#Ask pastor john fraternities full#

… In December 2011, we were granted permission from the Regional Council for full canonical establishment.” … In July 2008, we finally received permission from the Regional Council to be an merging fraternity, but still under the supervision of Immaculate Conception. He sent a beautiful letter welcoming us and giving permission. “We had to get permission from the archbishop to become a newly forming group. “There is a very strict, stringent process, following the guidance of the church,” Alesi said. The Immaculate Conception Fraternity became their sponsor. Welcomed by the Monastery of the Holy Spirit, this new group, including Wescott and his wife, both professed Secular Franciscans, and others, gradually discerned that they were called to help establish a new fraternity. Father Linus DeSantis, OFM Conv., is the regional spiritual assistant, working with 11 elected professed Secular Franciscans on the regional council.Ī decision by the Immaculate Conception Fraternity to start meeting on Saturdays, a day when both Alesis were then working, led them eventually to form a fledgling group in Conyers, after deeply missing their community life. Rousseau said the region has 32 fraternities, including two in Alabama, three in Tennessee, 13 in North Carolina and seven in South Carolina. Philip Benizi Church, Jonesboro, where Franciscan friars serve, is one of seven in Georgia. That fraternity, which is now located at St. The Alesis were professed together in 2000 at the Immaculate Conception Fraternity in Atlanta. … We need to share what we have with other people.” We are just asked not to be attached to things of the world. Francis gave the cloak off his back, over and over again. It is spiritual poverty, trying to live a more simple life. “We promise poverty of spirit … chastity, according to our station in life, and obedience to the magisterium of the church. In today’s world, it is not an easy calling,” Alesi said. “We try to have our life rooted in the Gospel. Through prayer, frequent Mass and Communion, and serving others, particularly the poor, Secular Franciscans follow a particular charism in the Church, she said. Those who continue and are accepted make promises to the Church for life in a Mass of profession. These are times of study of the Franciscan rule and of formation.

Those who are drawn to this vocation go through years of preparation, including a stage known as visiting, then inquiry, and two years of candidacy. It is a vocation in the Church,” she said. Francis personally started it because people came to him and wanted to follow him but couldn’t leave their farms and their families and that is how it came about.”Ī retired registered nurse, and a grandmother, she said that becoming a part of the Secular Franciscan Order is a call both she and her husband, Joel, a retired business executive, discerned in their lives in recent years. “Ours was actually the first (Franciscan rule) the pope approved. Francis established, Alesi said, older than the Franciscans or the Poor Clares. The rule is actually the oldest of the orders St. The Secular Franciscan Order, which includes lay people, both single and married, and diocesan clergy, follows a rule established by St. for anyone who would like to learn more about this way of following Christ in daily life. A “Come and See” event will be held on Sunday, Oct. Over 40 Secular Franciscans from around the state and region attended the Mass. Two founding members, Charlotte Alesi, OFS, and Phil Wescott, OFS, witnessed the documents.

Ask pastor john fraternities