(This article originally appeared in the TAU-USA Spring 2025  Issue #115)

The Family Apostolate:

JPIC for Secular Franciscans

by Francine Gikow, OFS

National Formation Commission

A JPIC apostolate for Secular Franciscans, essential and unique to our order, is our ministry to our families. Pope St. John Paul II, in his Letter to Families (FC), stated: “…a person normally comes into the world within a family and can be said to owe to the family the very fact of his existing as an individual.” (p.6) From the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults: The family is essential and a prerequisite for a healthy society due to the authority, stability, and loving relationships that are found in families in order to sustain freedom, security, and community responsibility. (USCC-A, p.383)

Our families are not just biological or relational connections. In Lumen Gentium, Family is described as “the domestic church” (LG, 11) because we share common beliefs, purpose, and life, in a family. “…[It] has been a treasure for the Church…[and] grows out of the rich tradition of the old covenant, is completed in the new and finds its fullest symbolic expression in the mystery of the Holy Family in which the divine bridegroom brings about the redemption of all families.” (FC, p. 92)

If married, “…in virtue of the sacrament of Matrimony by which they signify and share the mystery of the unity and faithful love between Christ and the Church, the Christian married couples help one another to attain holiness in their married state and in the rearing of children.” (LG,11) Pope St. John Paul II expands this thought: “[Even] if someone chooses to remain single, the family continues to be, as it were, his existential horizon, that fundamental community in which the whole network of social relations is grounded….Do we not often speak of the “human family” when referring to all people living in the world?” (FC, p.6)

In our Rule, Article 17 states: “In their family they should cultivate the Franciscan spirit of peace, fidelity, and respect for life, striving to make of it a sign of a world already renewed in Christ.”  However, the Church is realistic when she adds: “They need to remember that a family is holy not because it is perfect, but because God’s grace is at work in it.” (USCC-A p. 376)

Our General Constitutions expand this emphasis on the importance of family by saying, “Secular Franciscans should consider their own family to be the first place in which to live their Christian commitment and Franciscan vocation. They should make space within it for prayer, the Word of God, and Christian catechesis. They should concern themselves with respect for all life in every situation from conception until death.” (GC:24)

Article 17 or our Rule continues: “By living the grace of matrimony, husbands and wives in particular, should bear witness in the world to the love of Christ for his Church.” We can be this witness when we joyfully accompany our children on their human and spiritual journey by providing a simple and open Christian education and being attentive to the vocation of each child.

Our Constitution summarizes our family apostolate when it describes the importance of this ministry to our families and its effect on the world: “Participation in the service and sanctification, which the Church exercises through the liturgy, prayer, and works of penance and charity, is put into practice by the brothers and sisters above all in their own family, then in the fraternity and, finally through their active presence in the local church and in society.” (GC:17.4)

Pray silently for 10 minutes and consider:

  • Have you seen ministry to your own family as important for your Secular Franciscan vocation in the past?
  • How has this information changed your understanding of the importance of family ministry?
  • What changes can you make for your family?