On Easter Friday and Saturday, April 6-7, Secular Franciscan (OFS) representatives from fraternities for which our Province is bound to provide Spiritual Assisitance gathered in New Baltimore, PA. Led by our brother Andrew McCarty, OFM Cap., Provincial Spiritual Assistant, a number of Spiritual Assisitants, both local and regional, were also present for the overnight.
On Friday evening, friar John Petrikovic, OFM Cap., a former Spiritual Assistant now in the Province's Ministry of the Word, offered a word about our common, central call to be brothers & sisters. The "vital reciprocity" mentioned in the Secular Franciscan Rule and the Capuchin Constitutions comes to life when we recognize the Franciscan heart that calls us to build a "more fraternal and evangelical" world- being in fraternitas as "brother" and "sister." The words aren't simple titles at the beginning of names -- it's the reality we cone to know and live.
The group spent Saturday in focus groups to share their experiences in formation and in ministerial outreach, getting advice and encouragement from one another through their time together.
