St. Katherine Drexel Regional Fraternity
Regional Spiritual Assistant
St. Francis Renewal Center
1901 Prior Road
Wilmington, Delaware 19809
tel: (302) 798-1454 fax: (302) 798-3360
email:
fr.francis_sariego_ofmcap@juno.com
November 2008
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
The Lord give you his peace!
Life is a marvelous gift! We
enter without any responsibility on our part. We are endowed with myriads of
gifts from God. We find support in people that God allows to journey with us each day.
We have the awesome privilege of Free Will and the God-given right to make choices that will affect our timeless existence.
You have made us a little less than the angels (Psalm 8). You have made us for Yourself O, Lord, and our hearts cannot rest
until they rest in You (Confessions, St. Augustine).
We are called from life to Life, on a journey that often can be like
a rollercoaster ride: fast, with twists and turns, breath-taking, frightening, with ups and downs, sharing the ride with others
or maybe seeming to be and feeling alone, and finally coming to the conclusion of the ride. We are slowly pulled to the top
of the coaster, a ride that seems to take forever, then the coaster breaks loose of the cable dragging it up and we become
part of the momentum that takes over. The ride then is so varied and fast that we cannot imagine where the time has gone.
People and things below, above, and around us have all ‘whizzed by’ like a blur. How slow; how fast! What the Souls in Purgatory, as well as the Holy ones on Heaven, must believe and know now of all they
experienced in this earthly journey!
Recently I read a little saying attributed, like so many great expressions,
to ‘Anonymous’: There are three classes of people: those who make things
happen, those who watch things happen, those who have no idea what is happening.
Life can be so fast, complicated, dangerous, or calm, comfortable, non-challenging that some fall into one of the two
last classes. Franciscans, by their very vocation and mission, cannot let the
world pass by without being an essential protagonist of all that happens, and being part of making things happen.
During this month of November, the Secular Franciscan Order celebrates
its General Chapter. Supported by all the Franciscan Sisters and Brothers of the First, Second, Third Order Regular, Secular
Franciscans not physically participating in the deliberations of the Chapter, your Order will review, reflect, revise its
presence in our world. Authentic renewal through a personal and collective reform
can rekindle the flame of your response to the call to be a Secular Franciscan. This
is an occasion to recover that original sense of being an ‘Order’ within the Church with its own self-determination,
responsibilities and accountability. You are not an after thought of Francis,
but a completion of all we Franciscans are called to be...WE form one family!
St. Elizabeth of Hungary, patroness of the Secular Franciscan
Order, is a most appropriate example and guide for us to consider. This young woman went through the various ups and downs
of life...her own ‘rollercoaster ride’. Ostracized from her own family,
mistreated by the very people she had helped and cared for with her own hands, stripped of her rights as regent, Elizabeth bore all with patience. Patience is not condescension or condoning evil.
She trusted in God and allowed God His time and, above all, His Will. She
continued, while herself in need, her acts of charity. Eventually, she regained the recognition of her noble dignity by those
who had offended her. She was able to dedicate herself even more intensely to
a life of prayer and service. She even founded what we might call one of the
first communal expressions of the Third Order. Seeking the assistance of the
friars and obedient to the Church, she still had an independent and determined spirit.
Elizabeth knew what God wanted of her and what she wanted from life. Her own personal
Calvary had taught her how to achieve
these goals. This young Princess/Pauper did not sit on the sidelines watching
things happen, or despairing when they seemed to be going against her. She let
the barriers placed before her become the blessings that would transform her into the beautiful saint she would become. Again ‘Anonymous’ tells us: Do
not tempt faith in Jesus by trying first to move mountains, start by trying to
move molehills and work your way up. Elizabeth dealt with each mound and moved forward with confidence in Providence. This woman, wife, mother, widow,
‘foundress’ made things happen, she did not sit and watch. She realized
that the only failure that is truly tragic is not to try and fail, but to fail to try.
Quite aware of the intrigues of court, the fickleness of courtiers, and hypocrisy of ‘fair weather friends’, she
‘plowed forward’ in the vineyard of the Lord planting her seed of love and allowing God to bring all things to
fruit as He wills.
My dear sisters and brothers, you are too precious a gift to our Franciscan
Family not to recognize your dignity and your unique place among the Franciscan Fraternity.
For eight centuries, your vocation and presence fills and fulfills the Franciscan Masterpiece that God painted through
our Seraphic Father St. Francis of Assisi. You were not a ‘postscript’
to his First or Second Rule. The uniqueness of Francis’ vision offered
women and men the opportunity to live their vocations ‘in the world’. You
all share in the common bond of a charism that allows you to live a Way of Life, a Gospel Life, to ‘Live Jesus’,
with the world as your cloister/friary/convent and creation and its needs and demands as a vast arena to fulfill grace-filled
ministries not only for yourselves but for all whom you touch by word, example, by your ‘just living life’ in
a Franciscan simplicity and joy.
