FRANCISCAN SPIRITUALITY & JPIC May the Lord give you peace!

1. FRANCISCAN SPIRITUALITY & JPICMay the Lord give you peace! By Andrew Conradi, ofs National JPIC Animator National Fraternity of Canada Ordo Franciscanus Sæcularis February 2014

2. What is… • JPIC? • Spirituality? • Franciscan?

3. What is JPIC? Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation • JPIC is the conscious prayer and action to transform the world in the spirit of the Gospel through lives of justice, peace and care for the integrity of creation. JPIC Promoters’ Training Workshop 24 November 2010

4. Seeing the love of God in all creation Transformation through our prayers Being in the Presence of God to being a Presence of God Mysticism Creating a more just and peaceful world for all of creation Attending consciously to the Presence of Christ in others Honouring God in all creation Prophecy JPIC - Promote and Nurture the Reign of God Action Prayer/Contemplation

5. JPIC is an invitation from God’s spirit to live the OFS Rule & General Constitutions “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,    because he has anointed me    to proclaim good news to the poor.He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners    and recovery of sight for the blind,to set the oppressed free.” Luke 4:18. In this invitation the meaning and significance of Franciscan values is played out today.

6. What is Spirituality? “Spirituality is the way a person is attracted to the Lord and how he or she develops this attraction into a discipline of life.” (Campion Murray, OFM) • Is discipline based on a Rule? • Does the OFS Rule reflect values? • What are Franciscan values?

7. Franciscan values • “… the vision of Francis and Clare, a vision that was the result of a profound experience that God is love and therefore that we – as the children of God – must show forth that love to all. … has led the Franciscan family to embrace a range of values: • Option for the poor • Solidarity • Peace • The Integrity of Creation • Respect for life” (Thomas Nairn, ofm )

8. A FRANCISCAN SUMMARY OF SUMMARIES: “JPIC IS PART OF OUR FRANCISCAN DNA” (OFM General Chapter 2003) • “But if Francis is able to reverence, respect, be brother and see the love of the Creator in all creatures, it is because he lives in radical poverty and non-appropriation. Poverty frees love of all desire for possession and brings about fraternity.” (ICJPIC, 2012, Nairobi, n.11)

9. Franciscans • Mission • Through living the gospel as it is discovered in prayer and in community [and society], the Franciscan Family witnesses God's love for all people and for the whole of creation, promoting peace, standing in solidarity with the poor, effecting reconciliation and bringing hope to all. • Vision • Through our loving presence and service, we foster personal and community growth as we respond to the needs of the Church and of our contemporary time. • Franciscan Values • Four Franciscan values permeate all that we do in Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation: conversion, contemplation, poverty and minority. JPIC Promoters’ Training Workshop 24 November 2010

10. Conversions • Joe Rozansky, OFM quotes Donal Dorr, SPS who called for a balanced spirituality requiring three (later four) conversions: • Personal/religious (but not private or closed in; this is the one often thought of as “spirituality” i.e. a personal relationship with God) • Inter-personal/moral (family, work, recreation etc) • Political (from the Greek polis i.e. city in which one is responsible and works for the common good) • Ecological conversion (e.g. Leonardo Boff and the CCCB’s “Cry of the earth and cry of the poor are one.”) • Door’s analogy of the three-legged stool: all three legs are needed to balance the stool & now we can say that four legs give an even better balance than three!

11. OFS Rule (1978) n.4: “from gospel to life”: “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” Jas 1:22 “I by my works will show you my faith.” Jas 2:18 “Little children, let us stop just saying we love people, let us really love them, and show it by our actions.” 1 Jn 3:18

12. OFS Rule (1978) • 14. “build a more fraternal and evangelical world so that the kingdom of God may be brought about more effectively” • 15. “individually and collectively be in the forefront in promoting justice” • 17. “cultivate the Franciscan spirit of peace, fidelity, and respect for life” • 18. “respect all creatures, … the Franciscan concept of universal kinship.” • 19. “bearers of peace which must be built up unceasingly” • N.B. The General Constitutions add more detail

13. WHAT IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD? “Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation are above all, values of the Kingdom of God.” (Joe Rozansky, ofm & Vicente Felipe, ofm, 2009, Guidelines for the Animation of JPIC) “The Kingdom of God is … Justice, Peace and Joy in the Spirit.” (Rm 14:17)

14. A TRANSVERSAL WAY OF LIFE JPIC a way of being, a style of life, which desires to respond to the great projects of humanity: JUSTICE, PEACE, HUMAN RIGHTS, ECOLOGY a dignified life for every human being & stewardship of creation.

15. What is transversal? It means to cut across i.e. it cuts across and into everything we do. We cannot separate JPIC from daily life because it inter-connects with & is integrated in everything

16. JPIC is nourished and flows from a profoundly BIBLICAL SPIRITUALITY: =» Centred on a compassionate love based on the experience of knowing we are children of God and universal sisters and brothers. =» Faithful and committed to history in the spirit of the Beatitudes from the perspective of peace and non-violence.

17. A JPIC METHOD OF WORKING • SEE: analyse the underlying reality of what is happening • JUDGE: in the light of the Word of God and Catholic Social Doctrine • ACT: in a transforming and evangelising way.

18. See, judge, act See (Eyes), Judge (Heart) and Act (Work)

19. See- Eyes Open We are called to be attentive to what is happening around us, to hear the cries of the world in which we live and to see life with the eyes of God.

