Prayer

If you but knew the gift of God!

The wonder of prayer is revealed beside the well where we come seeking water: there, Christ comes to meet every human being. It is he who first seeks us and asks us for a drink. Jesus thirsts; his asking arises from the depths of God’s desire for us. Whether we realise it or not, prayer is the encounter of God’s thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him. (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2559)

Prayer is the heartbeat of our lives. Permeating all our activities, like our father, Saint Francis, we hold in our hearts the desire to pray always and to respond wholeheartedly to God’s love and grow in intimacy with Him.

Wherever they are, in every place, at every hour, at every time of the day, everyday and continually, the Brothers and Sisters should truly and humbly believe, hold in their heart and love, honour, adore, serve, praise and bless, glorify and exalt, magnify and give thanks to the Most High and Supreme, Eternal God, Trinity and Unity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
(TOR Rule Chapter III)

The Holy Eucharist

The daily community celebration of the Eucharistic sacrifice is the fount and centre of our Franciscan life. We actively and whole-heartedly participate in the Eucharistic celebration consciously offering ourselves with Christ and daily renewing our religious consecration.
(FSM Constitutions Chapter II)

Let everyone be struck with fear,
let the whole world tremble,
and let the heavens exult
when Christ, the Son of the Living God
is present on the altar in the hands of a priest!
O wonderful loftiness and stupendous dignity!
O sublime humility!
O humble sublimity!
The Lord of the universe,
God and the Son of God,
so humbles Himself
that for our salvation
He hides Himself
under an ordinary piece of bread!
(Saint Francis)

Following the example of Saint Francis and Saint Clare, we nurture a profound love and reverence for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament is central to our lives of prayer and adoration, praise and intercession.

Libreria Fonteviva, Casa Papa Giovanni, Assisi

Transform your whole
being into the image
of God Himself
through contemplation!

Gaze upon Him
consider Him
contemplate Him
as you desire to imitate Him.

The Word of God

We extend the praise and thanksgiving of the Eucharistic Sacrifice through the day by prayerfully reciting the Liturgy of the Hours, uniting our hymn of praise with that of the whole Church, interceding in union with Christ for the whole of creation.
(FSM Constitutions Chapter II)

In the spirit of Saint Francis we cultivate a warm and living love of the scriptures, nourishing our personal prayer with the Word of God both in the liturgical readings and in our daily private reading of the scriptures, especially of the Gospels. In knowing God more clearly as He speaks to us through the Scriptures we are strengthened to follow Him more closely in a spirit of prayer, sisterhood and service.
(FSM Constitutions Chapter II)

The Rosary

Every day in all our communities we pray the Rosary together. Our Foundress, Mother Francis also prayed The Seven Joys of Our Blessed Lady every evening at 6pm. We too pray the Seven Joys at chosen times and we wear the Crown Rosary as part of our Habit.

Above all, they should keep before them the example of the most blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and Our Lord Jesus Christ. They are to do this in accordance with the command of Saint Francis who had a deep reverence for Holy Mary, Lady and Queen, the Virgin who became the Church. And they should remember that they are to follow the example of the Immaculate Virgin Mary who called herself the handmaid of the Lord.
(TOR Rule Chapter IV)

Hail His Palace!
Hail His Tabernacle!
Hail His Dwelling!
Hail His Robe!
Hail His Servant!
Hail His Mother!
(Saint Francis)

Our Lord's Passion

Our Foundress, Mother Francis, made The Way of the Cross every day and devotion to Our Lord’s Passion is part of our life of prayer and intimacy with Our Lord. We make The Way of the Cross in community during Lent and Sisters nurture their own devotion to our Crucified Lord through meditation on the Passion and making The Way of the Cross privately at other times. Following the example of our holy father Saint Francis, we embrace the crucified Christ with great love and tenderness.

The love of Him who loved us greatly, is greatly to be loved.
(Saint Francis)

Contemplate the ineffable charity that He chose to suffer on the tree of the Cross and to die there the most shameful kind of death.
(Saint Clare)

The Office of the Passion is one of the most important writings of Saint Francis, for it not only expresses his spirituality but also provides an insight into how that spirituality was formed on a daily basis.
(Regis Armstrong, OFM)

---

Saint Francis wrote The Office of the Passion which is a beautiful, original and personal prayer based on a chosen collection of verses from the Scriptures. Celebrating not only the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ, this Office also celebrates the Fatherhood of God, the gift of Creation and the special place that Our Blessed Lady holds in the story of Salvation.

In addition to the Prayer of the Church, we are encouraged to pray this Office, especially on Fridays and during Lent. It was very dear to the hearts of Saint Francis and Saint Clare, devoted as they were to their Crucified and Risen Spouse. This Office is a rich tapestry of biblical quotations embracing not only the Passion but also the events of Salvation History.  For this reason it has  also been called ‘The Office of the Paschal Mystery’.

Every day in all our communities we pray The Peace Prayer. In this prayer, we place ourselves in the loving presence and providence of God, asking that we may be instruments of peace, love, pardon, faith, hope, light and joy for our brothers and sisters.

The primary task of the Consecrated Life is to make Christ present to the world through personal witness.
(FSM Constitutions Chapter IV)

Silence and Solitude

Built into our way of life are special times of silence and solitude. In addition to our daily community and personal times of prayer, we also have opportunities for extended times of silence and solitude.

Every month we have a retreat day in all our communities. We also have an eight day annual retreat and for those who feel called, there is the opportunity for a hermitage experience or longer retreats of silence and solitude.

Saint Francis constantly meditated on the extravagant love, poverty and humility of our God manifested especially in the Crib, the Cross and the Eucharist. As Franciscan Minoress Sisters, we too, through our charism of minority, “little ones”, contemplate the little way chosen by Jesus as we follow in His footsteps, responding to His call to be great ‘little’ saints for our times.

Gifted by the Holy Spirit through Saint Francis and our Foundress, Mother Francis, we are the trustees of our Congregation’s charism. We praise and thank God for the precious gift of Minority which enables us to live as Minoresses, “little ones”. In joyful, childlike trust and humility we embrace a life of poverty and simplicity, entering into the self-emptying of Christ, who took on the form of a servant.
(FSM Constitutions Introduction)

If you feel the call to explore the way of minority, “littleness” this book will help you to see how our father, Saint Francis, the ‘Little, Poor One’  of Assisi, wanted his followers to be minor, (lesser), before others, as we all are before God. In the Preface to this book, Father Regis Armstrong, OFM., quoted Pope Benedict XVI, saying:

God, the Almighty, chose for himself as the place of his appearance, what was very smallest and most insignificant, a wretched stable in Bethlehem. It is a fact that the choice of “little things” and “little people” is characteristic of God’s dealings with humanity.

Available from Gracewing Publications www.gracewing.co.uk