Franciscan Spirituality

 

Christ-Centered

Franciscan Spirituality is an incarnational, earthy spirituality. God is close to creation, not far away, “up there.” As St. Bonaventure put it, God bends down to us, lifting us up. Franciscan spirituality reveres the Eucharist as the humility of God for us.

Faithful to the Gospel and the Church

Franciscan Spirituality includes as a fundamental component obedience and loyalty to the Church and magisterium. Franciscan spirituality has an engaging, inviting stance toward the world encouraging dialogue along with a healthy and prophetic critique of modern secular culture and its values.

Rooted in Prayer, Contemplation, and Service

Franciscan spirituality hinges on the synthesis of action and contemplation; prayer leads to work and ministry; work and ministry bring us back to prayer. Contemplation is the impetus for mission. Franciscan spirituality understands authority and obedience in terms of mutual service, not submission or domination. It embraces and supports the growth and development of the arts and sciences in dialogue with revelation and faith.

Committed to Upholding the Dignity of All of Creation

Franciscan spirituality manifests a profound reverence for the human person as one made in the image and likeness of God and values and esteems creation as brother and sister, reflections of God’s goodness and glory. It understands that Creation and the world, despite the impact of sin, remain fundamentally good as gifts from God. In its witness to fraternity has an appreciation of and reverence for the individual within the global community. Franciscan spirituality acknowledges the necessity of human work and strives to uphold the value of human labor and the dignity of workers. It insists on a commitment to social justice by striving for solidarity with the poor and marginalized, the powerless and the voiceless as images of Christ Crucified. It seeks to give concrete expression of and commitment to global and local peacemaking by seeking and initiating the process of reconciliation.

Source: Mount Saint Francis Center for Spirituality, Mt. St. Francis, Indiana.
Pax et bonum