acta ordinis fratrum minorum - Orden de Frailes Menores Provincia ...

E SECRETARIATU PRO FORMATIONE ET STUDIIS 45
therefore, to love. The end of knowing is doing
good. The true knower is the saint and the authentic
exegete of Scripture. Love as knowledge
has the power to scrutinize deeply while
going beyond mere intellectual speculation.
Only love manages to keep the flame alit in
a candle, 67 and only through love can a journey
of Ongoing Formation be done; and only
through love can we be in search of God. One
enters Religious Life to find God solely and
this is the sole reason for Religious life, for it
is a life that is none other than a way of life organized
deliberately in order to consecrate
oneself for the human search of God. There is
only one thing that can sustain, nourish, and
justify Religious Life, namely, that the Religious
must be the person who, in principle, before
anything and always, in whatever circumstance,
seeks God and only God, and shows
Him in every situation and to every man.
Otherwise, Religious Life will be no more
than a social institution followed by other institutions.
What makes Religious Life authentically
such is the search for God and His
Kingdom. 68 Taking any other position can be
compassionate, but, nevertheless, imprecise
and generous, but not religious; with good intentions,
but not really effective.
“Like Francis and Clare of Assisi, you too
strive to follow this same logic always: to lose
your life in the cause of Jesus and the Gospel,
in order to save it and make it abundantly fruitful.
While you praise and thank the Lord who
has called you to belong to such a large and
beautiful “family”, continue to be attentive to
what the Spirit says to it today, to each of its
components, so that you may continue to proclaim
the Kingdom of God fervently, treading
in the footsteps of the Seraphic Father. May
every brother and every sister always preserve
a contemplative, simple and joyful heart: always
set out anew from Christ, just as Francis
set out from the gaze of the Crucifix of San
Damiano and from the meeting with the leper,
in order to see Christ’s Face in the suffering
brethren and bring his peace to all. May you
be witnesses of God’s “beauty”, which Francis
was able to praise while contemplating the
marvels of Creation, and which made him exclaim
to the Most High “You are beauty!”
(Praises of God, 4, 6: FF, 261).” 69
Conclusion: A Suitable Formation
for a Suitable Revitalization
Formation is the humus of all revitalization,
the fertile ground in which a more meaningful
life and mission can germinate for all those
who belong to consecrated life in the world,
when in Africa to, and for those who draw near
to us, with kindness or suspicion.
Much has been done in the area of formation,
there is still much left to do 70 :
• An initial and ongoing formation is needed
for a life in relationship, for the importance
of otherness, for welcoming difference, for
fraternal and loving obedience, for a taste
for collaboration, and for a suitable maturity
that allows healthy relationships.
• There is need for a formation that is integrated
and all-embracing that takes into account
all the dimensions of the person, is
not content with completing institutional
cycles, but enables the professed and candidates
to enter, instead, into a process of
conversion that is always beginning and
never ending.
• We have need of a formation that brings us
from the logic of observance to that of gift
and communion ad intra – where those who
belong to a fraternity/community love one
another – and communion ad extra where
the affective-agapic component is combined
with the apostolic.
• We need a formation that helps us to a form
of prayer that fully relational in which God
is discovered as the You-for-us, as consecrated
men, the source of all relationship,
beauty, goodness, richness and all that we
need.
• We have need of a formation that teaches
us the communication of faith and vocation
with all their struggles and hopes; a formation
that teaches to enlighten and help one
another on the arduous journey of life, to
plan a life together in a Gospel manner, so
that we can throw ourselves into the mission,
as brothers and according to our proper
charism.
• We have need of a formation that transmits
the charism and strengthens the meaning of
belonging to the charismatic family we are
part of, without either fissures or divided
hearts. A formation that reinforces one’s