Sunday, April 22, 2012

A different path...

After many months of prayer, prayer which came to me in many different forms and from many varied places H and I have decided to  take a slightly different yet parallel road on our journey to Heaven.  Our Lord called us to join the Secular Franciscan Order many years ago, and now He calls again, directing us to the path of Third Order Franciscans.  The reasons are too many to post; God draws us to Him and we respond, most times in ways we would never imagine.  In discerning this new path I have tried to humble myself in my thoughts and actions to the utmost of what I can know, meaning, I have tried to give everything over to Our Lord through Our Blessed Virgin Mother.  I am nothing, and in that nothingness I garner my strength.  When I think, even abstractly, that I am in charge, in charge without knowing I call it, when the will takes over my thinking, instead of letting the soul do the work, I become terrified.  I cannot do this, I cannot start a chapter.  Yes, not only to become TOF, but to start a chapter here at our parish.  Tomorrow, the 23rd, we'll be having a 'Meeting of Inquiry', just a small get together to see who might be interested in what we are doing.  Many people have inquired to us about the Third Order, knowing we are Franciscans, and if we could provide information to them.  The desire is there, in people we know.  I believe the Latin Mass has brought this idea of a Third Order into the beginnings of a birth, of sorts.  Pray for us as we begin again down the to Our God, following in the footsteps of Jesus, holding the hand of Francis.

6 comments:

Fr. Arthur Joseph said...

Wonderful grace and I carry you and H in my heart on this journey ever deeper into communion of love with the Holy Trinity.

Fr. Joseph

Daily Grace said...

My prayers are with you both.

A Secular Franciscan said...

Perhaps I'm confused, but isn't the Secular Franciscan Order just the new name for the Third Order Franciscans?

kam said...

ASF - In a nutshell, (a very small nutshell!) the Secular Franciscans do not follow Francis' Rule of 1221, which was given to the laity in that year in order for married couples and also single men and women who couldn't, shouldn't or did not want to join his order or enter the convent. In the 70's the Third Order was basically dissolved, along with its rules and statutes. That is when the Secular Franciscan Order was born.

Do Not Be Anxious said...

kam, could you send me some info and/or links? I have had thoughts in this area in the past, and it kinds of drifts around my thoughts like a thin early morning mist. I want to know more.

kam said...

I'll send you the info I have, Tom.