Do you ever stop and look at your life and feel like you are
standing in the center of it watching it whirlwind around you?
Not disconnected from it rather amazed at how much has
happened and is happening and what is yet to come. It really is amazing isn’t
it? In this whirlwind we are called to be present and to live fully aware of the
life which is our gift today. Each day unfolding blessings, graces, disguised
moments with God, strength for the journey, wonder and awe and even the
hardships or trials we face the day is gift to us. It really is outstanding isn’t
it? This thought has been rolling around in my mind today as I look back and
look ahead and strive to be present to today.
I look back to a year ago this coming week – October 22.
That day etched into the permanent memory and story of the Franciscans in Canada.
October 22 marks the day we stepped forth with bright eyes, hopeful hearts and
dedicated determination to become the Holy Spirit Province Saint-Esprit -
Franciscans of Canada. That day and the week of Chapter around that day infused
in us Friars a desire to give witness of fraternity, mission, prayer,
evangelization and contemplation for the church in Canada.
In his homily on October 22, 2018 our Minister General, Friar
Michael Perry shared wisdom taken from words spoken
by Saint John XXIII. Words that he felt best captured the inauguration of the
new Province.
“Consult not your fears but
your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your
unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you have tried and failed
in, but with what is still possible for you to do.”
That truly does capture the spirit
of our beginning and what has unfolded in the year since. Friars from across
Canada have continued to hope and dream. We have voiced concerns and
frustrations but have not let them hold us down or hold us back. There has been
much dialogue and new opportunities embrace. We continually look to our
unfulfilled potential in how we are ministering, where we need to minister and
what more we can do based on our age demographic, geographical demographic and
the demographic of the church in Canada. We have acknowledged the work of our Brothers
who built up our presence in Canada and appreciate the ongoing works and unique
ministries of so many of our Brothers today. We have celebrated the life of Brothers
who now rejoice with the heavenly host, we have welcomed two new simply
professed Brothers into our fold and I even had the humbling gift of making my
Solemn Vows in this first year as a new Province. We continue to plan for new
adventures and ministry, we strive to be present in all types of situations
from calls for climate action to education, from parishes to retreat ministry, with
the outcast and broken, for the church, with the church and in the church – no matter
what the church may look like that day. We continue to tell our story and
invite others to join our story by embracing Franciscan spirituality and asking
others to take the risk and journey with us as a Friar.
Our story is unfolding for much is
still possible for us Franciscans and for those who we minister with and build
the kingdom together. It is here that I come back to the image of the whirlwind
and realize that it is the promptings, the movement and the work of the Holy
Spirit which is the whirlwind awakening us more to the hopes, dreams, unfulfilled
potential and the possibilities which God sees in our Province. It is exciting and
breathtaking, overwhelming and yet grounding in some way (maybe uprooted and
planted to be grounded in a new place type of way). When we lose sight of these
promptings, when we fail to breath in the breath of the Spirit and only breath
in our own visions, when we fail to continue the work which was begun a year
ago our patron the Holy Spirit does not linger behind. Rather the Holy Spirit
is already ahead of us and calling us to step bravely onto new paths and to
give witness to the breath of God in all of creation, in the here and now and
in the call to begin again, for as St. Francis said, “up to now we have done
very little.”
As we look ahead and move into another chapter of
the life of the Franciscans in Canada; of the Holy Spirit Province Saint-Esprit
the words of Saint Paul also echo in our ears and in our hopes and dreams, “all
who are led by the Spirit are children of God” (Romans 8:14). It is this
promise that settles in our core and calls us to life today and tomorrow and
allows us to give thanks for what was in our yesterdays. As Children of God we
desire nothing more than to share the good news and live the gospel of his beloved
Son, Jesus. We continually open ourselves up to the Spirit and how she reminds
us that all we journey with and all of creation are God’s children.
As one of the young Friars in the Province
I am humbled and awed by the support and generosity of so many people. I must
say thank you, I (and I know my Brothers) are so grateful. It is in gratitude
that I humbly ask for your continued prayers and support as we write this next
Chapter.
I invite you to pray with us,
using the words of our Brother and Founder St Francis of Assisi:
Almighty, eternal
just and merciful God,
inwardly cleansed,
interiorly enlightened
and inflamed by the
fire of the Holy Spirit,
may we be able to follow
in the footprints of
Your beloved Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ.
Peace and all Good.
