Bonus Resource:
The Fruits of the Spirit Exemplified in our Rule, (Formation Friday by Diane Menditto, OFS, national formation director).

Prot. n. 3476 Roma, 3rd of May, 2022

Tibor Kauser (OFS General Minister)

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Celebrating the feast of Pentecost,

I invite all of you to pray and ask God to grant us the gifts of the Holy Spirit, so that we may live our vocation and our fraternal spirit and serve the fraternities and those who need our service, in an always better way.

Let us ask for the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit focusing now on fraternal life, on our vocation, and on our identity.

Let us ask for the gift of wisdom, so that we may test the things we face to see whether they are from God and thus for the good of our brothers and sisters, or not.

Let us ask for the gift of insight (understanding), recalling what Pope St. John Paul II told us: Duc in altum! Let us go, and be not afraid of the depth, let us do not remain on the surface, in the shallow! Let us discover the beautiful depth of our vocation!

Let us ask for the gift of counsel because in this world it so often is really hard to discern, to speak properly, to stand for the right and just. Let us ask for the grace of this gift, which helps us to do the best for our brothers and sisters.

Let us ask for the gift of strength (fortitude), amidst the many things that want to weaken us, that want to take away our conviction, that want us to give up our firm position, even to give up our Secular Franciscan identity. Let us ask for this gift, especially for those who are living in extremely great difficulty, in war or in any kind of crisis.

Let us ask for the gift of knowledge, so that we may know what is good and what is evil, what should we do to strengthen our fraternities and what should we avoid.

Let us ask for the gift of piety, in order to put always God into the focus of our thoughts and of our acts, into the focus of the life of our fraternities. Let prayer and contemplation be the soul of all what we are and what we do. (cf. OFS Rule Art. 8.)

Finally, let us ask for the gift of the fear of God because our fraternities need brothers and sisters who put the will of God above their personal interests and plans. With these simple thoughts, I wish you a blessed feast of Pentecost! 

Tibor Kauser 

CIOFS general minister