Letter of the conference of general ministers of the first order and the TOR

Rome, January 1, 2001
Feast of Mary, mother of God

Dear Sister Emanuela,
the Lord give you peace!

The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life has on December 8, 2000, issued the Decree (Prot. n. T. 144-1/2000) of approval of the General Constitutions of the Secular Franciscan Order, as revised by the General Chapter of the SFO at Madrid in October 1999 and subsequently submitted by the President of the Conference of General Ministers of the First Order and the TOR.

Now, also in name of the other general Ministers, I am entrusting the approved text of the Constitutions to you, and through you, to all brothers and sisters of the SFO. The common vocation of the whole Franciscan family, from its very beginning in the overpowering spiritual experience of Francis and Clare, is "to live according to the form of the Holy Gospel". The Constitutions reveal themselves to be an ever more important help to incarnate this one vocation in the rich variety of its manifold expressions, wherever and whenever the Lord sends us. They are not just "one more document" or the final stage of a journey, but an essential and dynamic instrument helping us to delineate our identity and to structure progressively our life and our vocation as Franciscans. The work of reflection and revision by so many brothers and sisters all over the world and the approval by Holy mother Church, commit us to make these Constitutions the central axis of our life's project according to the gospel.

In name of the Church and of the general Ministers, I express this wish to all Secular Franciscans: that you may be convincing witnesses of the evangelic fire which inflamed the whole existence of Francis and Clare of Assisi, and made them models of a fully given and thus completely realized life.

Your brother,
Giacomo Bini, ofm
President of the Conference of General Ministers of the First Order and the TOR

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