much, since it is not the quantity but the quality of the members of an institution that matters most. During these last decades the OFM has been at pains to try to understand what is going wrong among its rank and file. To this day no exhaustive explanation has been provided. One would have expected the last general chapter, celebrated in Assisi from 10 May to 7 June 2015, to provide us with a convincing answer. We stand to be disappointed.
Indeed, the chapter has been a great occasion to understand the importance of working together as Franciscans to revitalise our charism in the Church and in the world irrespective of historical differences. The ministers general of the other Franciscan families of the First Order, namely the Conventual and Capuchin ministers general, addressed the chapter members. The overall mood was: let’s do away with historical differences and move on together in a new approach to what binds us as one, strong family in the Church.
Well said indeed. One cannot help to agree with such an affirmation. There is, however, a point that needs to be raised as a matter of concern. One gets the impression that history has become a kind of academic exercise reserved for historians who pore over documents in ancient archives in order to provide a thrilling story of events that shaped the Franciscan family along its 800 years plus of history. To be honest, most of these historians are not even Franciscans. Gone are the days when the scholars of Franciscan history were Franciscan friars. They are now a handful. The majority of experts of Franciscan history are lay men and women, and these scholars and professors are doing a splendid and praiseworthy job, more so because they are, in a certain sense, “neutral” to the “seraphic battles” that shaped Franciscan history written by Franciscan historians.
It is, however, sad to listen to comments like: “let us leave history to historians”. It is as if we are saying that we want to forget all about our past and move on as if we have been reborn out of nothing. It is sad that the temptation to do away with history has to do with a serious lack of knowledge of our history. Indeed, the lack of knowledge of our roots is a lack of knowledge of who we are. It is a lack of knowledge of the fact that we have always been a great family, with a great message, with infinite possibilities of expression of our charism. That is what our differences have been all about.
To try to do away with differences and create a pan-Franciscan family artificially united from the top will spell disaster. We still have not learnt the lessons of history. Particularly the OFM family has never been worse off than when people at the top decreed its internal unity, or rather, unification. The mistake is that of equating unity with unification. Unity is a natural process that comes from the grass roots. Unification is imposed from the top and is doomed to a miserable failure. The Secular Franciscan Order has been forcefully unified. But is it united? One has great doubts about the possibility to create unity through a conscious effort to wipe away deep-rooted differences that are a product of history.
One could argue that history has seen many mistakes and scandals being committed in the name of autonomy and separatist expressions. This is true, but it is also true that these same divisions in the Order, which were originally judged as separatist, or even as schismatic and heretical, have developed into the great Franciscan reforms.
What is even more intriguing is the fact that, while the official Franciscan Orders are speaking about the need for unification (not because of their dwindling numbers and limited resources, or so they say), there are many other tiny and less tiny Franciscan congregations that have mushroomed ever since Vatican II. These are much less likely to accept the idea of unification. They have never been thwarted in their attempts to develop by the great Franciscan Orders, even though, honestly, they offer little else which can be added to the richness of Franciscan experience during eight centuries of history. So, I ask, what shall we do when it comes to speak about unity outside the official channels of government of the Franciscan Order? Shall we create a mega religious Order forgetting our distinctive characteristics which are being imitated by these lesser brothers of ours?
In my lessons of Franciscan history I often like to comment on the grave scandal that was caused by the poverty controversy of the early 14th century, when the general government of the Order entered into a fray in the name of an ideology of Lady Poverty with Pope John XXII. I like to state that, if the Order did not disappear from the face of the earth in that period, those events are a proof that the Order will last till the end of the world. The Order at that time was divided, just as the Church was divided. But in one thing it felt united, in protecting its raison d’être. The Order knew who it was and defended itself from a Pope who wanted it to become something else. Funnily enough, in such a disastrous moment of its existence, the Order was united. Is it so united now?
Unity is a must for survival. Unity means mutual respect, brotherly love and cooperation. It means fostering our institutions and the ideals for which they were born. But unity does not mean forgetting the sacrifices that we entailed to be who we are today. It does not mean doing away with traditions and customs that have shaped our identity kit during centuries of history. It is not true to say that we, Franciscan brothers of the First Order, are all the same and that it is high time that we become one by pulling the same rope. Do we want to become one amorphous mass of religious who are increasingly ignorant of their roots?
If this is our choice, well, then let us leave history to historians. They are becoming increasingly more expert in showing us how we tend to ignore the lessons of history, and to forget that, historia est magistra vitae. At least for those who want to keep alive the flame that our forefathers have handed down to us.
