10261976 SS Paul VI to Constantine Koser OFM General Chapter

 

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Saint Paul VI, letter to Fr. Constantino Koser, on the occasion of the OFM General Chapter

(October 26, 1976)

To the beloved son, Constantine Koser, General Minister of the Order of Friars Minor.

The sons of Saint Francis of Assisi now feel more strongly moved to renew his memory, since the 750th anniversary of his pious death has passed. To this event We ourselves wanted to give irradiation through the radio message addressed to all the Franciscan families. This is the very reason why the Order of Friars Minor, which you preside over, celebrates an extraordinary General Chapter, to which it is proper and peculiar to dedicate itself especially to the spiritual part.

We fully praise such a program and we hope that all those who attend this assembly have in great consideration the teaching and directives of the incomparable founder and the legislator father, and that in this way the same Chapter healthily inundates the entire Order.

Let this “Catholic and all-Apostolic man” (Julian of Speyer: Life of St. Francis, n. 28) become present in your minds; You will thus see yourselves required to imitate his image in order to project it on these times, in which the Church can be appreciated mainly for its holiness, and for the same raise men towards those things that transcend matter, are superior and lead to true happiness. For today, authentic quality is demanded above all, as far as spiritual and religious life is concerned.

We therefore hope that this Order, which has provided so many benefits and fruits to the Church and to human society, permanently fulfills, as a living leaven, its task of sanctification: sanctification, we say, both of its own members and of the the rest. Which will certainly happen if you truly follow Christ who called you to walk a narrower path: mainly if you cultivate poverty or, as your Seraphic Father says, "the holy lady poverty", in the kind of life and in the very construction of the body of the Church, in such a way that you present her testimony to the world as true; if you faithfully keep the humility that the same father wanted to be the peculiar note of your Order; if you burn in charity, by which, with a wide heart, you walk the paths of God, aspire with effort to perfection and serve Christ in the poor and needy.

You also remember the words that are contained in your Rule and by which you are exhorted to be "always subjects and submissive... to the holy Roman Church, firm in the Catholic faith". May this obedience rendered in a peculiar way to the successor of Blessed Peter always and in all circumstances constitute for you a sacred inheritance from Saint Francis, which you defend and make fruitful. May this loving gift move you so that you find yourself in unity of sentiments with the successor of Peter, avoiding everything that could weaken the bonds of perfect communion, and so that, given to an apostolate that starts from intimate union with God, win many souls for Christ.

Wishing, therefore, and praying to the Lord that this General Chapter truly be "a return to the original inspiration of your institute" (cf. Perfectae Caritatis, n. 2) - you cannot celebrate this anniversary in a better way - to you, Beloved son, to the members of the same General Chapter and to all the religious entrusted to your care, we sincerely impart our apostolic blessing, a wish of heavenly strength and consolation.

Vatican Palace, October 26, 1976, fourteenth year of our pontificate.

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