Minister's Note for June

Celebrating Pentecost

As we recall the Holy Spirit descending on the Apostles and on God’s people, I invite each of us to recall the beginning First Letter of Francis to the Faithful and the movement of the Holy Spirit within this beautiful text. This is a very early writing of St. Francis written specifically to us, the Brothers and Sisters of Penance, the lay people we today call the
Secular Franciscan Order. This text is included at the very beginning of our Rule approved by Paul VI in 1978:

All who love the Lord with their whole heart, their whole soul and mind, and with their strength, and love their neighbor as themselves, and who despise the tendency in their humanity to sin, receive the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and bring forth from within themselves fruits worthy of true penance. How happy and blessed are these men and women when they do these things, and persevere in doing them because “the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon them,” and the Lord will make “His home and dwelling place with them.”

Let us all strive to love God in all things and with our entire beings – so that we too may be the home and dwelling place of the Spirit of the Lord!
 
Laura Chun, OFS
Minister, San Luis Rey Fraternity