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Capuchin Family Day III

July 3 is a special day in the Capuchin calendar, for it is the date of the papal bull Religionis zelus (1528) by which the Capuchin reform was recognized officially 491 years ago. Each year on this day we remember that we are a Capuchin family and we celebrate the spiritual bonds that unite us with about a hundred institutes of consecrated life that are part of the Capuchin story. Therefore on July 3 we will gather as a family in order to:

  • Thank God in common prayer or in the celebration of the Eucharist for the gifts received as a spiritual family and to remember our founders;
  • Break bread together fraternally and in dialogue, highlighting our identity as brothers and sisters and sharing our current situations;
  • Plan some simple steps to strengthen our bonds, such as collaborations and mutual awareness of our activity.

Each friary, fraternity, and place is a space to take up this simple initiative and to keep alive the gift the being a family, adapted to different realities. Another, more convenient date may by chosen, but with the same purpose of communion and mutual rapport.
 
The proposed theme for 2019 invites us to reflect on the meeting of St. Francis with the Sultan as well as the fourth centenary of the death of St. Lawrence of Brindisi as a means to study the topic of intercultural dialogue through the sharing of experiences and inspiration.

A journey of communion

On January 31, 2016, at the close of the Year of Consecrated Life, the first meeting of general superiors and their delegates was held in Rome, at the Capuchin General Curia. At that time we have thanks to God for our common journey, which also helps us today, within our fraternal relationships, to live our charism strongly and passionately in the present as well as to embrace the future with hope.
 
The congregations present in Rome and Italy participated with enthusiasm. These included the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family, the Capuchin Tertiaries of Our Lady of Sorrows, the Capuchin Sisters of Mother Rubatto, the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Incarnate Word, and the Capuchin Sisters of the Sacred Heart.
 
At the end of the Year of Consecrated Life, we wanted to strengthen the bonds that unite our Capuchin Order to many religious institutes and consecrated persons, cultivating a sense of family. We wish to also raise awareness of these realities and the projects of these institutes, as well as to meet and perhaps even join together in the areas of formation, mission, justice and peace, and the sharing of new initiatives.
 
From this meeting there arose the idea of established an annual day to mark our Capuchin belonging. At the meeting of the General Council in March 2016, the annual celebration of ‘Capuchin Family Day’ was approved, to be held around July 3 in the whole Order. It has been on our calendar officially since 2017. The new event was communicated to our whole Capuchin family with a letter dated March 15, 2016.
 
On July 3, 2017, coinciding with the workshop for new provincial ministers, the First Capuchin Family Day was held in Frascati. Superiors general and their delegates met there together, in our friary, representing the whole of our spiritual family. A letter had been written to all the provincial ministers and general superiors that they too might celebrate the occasion at their own, local levels.
 
In the morning, after the introductions, the Vice General Secretary of Formation, Br. Jaime Rey, gave a conference on the theme: The unity of Franciscans and the Capuchin reform: remembering the bull Ite vos on the way towards celebrating the V centenary of the Capuchin reform. Beginning with the concept of unity as a ‘polyhedron’ (cf. Pope Francis, Evangelii gaudium 236), Br. Jaime explained how the search for communion within diversity and respect for the particularity of each reality becomes a motivation for our being a spiritual family. Beneath this idea there is a Christian and Franciscan anthropology that was highlighted by various points.
 
With the new ministers who were meeting in Frascati, the General Minister presided at the Mass to thank the Lord for the gift of our wonderful Capuchin family. The gospel for the feast of St. Thomas gave a fine tone to the reflection and a link to the strong contemplative and apostolic dimensions of the Capuchin reform.
 
A festive lunch was a lovely occasion of fraternal encounter and sharing. In the afternoon the meeting continued with talks on two important Franciscan events of this past year: the ‘generalissimo’ Chapter of the Umbrian Franciscans and the Congreso de la Escuela Superior de Estudios Franciscanos in Madrid.
 
Later, each congregation presented, in the simplicity of sisters and brothers with one another, the realities of each institute and the main work that each is doing. Topics included the revision of circumscriptions, programs for formation and spiritual renewal, the great challenge of inter-culturality, and other issues that are never lacking.
 
Finally, there was time for the Capuchin General Formation Secretariat to share with the sisters and brothers of our family, including the plan for formation for formators in Africa and the ongoing formation programs built around visits to the Franciscan places.
 
The Second Capuchin Family Day too place within the general chapter of the Capuchin Sisters of the Sacred Heart, in their general curia in Rome, on July 3, 2018. The sisters opened their own ‘sacred space’ of the highest authority of governance in the institute, at which they were working on their constitutions, to welcome us and make us feel like family.
 
The topic chosen was, “For new wine, new wineskins: Challenges in formation,” which was meant to foster among us a sharing on the current challenges in initial and ongoing formation within each institute. concerns and institutional responses and what has been tried in recent years was all presented, with the goal of gathering up suggestions toward the opening of paths for collaboration.
 
With a good number of participants, the morning was given to sharing on the formation program of each institute in light of the CICLSAL document, New Wine in New Wineskins : The consecrated life and its ongoing challenges since Vatican II (January 6, 2017). Br. Jaime Rey, Vice Secretary General of formation, presented the work of the Ratio formationis, which the Capuchin Order was preparing for their own General Chapter later that same year. What was shared was very interesting, especially in terms of what is offered for ongoing formation at the various moments of a consecrated life.
 
At noon the Mass was celebrated, with Br. Sergio Dal Moro, General Councilor and liaison of the General Minister to the Formation Secretariat, presiding. After this there was a festive lunch. It was a day to give thanks, share, and plan next steps. A simple day, but one with momentum in our common journey of communion.
 
This year, 2019, the proposed theme is to recall the eighth centenary of the meeting of St. Francis with the Sultan, together with the fourth centenary of the death of St. Lawrence of Brindisi. The idea is to study inter-cultural dialogue through the sharing of experiences and inspirations. This year the day will be held at our International College in Rome.

Prayer for Capuchin Family Day

Set Us Alight

O Holy Spirit
fill the hearts of your faithful
and set them alight with that same fire
that burned in the heart of Jesus,
while he spoke of the Kingdom of God,
while he announced the good news:
“The Father is pleased to give you his kingdom …
you are all brothers!”
 
May that fire speak to us,
as it spoke to Francis and Clare,
as it burned in the first Capuchins,
and glowed in the founders and foundresses
of our spiritual family.
 
You alone, Holy Spirit
can set this fire alight
and it is to you that we must turn
in our weakness,
in our poverty,
in our hearts in which the fire has gone out,
that you might reignite that warmth
of the holiness of life, of the power of the Kingdom.
 
O Holy Spirit,
grant to us anew
to welcome you in our lives
that we might bring you to service in the Church
to give you back to the poor, the last, and the least.
 
This we ask you
through the intercession of Mary, the Mother of Jesus,
full of grace and communion,
model of the serving and fraternal Church. Amen.

(Adapted from a prayer of Cardinal Carlo Martini)

III Giornata della Famiglia Cappuccina

Last modified on Monday, 10 June 2019 21:02