09271982 JPII speech General Council OFS


SPEECH OF JOHN PAUL II TO THE MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL OF THE SECULAR FRANCISCAN ORDER (OFS)
Monday, September 27, 1982

Dearest brothers and sisters.

1. I offer a cordial welcome to you, members of the General Council of the Secular Franciscan Order, gathered in Assembly here in Rome, and to you, all participating in the International Congress, and in you, I wish to extend my greeting to all Franciscans, seculars, former Franciscan tertiaries, to the laity and priests of the whole world, and their spiritual assistants.

I know that this much desired meeting is intended to show your affection and attachment to the Apostolic See and ask for a word of orientation and confirmation, as is in your tradition, since the humble Francis came to the Pope in Rome to communicate how much the Lord had begun to do it through him (Three Companions, can. 12; Franciscan sources, p. 1100).


Over the centuries - from Nicolò IV, with the Bull Supra Montem of 1289, to Pope Paul VI, of happy memory, who approved the new Rule with the short "Inter Spirituales Familias" - my predecessors have constantly and kindly accepted these wishes. and they have offered you stimuli and confirmations in your purpose of evangelical life.

I am pleased to be able to confirm my sincere esteem and my deep affection in this year so dear to the whole Franciscan Family, in which, moved, we remember the 800 years of "life in the Church" of the Poverello of Assisi.

He still lives his work: they live his first, second and third Orders, rich in numerous and priceless saints, who walked after Francis, led by Mary, Mother of the Church and of the Order, and incomparable model of every evangelical virtue.

2. You are gathered here and you await a word of good wishes from the Pope, Successor of Peter.

Well, my exhortation is this: 1) study; 2) love; 3) live the Rule of the Secular Franciscan Order, approved for you by my predecessor Paul VI. It is an authentic treasure in your hands, tuned to the spirit of the Second Vatican Council and responding to what the Church expects of you.

Love, study and live this "Rule" of yours, because the values ​​it contains are eminently evangelical. Live these values ​​in fraternity and live them in the world in which, for your own secular vocation, you are involved and rooted. Live these evangelical values ​​in your families, transmitting the faith through prayer, example and education and live the evangelical needs of mutual love, fidelity and respect for life (Regula, n. 17).

May Christ, poor and crucified, be for you, as he was for Francis of Assisi, "the inspiration and center of life with God and with men" (Regula, n. 4).

First of all, be witnesses of the Father and his plan of love for men and "make prayer and contemplation the soul of your being and of your work" (Ibid. N. 8).

“The Church needs you to ensure that the world can rediscover the primacy of spiritual values” (cf. Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, III, 1 [1980] 945).

May your presence everywhere bring a message rich in joy, gladness and profound faith, harmony and peace: you will thus be heralds of Christ and the Kingdom of God with your life and with your word.

3. You have chosen as the theme of your Congress: “Francis, a sign of hope”. In my recent letter "Radiabat velut stella", addressed to the Ministers General of the Franciscan Orders, I recalled the foundations of joy, freedom, hope in Francis of Assisi: deepen these foundations and the signs of the Spirit in the life of the Church and it will be you themselves a sign of hope in today's world.

Next to the evangelical values, even though they are inherent in them, emerge from the same Rule, with incisive characters, the human values ​​for which you assume, as citizens of the earthly city and, at the same time, as Christians, temporal and social, meaning to be a leaven in earthly realities, in which you feel, by profound vocation, as in your home, as in your own and native field. Mindful that in you, through baptism, there is a royal priesthood, you believe for sure that no one can prohibit you from entering every earthly, social, human reality, since you are called to give a Christian and human soul to all these things.

Then accept the invitation, addressed by me to all men of good will, so that human work may be recognized its dignity before God and so that, in the present grave circumstances, every man may be allowed to realize himself and to be able to collaborate peacefully in the work of creation and for the good of society with work worthy of man (cf. John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, 24).

By doing this, you will place yourself at the service of the global promotion of mankind; you will become promoters of justice, bearers of peace, mindful that all the ways of the Church lead to man, redeemed by Christ (cf. John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis, 14).

Towards this man, your brother, be humble and courteous, always seeking the ways of dialogue and reconciliation (cf. Regula, nn. 13 and 19; cf. etiam Nicolò IV, Supra Montem).

Always have before you the example of Francis, brother of all and a "frontier man", for whom he never ceases to exert an extraordinary fascination even among those far away (cf. AAS 74 [1982] 580).

4. Finally, your associations are called "fraternities". May they be a visible sign of the Church, which is a community of love. Let them be true ecclesial communities, built on the Gospel and in lively and active communion with the local Churches and, through them, with the universal Church. Live "in full communion with the Pope and the Bishops in an open dialogue of apostolic creativity" (Regula, n. 6).

Continuers of that movement of evangelical life, who embraced the "poenitentes de Assisio", may you know how to live this vocation of yours, in your secular environment, as "brothers and sisters of penance" with an enlightened sense of conversion and constant renewal.

And now, for those who have specific responsibilities in the Secular Franciscan Order, I hope for a unity of purpose and a precise will, so that they can be enlightened animators and guides, preceding the brothers in love for the Gospel and in fidelity to the Church.

I thank you for what you have done up to now in favor of the same fraternity, and with you I thank the Fathers General Ministers and the Assistant Fathers who are your teachers and guides.

I impart to you all a special apostolic blessing, which can also be extended to your relatives, relatives and friends.

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