SJPII Speech General Chapter TOR 1989
Saint John Paul II: Address to the General Chapter of the Third Regular Order of St. Francis
June 15, 1989
Dear brothers,
1. I feel invaded by Franciscan joy when I meet you, members of the general chapter convened to update the constitutions and to renew the elective offices. In you I wish to greet all your brothers, present and active in various parts of the world with all the richness and originality of your penitential charism.
I greet first of all the Minister General and his Definitory, predicting legitimate satisfactions and happy results in the service of the Order, copious works of good and fruits of holiness.
2. The celebration of the General Chapter is an event of grace, whose director is the Holy Spirit who illuminates, sets spirits, shapes minds and gives the necessary strength to act. As a sign of unity in charity (cf. can. 631,1), the General Chapter has the task of identifying and deepening the characteristic values, of protecting the historical-spiritual patrimony of the Order and promoting a suitable renewal in tune with the changing demands of times and places.
Your constitutions, updated in the spirit of the "Rule and life of the brothers and sisters of the Third Order of Saint Francis", approved by me on December 8, 1982, and in conformity with the new "Code of Canon Law »Must safeguard dynamic fidelity to your charism, without longing and without compromise, with full trust in the Spirit.
3. The evangelical identity and the ecclesial mission of your Order require sensitivity and discernment, in order to guarantee the primacy of the spiritual life and to know how to make the priority options on the plane of being and acting.
The Church watches over so that the institutes grow and flourish according to the spirit of the founders (cf. Lumen gentium, 45) and their healthy traditions (cf. can. 578).
4. You are aware that your founder and father, Saint Francis of Assisi, was a man of the Gospel and an apostle of the penance taught by Christ. Welcoming effective stimuli from previous and contemporary ecclesial experiences, the «Poverello» loved to define himself «penitent of Assisi» (cf. TC 37) and enthusiastically preached penance (cf. 1 Cel 23).
On his initiative, under the clear motion of the Spirit, the Franciscan Order of Penance was born, later called "Third Order of Saint Francis" and gradually articulated in secular and regular. You belong to the latter and, in later times, hundreds of institutes, both male and female, have become part of it.
To his followers in the "Order of Penance" St. Francis proposed, in 1215 and then in 1221, an evangelical way of life centered on metanoia, or conversion of heart. Blessed and blessed - the Saint exclaimed - are those who produce fruits worthy of penance (1CtaF 1,4).
You, dear brothers, are the fortunate heirs of this penitential spirituality that has given so many fruits of holiness to the Church at all times.
5. The commitment to works of mercy is also characteristic of your charism, as an evangelical service to the soul and body of the brothers, that is, to the whole person. Today, as yesterday, you are challenged by new forms of poverty and marginalization. Pay attention to the cry of the poor and put all your generosity at stake, converting more and more to the living God and neighbor, for "works of conversion" cannot be separated from sincere penance.
6. Your "life of penance", in its invisible binomial of interior conversion and concrete works, is called today to become the voice also of those who do not raise their gaze to God, as the prophet laments (cf. Hos 11,7) , and they have locked themselves in the narrow horizon of their egocentricity, immersed in temporal concerns. Indeed, you, as Saint Francis warns, are called to do much more and greater things (cf. 2CtaF 36).
7. In this regard, I congratulate you for your missionary commitment and for the evangelical dynamism that animates your Order, operating in humility and sincere faith.
Always and everywhere live all the fragrant words of our Lord Jesus Christ (cf. 2LtF 2). Have a predilection for the poor and the weak, the sick and the beggars of the journey (cf. Rule and Life, n. 21). Give constant witness to evangelical conversion and preach first of all with your works, as St. Francis recommends.
8. However, do not forget that Saint Francis, proposing to his children the characteristics of penitential life, laid the evangelical commandment of love as the foundation of the entire spiritual edifice (cf. 1CtaF 1,1). There is no true conversion if love does not shape your hearts before radiating to the brothers. Furthermore, the many activities that you carry out are not truly apostolic, nor can your socio-charitable services be called "works of mercy" if they do not spring from a heart that loves according to God. Love each other, then, "with works and according to the truth" (1 Jn 3,18), feel constantly brothers and with works show the love that you have for each other, as your seraphic father remembered.
9. I cannot conclude without recalling an event of particular importance for your Order and for all Franciscanism. Seven centuries ago, on August 18, 1289, my predecessor and first Franciscan Pope Nicholas IV promulgated the Bull Supra montem on the "Rule and lifestyle of the brothers and sisters of the Order of Penance," thus officially approving the Franciscan penitential movement.
The different celebrations of this joyous event will help to better define your distant historical and spiritual roots, stimulating at the same time renewed projects of witness and apostolic action in the wake of healthy traditions.
10. Many of you are preparing to return to the oasis of your respective religious brotherhoods and to resume the activities that Providence has assigned them through the will of their superiors. The members of the new general curia, on the other hand, will take care of putting into practice, with a lively sense of fidelity and responsibility, the capitular decisions.
May the Spirit of truth and love always assist you, also through the special intercession of Saint Francis and the maternal protection of the Virgin of Health, who has watched over your General House for centuries.
May my Apostolic Blessing accompany you, which I extend to each and every one of your brothers in the Order.
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