20. See & Contuition “Contemplation for Francis and Clare is a penetrating gaze that gets to the heart of reality. It is looking into the depths of things and seeing them in their true relation to God. Bonaventure calls this type of penetrating vision “contuition” whereby one sees concrete reality in itself and in God.” (Ilia Delio, osf, 2004, Franciscan Payer, 127) Some see an obvious relationship between knowledge; see, judge, act; contuition and prayer.

21. See & Judge - with A Sensitive Heart • The work of seeing, becoming acquainted with and getting to know the reality of the poor, it must have an effect on us, it must reach down to the depths of our being, to the heart, and move us to compassion. • We reflect on reality and judge it by asking what the Gospel and Catholic Social Doctrine tell us.

22. ACT - Hand ready for work of charity • Charity is the love of God which we are called to make present in the world. Charity has different dimensions depending on the relationships: • Interpersonal charity • “political charity & social justice” express themselves in social, structural or political relationships • “The more we strive to secure a common good corresponding to the real needs of our neighbours, the more effectively we love them… . This is the institutional path - we might also call it the political path - of charity.” (Benedict XVI, 2009, Caritas in veritate, n. 7)

23. ACT… “The word of God itself unambiguously denounces injustices and promotes solidarity and equality. … It is primarily the task of the lay faithful, formed in the school of the Gospel, to be directly involved in political and social activity” (Benedict XVI) Does this mean by our prayer & action we should sanctify the world through JPIC? Is that one dimension of secularity & going from gospel to life?

24. TO LIVE FROM A JPIC PERSPECTIVE: It brings one to connect with other people and organisations, other Secular Franciscans, other congregations, social movements, other belief systems and religions. It is a privilaged arena to practice ecumenism and the “inter” i.e. all that involves inter-congregational, inter-religious and inter-cultural initiatives

25. BASED ON PRAYER • Lectio divina & • Clare’s path to prayer

26. Benedict XVI - Verbum Domini The stages of lectio divina or reading a biblical passage • Lectio (read) : 'what does the text mean'? • Meditatio (meditation): 'what does the biblical text say to us'? • Oratio (prayer): 'what do we say to the Lord in response to his word'? • Contemplatio (contemplation): 'what conversion of mind, heart and life is the Lord asking of us'? • Actio (action): Putting it into practice.

27. FRANCISCAN PRAYER As Sr Ilia Delio, osf, reminds us about Clare’s path of prayer in Franciscan Prayer : gaze, consider, meditate, imitate we are called to engage in society by imitating Christ through action after reflection or meditation on the reality we see around us. This requires us to become aware of what is happening around us (signs of the times) and to pray about it.

28. Benedict XVI: "The process of 'lectio divina' is not concluded until it arrives at action ('actio'), which moves the believer to make his or her life a gift for others in charity.” Lectio divina the Franciscan Tradition Can Franciscans say this is similar to Clare’s final stage in her path to prayer?

29. Lectio divina - THE FRANCISCAN Tradition • In 1548 a Franciscan Friar, St Peter of Alcántara, published a water-shed book in the area of lectio divina called "Treatise on Prayer and Meditation". It became popularly known as the "Golden Book or Booklet” or “Golden Treatise” and was an early attempt to propose a scheme for lectio divina. • After this book was published, many saints – e.g. St Francis de Sales, St. Ignatius of Loyola, St Alphonse Ligouri, wrote their own schemes for lectio divina. • Thanks to Bro Gerry Clyne, OFM for bringing The Golden Booklet to my attention

30. HOW JPIC AROSE IN CHURCH • Scripture Values • Vatican Council II • Pontifical Commission on Justice and Peace • Catholic Social Teaching

31. Jesus said: “Do this in remembrance of Me.”Remembrance of what? When you receive the Eucharist what do you remember?Yvonne Bergeron told us at the 49th Eucharistic Congress, Québec 2008 in The Testament of Jesus

32. Jesus’ entire life was marked by: • Profound solidarity with the marginalised • Denunciation of the unjust social, economic, political and religious conditions • Refusal to accept injustice that created divisions in society • Human relationships based on love, liberty and dignity • Preaching of authentic worship • Willingness to confront the powerful These are Scripture values

33. A PRECIOUS HERITAGE FROM VATICAN II: “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts” Gaudium et Spes, n.1.

34. JUSTICE IN THE WORLD, SYNOD OF BISHOPS, 1971 “Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel” (n. 6) From Gospel to life?

35. CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, 2004)

36. OFS CANADA NATIONAL JPIC ACTION PLAN 2012affirmed by the National Chapter 2012 asked each local fraternity to hold a meeting to decide which issue(s) it would address.

37. The issues are: • Extreme poverty and the excluded • The ethical use of resources: especially water, mining and fair trade • Food: security and sovereignty • Human Trafficking and Contemporary Forms of Slavery • Care of Creation: particularly one or more of the following: Pollution; Climate Change; the Alberta Oil Sands and/or Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) • Peace, conflict resolution and active non-violence • Treatment of Refugees, Internally Displaced Persons and Migrants • Solidarity with, and support for, Christians in countries threatened by hostile cultures • Current issues regarding Aboriginal Peoples in Canada • Other topics at the discretion of the fraternities

38. D&P is Caritas Canada & supported by the CCCB Why re-invent the wheel? Use the D&P Share Lent & Fall Education & Action Campaign materials in your Fraternity & parish Become your Fraternity JPIC rep and/or a parish rep for D&P TWICE A YEAR ORDER THE MATERIALS & IF YOU ARE ABLE GIVE A 3-5 MINUTE ALREADY PREPARED PULPIT TALK. WORKSHOPS ARE AVAILABLE TO LEARN MORE