Profession in the Secular Franciscan Order

PROFESSION Gift and commitment

All the brothers and sisters who receive the to the Franciscan life in the Secular Fraternity, issue their Profession within a specific celebration according to the Ritual of the SFO.

During the celebration of the Profession, salvation reaches the candidates

1. giving them the ability to issue the promise of evangelical-Franciscan life and

2. producing in them particular effects of grace, which qualify them for specific tasks within the people of God.

Only a man sanctified in liturgical action, where he experiences the immensity and strength of God's love, can be capable of a response of love.

1. The Grace of the Profession

Who issues the Profession at the SFO says: "Having received this grace from God, I renew the promises of Baptism and consecrate myself to the service of his Kingdom" (Rite of Profession).

The Profession is grace and gift of the Spirit, which is the source of the vocation of the Secular Franciscans (CCGG 11).

 The candidates declare their purpose of evangelical life after the Holy Spirit has been invoked upon them: “We pray, Lord, that you look to these your servants and infuse in their hearts the Spirit of your love, so that, with your grace, they can maintain the commitment of evangelical life ”(Ritual II, 30).

2. The Profession: Church's action

The Profession is realized by an intervention of God, who always acts through Christ, whose sacrosanct Humanity is the meeting point between God and man. The Profession is simultaneously the action of Christ and of the Church, that is to say of the whole Body of Christ: the Head and its members.

It is significant the language of the Constitutions (42,1), which define the Profession as a solemn ecclesial act (action), and of the Ritual (Prior Annotations, n.13) which declares it by its nature a public and ecclesial act.

3. Profession and Fraternity

By "Church" the Ritual means a concrete liturgical assembly, constituted by the people and community of the brothers, that is, by the local fraternity of the Secular Franciscan Order.

The local fraternity in the first place makes visible the presence and action of the Church in the Profession. Therefore: “the Profession, from the moment that by its nature is a public and ecclesial act, must be celebrated in the presence of the Fraternity.” (Ritual, Prior Annotations, n.13).

The local fraternity is a visible sign of the Church, which is a community of faith and love (Rule, 22; Ritual II, 29 d). For this reason the Profession is issued before the assembled fraternity and the fraternity welcomes the petition of the candidates, the Profession being a gift that the Father makes to the same fraternity by associating him with new members.

Grateful for the gift, the Fraternity joins the prayer of those who will profess, so that the Holy Spirit will carry out the work for Him begun.

The Profession or commitment of evangelical life allows the "incorporation into the Secular Franciscan Order" the vital insertion into a family, the Franciscan, with all the consequences that derive from belonging to the same spiritual family.