4. Evangelization/Mission
MP 9-10, 12-17, 43, 45.

In recent decades reflecting on our identity we have come to appropriate once more our ancient root: we are a Fraternity, an evangelizing Fraternity. This is our vocation and our raison d'être in the Church and in the world. The prophetic gesture which is being demanded of us today is that of handing on this precious treasure entrusted to the Friars Minor by Saint Francis. Our munus is that of rendering testimony as Brothers, to make known "the good, every good, the supreme good, the Lord God living and true".

In harmony with the document From Memory to Prophecy, together with the other documents of the Order, and above all with the document To Fill the Earth with the Gospel of Christ, the Provincial and local Fraternities should draw up a Project of Evangelization, to be evaluated every year. In it, among other things, the missionary dimension of our life should be made explicit with great emphasis, and a clear choice should be made, after adequate discernment, for those evangelizing activities which best express our charism and respond to the challenges of our time in the Church and in the world. Let the elaboration of the Project or its revision be the occasion for

1) every Province evaluating and if necessary revising the forms of our presence and our manner of operating in the parochial apostolate;

2) every Province giving impulse to new forms and new modes of evangelization in communion with the local and universal Church and in fidelity to our charism, especially as concerns our vocation in Fraternity;

3) the Provinces and the Conferences accepting, where this is possible and suitable, responsibility for specific missionary projects or involving themselves further in already existing projects, like the Holy Land, Morocco, the Commonwealth of Independent States, Thailand and others.

4) the Ministers examining the missionary vocation of their friars and not placing obstacles in its way for mere reasons of utility;

5) the Brothers who are called to serve the Gospel in cultures different from their own and among peoples having their own characteristics being respectful of the special characteristics of each people with great fraternal sensitivity, learning their language and incarnating the Gospel in their religious, historical and cultural values, as also in their customs and traditions;

6) study being looked upon in all Entities as a fundamental requirement for evangelization;

7) the Provinces having Colleges or running scholastic establishments offering the young people of our society a formation inspired by evangelical principles;

8) every Province paying annually the 5% of offerings gathered for the missions to the General Secretariate for Missionary Evangelization;

9) the Provinces also collaborating generously whenever their economic situation permits with the Office which raises funds for the missionary and formation projects of the Order.
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listening

• Mt 5:13-16, 28:19-20; Mk 16:15-20; Lk 10:1-20

• Rnb XVI, XVII, XIX; Rb III,10-14, IX, XII; LOrd 8-11; ML 2; 3Comp 36

• GGCC 830125; RFF 26-35; OET 2-5; OF 52-53; To Fill the Earth with the Gospel of Christ; RGC 119-122

• FLC 58-70; VC 72-103

1. In face of the urgent demands and challenges which confront us: what response can we give as Friars Minor? In what manner is that response to be given?

2. According to CL, evangelization in religious life occurs by means of consecration, fraternal life in community and the specific mission of the Institute: do we respect this indication or do we still think solely in terms of activity?

3. Are your Province and Fraternity conscious of the fact that mission ad gentes is an integral part of our charism? In what way are they committed to it?