Three years ago, I made a Visitation to Tau Cross Regional Fraternity. Something happened during that visit that made quite an impact, and I have remembered it ever since. Our ongoing formation topic that day was the OFS Rule. I was interested in what the Rule meant to those gathered, so I handed out blank postcards and asked everyone to write down three words – just three words – to describe the Rule. ...
There were so many good titles to choose for this article, but I felt compelled to choose this one. It came from Tom Ha, OFS, our Korean brother from Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Fraternity in Houston, Texas. This message has resonated with me so many times this past year. It is so true that Diversity is a Gift to us from God, and what we do with that Gift is especially important. ...
My ultimate goal is to help others better understand and embrace the different ethnic cultures within our fraternities. The following definitions are taken from that website article (see footnote). [...]
When I served as a youth director, each summer we participated in a week-long service program called “Young Neighbors in Action.” One year, our week was spent in an orphanage in Mexico. Among other chores, we were each asked to choose one child and befriend them, rather than spread ourselves among the large group. [...]
Pope Francis has been transforming the tone and approach of the Catholic Church towards Ecumenism by reaching out to non-Catholic denominations to reconcile past differences, opening the doors to dialogue and understanding, focusing on what we have in common and not differences, celebrating and reconciling “That they may all be one.” [...]
The number of Francis’s writings may, at first glance, appear limited. However, consider the era in which he lived, ...
So often over the past few years, when there is a national tragedy like a mass shooting, the default reaction is for prayer. Then the response comes back that prayer is not enough; ...
In the Winter Issue of TAU-USA, Jan, our National Minister, spoke of “prophetic creativity,” that necessary gift to achieve total renewal of the Order. She is inviting us all to reach back and retrieve from down deep the many gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit. ...
The 56 national Franciscan leaders, consisting of members of the Order of Friars Minor, the Poor Clares, and members of the Third Order, Secular, Regular, and TOR, opened themselves to a dream that, despite and perhaps because of the restrictions of the pandemic, would become the “Franciscan Family Forum.”
Welcome! Beginning a new fraternity is a great and rewarding task. ... Follow St. Francis’ advice to his brothers. “Pursue what you should desire above all else, namely, to have the Spirit of God and God’s grace working in you…” (cf. Earlier Rule XVII*). When you come right down to it, all the attitudes and techniques in the world are insufficient to form a genuine ecclesial community. The Holy Spirit is the one who breathes life into your fraternity, who molds you and brings you together as one.