We live in a fast paced world.
Structure is a necessity. Simplicity is a ‘complicated’ dream
that can be achieved in its true sense. Humility is still valued when it ‘asserts’ itself with respect and love
in truth. Twenty-First century Poverty can be effectively lived, in a spirit of detachment, when we do not allow our possessions
to possess us. Power and wealth still have the same effects as in the days of Saints Francis, Clare and Elizabeth. When they
become our ‘idols’ of social worship, we abandon ourselves to be dominated and eventually destroyed by them; consider
what has been happening in the Financial Sectors around the world these past months, and why - the rule of pride, power, possessiveness!
The first step in turning things around so that we can ‘Return to the Future’ - that is, return to how we were
created to be so that we can go where we were created to be forever - is Prayer.
Prayer - real, sincere, heartfelt prayer - is a powerful weapon against
the difficulties and evils of our age. Prayer places us in relationship with The One Who Alone can bring harmony out of chaos,
enlightenment out of confusion, enthusiasm out of indifference, participation out of disinterested observation, sharing of
hopes and dreams out of passivity that waits for others ‘to do’, renewal and reform out of reactionary manners
that refuse challenges to grow, rebirth of our personal spirits out of a complacent lethargy that is nothing more than a spiritual
‘living death’. The effects of the prayer of presence, alone and
together with our sisters and brothers, are the conditions that allow these changes to take place. The effects of this prayer
will allow us to see before us with the eyes of our body, and not just with our dreaming hearts, others approaching us and
asking, as they did of St. Francis, to live as we do so that they can ‘be as we are’, i.e. happy, serene, joy-filled,
disarmed, sure of the road we are traveling and the destination that awaits us. They
will see us as Instruments of Peace and Blessings because they recognize us as
Heralds of the Great King.
Whatever the General Chapter decides, it is always the Rule and Constitutions
that you are called to live. The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ can be lived with nuances of adaptability for the times,
but it may never be substantially changed to satisfy whims and desires. We are
called to respond to the challenges God entrusts to us, and we know that His grace is sufficient to meet them and grow with/in/through
them.
St. Elizabeth was a protagonist of her age. She was a fragile and
weak creature, who had to think of more than just herself in the midst of her own difficulties; and she did so with trust
in God’s presence and graces in her life. The challenges she encountered encouraged her inventive and creative spirit
to breath new life into her, opening up new avenues of graces for herself and others. She trusted those in whom she confided,
and collaborated with those whom she sought out to work with her in service to others.
She was a ‘formator’ by example. Her profession in the Third Order was not a mere articulation of words.
She lived the Gospel with the depth of her personal commitment, and sought out others to share this wonderful gift and ministry. She knew she was not alone on the journey and that she was called to be part of the
greater family of God in Francis forever.
At this time of Grace for the Order, your General Chapter, let your
spirit sore. Let us all be present with those gathered in Hungary, and celebrate St. Elizabeth’s
Centenary with them by praying God through the intercession of our holy Patroness for the Holy Spirit to fill all those present
in body and the thousands present in spirit. Let us renew our own profession
these days and recommit ourselves to live the Rule we accepted and promised with enthusiasm.
We are only as good as our word!
We have given our ‘word’ to live the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the Rule and Constitutions
of our respective expressions of the Franciscan charism. Chapters only reinforce what we know, and they offer opportunities
for us to grow in this ‘word’ we have given. How good do you recognize
your ‘word’ to have been... ‘to be’ - the ‘word’ you gave and give each day to God, to
yourself, and to your sisters and brothers to be a ‘true’ Franciscan? Much has been asked of us, but much and greater things have been promised. With Saint Elizabeth to pray for and guide us, let us move forward, for until now we have done so little.
May God bless you; Our Lady guide, guard, and protect you; and our
Seraphic Father St. Francis and Mother St. Clare look over each one of you, their spiritual children, with loving care. Be
assured of a remembrance in my prayers everyday, and especially this month on the Feast of our Holy Patroness St. Elizabeth
of Hungary; may her deep devotion and love for her natural family and the poor, her extended family, pour over into our hearts that we may grow in love and concern for all.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Let our prayer be: Thank you God for being You, for creating me, and for giving me sisters and brothers!
Peace and Blessings
Fr. Francis A. Sariego, O.F.M. Cap.
Regional Spiritual Assistant
