Secular Franciscan Vocation Audio 1

Below is a talk by Father Peter Hall OFM about Secular Franciscan Vocation and Profession into the OFS. Together these five audio files make up his speech and are posted here with kind permission of Fr Patrick Lonsdale OFM.

Part 1 of 5

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

Fr Peter Hall explains that “Each one of you has been called, first of all through baptism. God has called each one of us into the Church, each one of us is God’s gift … every single human being on the face of this Earth is a gift of God. God has given us life … and a deeper life through baptism. Baptism which configures us to Christ. In Baptism we become nothing less than one united person with Christ.”

“Life is defined by vocation. Our vocation to the human family. Secondly our vocation to the family of the Church, but now God has asked us to deepen our baptismal commitment by becoming members of a Religious Order.”

” … you are preparing to make a life commitment in a religious order – not simply a pious solidarity but a Religious Order. When you make your profession you will be as much a member of the Franciscan Order as I am as a friar, you will be as much a member of the Franciscan Order as any Poor Clare sister. The genius of our Holy Father St Francis was that he wanted everybody to be in his movement of living a Gospel life, he didn’t want any distinctions.”

We are the only order in the Church where those who belong to the Secular Order can trace their origin back to the very founder … our Holy Father St Francis. That gives us a unique standing in the family of the Church.

“You are preparing to become members of a Religious Order and because you live your life in the world that is not always easy to keep at the forefront of your mind … but I would like you to remind yourselves every single day, especially after your profession, that this is what you are, a member of a Religious order.

So just as you accept your human life as a gift from God, and just as you accept your new life in Christ through baptism as a gift, so you must accept your profession. Jesus tells his disciples on the night before he dies ‘you did not chose me, I choose you, and I commissioned you to go out and to bear fruit – fruit that will last'”.