Fraternity

The Song of Sisterhood and Brotherhood

Fraternity is the Song of Sisterhood and Brotherhood with each other and with the whole of creation. St Bonaventure, the  Franciscan theologian and mystic, said that the history of the world is a song and only God can sing all the verses. The challenge for us now is to joyfully sing the verse - or maybe the line - that is ours to sing, and to allow and encourage others to sing the verse or line that is theirs to sing.

As joyful minstrels of God, called to community and to create community in the wider world, it is our privilege and responsibility to create that God-given harmony in our lives, singing together, but with our individual part, the Franciscan Minoress song that is ours for the Church and the world of today:

For Francis fraternity was born of the Spirit. Fraternity made community into a family on a Gospel basis. Our fraternal life must be the first of our interests, the centre of gravity of our lives, the treasure which engages our heart. We must believe in it, and we must ensure that we accord fraternity priority over other centres of interest.
(FSM Constitutions Chapter III)

We who are drawn together by the Holy Spirit as a community in the Church must become daily more conscious that we are to be like the Trinity, a community of persons united in love. Called and consecrated we desire to become a community which will give a real and visible witness to radical Gospel living. Strongly attached to Christ and His mission, we strive to develop an ever-deepening capacity for communion with God.

Community is an on-going reality, created anew each day. To become a true family gathered in the Lord’s name, each of us will be prayerful in order to put on the mind of Christ. If this spiritual level is our first priority, then our religious family will become   “the vital environment for the development of the seed of Divine Life planted in each of us at our Baptism,” so that our personal and community life will be fruitful. (E.T. 38)
(FSM Constitutions Chapter III)

Fraternal sharing and reflection ...

... during a Congregational workshop

Enjoying a cup of tea and chat

In a family all are united in a bond of love. They show mutual understanding, a willingness to help and serve, sincere concern for one another and share all that they have and are.
(FSM Constitutions Chapter III)

Our relationships, even the most ordinary ones with each of our Sisters have to be deepened in the Lord. Saint Francis asks that his followers show that they are members of the one family.
(FSM Constitutions Chapter III)

Sister Barbara

Christ manifested Himself in the breaking of bread. We will, therefore, ensure that all that is associated with community meals - the gathering at the same table, conversation, mutual awareness - assumes a significant value. (FSM Constitutions Chapter III)

Even the environment must be beautiful, in simplicity and creative sobriety: the house, the table that is set, that there be taste and decorum in the surroundings, so that everything in the dwelling may reveal the presence and centrality of God.
(Witnesses to Beauty)

Beautiful is the fraternity and the atmosphere that one breathes. It is beautiful to be together in his name.
(Witnesses to Beauty)

We are called to offer a concrete model of community which, by acknowledging the dignity of each person and sharing our respective gifts, makes it possible to live as brothers and sisters.
(Pope Francis)

Sister Anthony in using and sharing her artistic gift  has adorned many sacred spaces: The Portiuncula, churches, homes, schools and convents.

Speaking to artists in 2009, Pope Benedict XVI said:

Dear artists, You are the custodians of beauty: thanks to your talent, you have the opportunity to speak to the heart of humanity, to touch individual and collective sensibilities, to call forth dreams and hopes, to broaden the horizons of knowledge and of human engagement. Be grateful then, for the gifts you have received and be fully conscious  
of your great responsibility to communicate beauty, to communicate in and through beauty! Through your art, you yourselves are to be heralds and witnesses of hope for humanity!

Pope Francis points to a distinctive witness of consecrated persons in our commitment to community life. The Holy Father said that we should be  “experts in communion and architects of the plan for unity”. What begins in community extends to all our brothers and sisters and to the whole of creation.

We capture the beauty of creation in our stained glass windows in both our Motherhouse in Melton Mowbray and in our Portiuncula House of Prayer in Clay Cross. Stained glass windows are a very familiar and beautiful art form, symbolising important theological truths and for many a doorway into deeper prayer and reflection.

Father, we praise you
with all your creatures.
They came forth from your
all-powerful hand;
they are yours,
filled with your presence
and your tender love.

Praise be to you!

Son of God, Jesus,
through you all things were made.
You were formed in the womb
of Mary our Mother,
you became
part of this earth,
and you gazed upon this world
with human eyes.
Today you are alive
in every creature
in your risen glory.

Praise be to you!

Holy Spirit, by your lightness
you guide this world
 towards the  Father’s love
and accompany creation
as it groans in travail.
You also dwell in our hearts
and you inspire us
to do what is good.

Praise be to you!

(Pope Francis, Laudato Si’)

The Canticle of the Creatures

Most High, all-powerful, good Lord,
Yours are the praises, the glory, and the honour, and all blessing.

To You alone, Most High, do they belong,
and no human is worthy to mention Your name.

Praised be You, my Lord, with all Your creatures,
especially Sir Brother Sun,
Who is the day and through whom You give us light.

And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendour;
and bears a likeness of You, Most High One.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars,
in heaven You formed them clear and precious and beautiful.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Wind, and
through the air, cloudy and serene, and every kind of weather,
through whom You give sustenance to Your creatures.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Water,
who is very useful and humble and precious and chaste.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Fire,
through whom You light the night,
and he is beautiful and playful and robust and strong.

Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister Mother Earth,
who sustains and governs us,
and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs.

Praised be You, my Lord, through those who give pardon for Your love, and bear infirmity and tribulation.

Blessed are those who endure in peace
for by You, Most High, shall they be crowned.

Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death,
from whom no one living can escape.

Woe to those who die in mortal sin.
Blessed are those whom death will find in Your most holy will,
for the second death shall do them no harm.

Praise and bless my Lord and give Him thanks
and serve Him with great humility.

Prayer for the Environment

All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe
and in the smallest of your creatures.
You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.
Pour out upon us the power of your love,
that we may protect life and beauty.
Fill us with peace, that we may live
as brothers and sisters, harming no one.
O God of the poor,
help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten
of this earth, so precious in your eyes.
Bring healing to our lives,
that we may protect the world and not prey on it,
that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction.
Touch the hearts of those who look only for gain
at the expense of the poor and the Earth.
Teach us to discover the worth of each thing,
to be filled with awe and contemplation,
to recognize that we are profoundly united
with every creature as we journey towards your infinite light.
We thank you for being with us each day.
Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle
for justice, love and peace.

(Pope Francis, Laudato Si')

Image from Assisiproject.com

Rather than a problem to be solved, the world is a joyful mystery to be contemplated with gladness and praise.
(Pope Francis: Laudate Si’)

Mosaic in our Motherhouse: Sister Mary Anthony FSM

Praise and bless my Lord and give Him thanks,
And serve Him with great humility.