One of the wonderful things about being a Secular Franciscan is that we do not walk
this path alone. Not only do we have brothers and sisters in our fraternity, as well as in
other fraternities in our region, but we have leadership teams at the national and
international level who are always working to enrich our spiritual lives and fellowship. To
mention just one of them, we have a national formation team that sends out a weekly
email—Formation Friday—to all ministers and formation directors. These messages
include beautiful short teachings on many topics that can be used as part of ongoing
formation by fraternities or by individual members.
Recently, the national formation team sent out a message about the basics of Catholic
Social Teaching, which some have called the “best kept secret” of the Catholic Church.
How do these principles relate to us as Franciscans? Our national formators cited this
from St. Francis:
In the Legend of the Three Companions we read: He [Francis] used to tell them:
“As you announce peace with your mouth, make sure that greater peace is in
your hearts. Let no one be provoked to anger or scandal through you, but may
everyone be drawn to peace, kindness, and harmony through your gentleness.
For we have been called to this: to heal the wounded, bind up the broken, and
recall the erring. In fact, many who seem to us to be members of the devil will yet
be disciples of Christ.”
Many volumes have been written on Catholic Social Teaching, which has had a
profound effect on Christian ethics well beyond the Catholic Church, but it can be
summarized as having seven main themes:
- Protect life and dignity of the human person
- Participate in family and community
- Protect human rights and meet human responsibilities
- Put first the needs of the poor and vulnerable
- Preserve the dignity of work and rights of workers
- Be in solidarity with all people; we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers
- Protect the planet; live in kinship with all of creation
The formation teaching goes on to relate each of the themes of Catholic Social
Teaching to our Secular Franciscan Rule of Life. To give one example, the theme of
“put first the needs of the poor and vulnerable” is related to Article 13 (“Accept all people
as a gift of the Lord. Place ourselves on an equal basis with the lowly”) and Article 15
(“Be in the forefront of promoting justice”) of our Rule.
We are so lucky to have a beautiful Franciscan family, within our larger Catholic family,
who are always there to remind, encourage, and care for us. This Lent, take some time
to look at the rich resources provided to us on Formation Fridays. They are all posted
on a blog at this link: https://jdpofs.org/resources/formation-fri