Audio Catholic Discernment Francis Franciscan Friars Secular Franciscan Vocation

Secular Franciscan Vocation Audio 2

By Elizabeth Finnis 9 April, 2017

Father Peter Hall continues his reflection on profession to the Secular Franciscan Order: “Profession is not the end of a journey but a milestone in a genuine vocation, so to be a member of the Secular Franciscan Order is to respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit to join the Order. At profession you become as much a Franciscan as our Minister General in Rome the successor of St Francis.”

Part 1 of 5

“Francis had tremendous faith in the power of the holy spirit and if you look at his writings you will see that he rarely mentions the holy spirit under that title, he doesn’t use the term “Holy Spirit” but what he does use is God’s Holy inspiration … and that word inspiration comes from the Latin inspirante which means in-breathing. So the spirit is God’s Holy in-breathing …The spirit comes in order to make us Christ-like. Jesus tells his disciples on the night before he dies “When the spirit comes he will lead you in to all truth” he doesn’t say “he will give you the whole truth” because the whole truth has already been given to us in Christ. The work of the spirit is to go on through the ages gently unpacking the riches of the Gospel. So the Spirit is at work in us in order to make us Christ-like … making Christ clearer to us.”

Father Peter Hall OFM – Spiritual Assistant of the OFS GB until his death on 29th October 2013.

“At the beginning of his conversion Francis literally stumbled across this little broken down church on the outskirts of Assisi, called San Damiano. The only thing of any worth in it was the crucifix we have come to know so well and as Francis stared at this lovely image the crucifix spoke to him. Quite how this happened we don’t know because this was a private moment for Francis, there wasn’t anybody else there … what he heard in his heart was “Go and repair my church which as you can see is falling into ruin”. It would take a long time for him to come to realise that what was being asked of him was to rebuild the Universal Church. And so he becomes a central figure in church history. This very simple man, not a priest, just a youth looking for some purpose in life, and suddenly although he didn’t realise it, he is being used by God to bring about a revolution. It would fall to him to bring the Church back to its senses, a church which had become rather obsessed with power, privilege and prestige. Within a few short years, particularly because of the attraction Francis had for others the Church became a very different place. But it would take the Church up to the Second Vatican Council to understand that power, privilege and prestige are the enemies of the Gospel. The Church had thought that it could use power, privilege and prestige to spread the Gospel. But it’s quite the opposite. It is poverty which speaks to peoples’ hearts. Francis leads us into an understanding of what it means to really be a Christian.”