1. I am pleased to send you, Reverend Father, and all the Order of Friars Minor my cordial and well-wishing greetings on the occasion of the Ordinary General Chapter, summoned to the City of St. Francis and St. Clare. It is being celebrated in the Porziuncola and this revives the joyful memory of the origins of the Order, under the gaze of St. Mary of the Angels, venerated by you as your special Patroness with the title of the ‘Immaculate’.

The Chapter Assembly "of Pentecost", prescribed by the Rule (cf. n. VIII), points out the fundamental role of the Holy Spirit recognised by Francis, whom he loved to define as "The Minister General" of the Order (cf. 2Cel CXLV, 193). The Holy Spirit purifies, enlightens and inflames hearts with the fire of love, leading them to the Father in the footprints of the Lord Jesus (cf. LtOrd, VI, 62-63).

In such significant circumstances, I am pleased to renew my feelings of gratitude to this religious Family for the service it has been giving to the Church for centuries, continuing the work begun by Francis of Assisi and his disciple Clare. I also wish to take advantage of this opportunity to offer the members of the General Chapter and, through them, all the Friars Minor some useful elements for a community revision of the progress made up to now and for a more incisive apostolic action in the world of today.

2. With the Apostolic Letter Novo Millennium Ineunte, at the end of the Great Jubilee Year 2000, I tried to remind the entire Christian people of the spiritual priorities of the third millennium, not hesitating to state that the perspective in which all pastoral initiatives must be carried out is that of holiness (cf. n. 30). I stressed that in every plan for evangelisation the "primacy of grace…, the primacy of Christ and, in union with Him, the primacy of the interior life and of holiness" (n. 38) must be highlighted. Besides, the Institutes of Consecrated Life, having the prophetic witness to the Kingdom of Heaven as a specific mission, are called to carry out a singular role. This implies an unceasing desire for sanctity. What is read in the post-synod Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata is then better understood and that is that "today a renewed commitment to holiness by consecrated persons is more necessary that ever, also as a means of promoting and supporting every Christian’s desire for perfection" (n.39).

If it is true that "the ways of holiness are many, according to the vocation of each individual" (NMI, 31), in the Rule and Constitutions of your Order there is "a map for the whole journey of discipleship, in accordance with a specific charism confirmed by the Church" (VC 37). Such a journey has been traversed by many of your Confreres, Franciscan Saints and Blesseds, who observed with heroic fidelity until death the obligations that were freely assumed in religious profession. It will be a great help to you to make constant reference to these, masters and models of sanctity, being inspired by their example, deepening your knowledge of them, devoutly invoking them, commemorating them on their liturgical anniversaries.

3. The General Chapter is being held in the city of Assisi, where the voice that Francis heard descend three times from the Cross to him resounds perennially: "Go and repair my house which, as you see, is all being destroyed" (LegM, II,1).

In recent years also, distinguished by notable social changes, The Order has been stimulated to update this singular call, deepening its significance in order to live the charism coherently. Such reflections have spurred your religious Family to make more evident the missionary and ecclesiastical service entrusted by Christ to the young Francis and, subsequently, confirmed by Pope Innocent III with the words: "Go with the Lord, brothers, and as the Lord will see fit to inspire you, preach penance to all" (1Cel XIII, 33).

It is important that the Order should preserve its own missionary style, couched in poverty and fraternal life, animated by the spirit of contemplation and the sincere search for justice, peace and integrity of creation. It is also indispensable that each member and all the fraternities should collaborate in the building of the one Church of Christ, in accordance and full communion with the Pastors of the local Christian communities.

Your Order, in agreement with the diocesan Ordinaries, will, in this way, contribute to "consolidate and expand the Kingdom of Christ, bringing the proclamation of the Gospel even to the most far-off regions" (VC 78), thanks to a renewed spirit of obedience and a sincere desire for ecclesiastical communion.

4. Your only objective in every apostolic choice and decision should be the salus animarum, just as it was for the Poverello of Assisi, always and only moved by zeal for the salvation of the Friars. Considering that "The only-begotten Son of God saw fit to hang on the cross for the sake of souls" (2Cel CXXXI, 172) "he chose to live for the one who died for all. For he knew that he was sent for this: to win for God souls which the devil was trying to snatch away" ( 1Cel XIV, 35).

The salus animarum even spurred him to promote the dignity and rights of the person, created and formed "to the image of His beloved Son according to the body and to His likeness according to the Spirit" (Adm V), as well as to safeguard creation, since all things have been created through Christ and all subsist in Him (cf. Col 1, 16-17). The life of Francis is especially distinguished by a constant spiritual desire that led him to see and understand in the light of the "definitive happiness found in God" (VC 33). From this love of God there flowed the burning passion to preach to the people "vices and virtues, punishment and glory" (Rb IX). This, my dear Friars, remains your apostolic ‘style’ in the Church. I hope that opportune indications will emerge from the Chapter labours to make it ever more consistent with the challenges of the modern era.

5. "The harvest is great, but the labourers are few" (Mt 9,37). These words of Christ come to mind before the vastness of the field of action and the tiny number of hands available. To speak of missionary impulse seems hardly realistic even for your Order, taking into account the reduction in the number of its members and the increase in the average age that has been taking place in recent years. This, however, rather than leading to discouragement, should instead spur you on to intensify, on the one hand, the prayer that the Lord of the harvest "should send labourers into the harvest" (Mt 9, 38) and to seek, on the other hand, new pastoral and vocational strategies.

Why lose trust, if Jesus Himself has assured Francis that He was "the main protector" of the Order? Did he not promise: "I have called, I will preserve and I will pasture and I will raise up others to make up for the fall of some. So that, even if they have not been born, I will have them born" (LegM VIII, 3)? With this awareness, encourage and accompany vocations through prayer and the testimony of life, having faith in the fact that "God can raise Children of Abraham even from stones (cf. Mt 3,9) and make sterile wombs fruitful" (SAFC 16). The Order has done well in assigning numerous energies to vocational pastoral activity and to the formation of aspirants to the consecrated life in collaboration with other Institutes of Franciscan inspiration and with the diocese.

The fascination of young people for Francis and Clare is great and should be used to propose to the generations of the third millennium "a more attentive reflection on life’s essential values. These reach their fulfilment in the response which each person is invited to give to God’s call, particularly when the call implies a total giving of self and of one’s energies to the cause of the Kingdom" (NMI 46).

The celebrations called for by the four Ministers General of the Franciscan Family for the 750^th anniversary of the death of St. Clare could constitute, in this regard, a most opportune occasion to make vocations to the Franciscan-Clarian contemplative, apostolic, hermitic and secular life better known.

6. You yourselves should be men impassioned by Christ and the Gospel, men of unceasing prayer and joyful witnesses to a radical choice of the Kingdom of Heaven. Your commitment will be so much more efficacious the more you make the effort to offer the eloquent signs of the "primacy which God and the truths of the Gospel have in Christian life" (VC 84).

The traditional habit, habitually worn, reminds us from the first impact of the style of penance and poverty, of gentleness and acceptance, of simplicity and total consecration to God that must distinguish it. Remain faithful to your typical charism, opening yourselves up at the same time with wisdom and prudence to the demands of the apostolate of our times.

The Holy Spirit with his light and his power will make you capable of bearing Christ "in our heart and body through love and a pure and sincere conscience" and of giving Him birth "through a holy activity, which must shine before others by example" (2LtF 53).

May St. Francis, St. Clare and all your Patron saints accompany your Chapter labours and render them fruitful for the good of the Order and of the Church. May the Virgin Mary, "Star of the new evangelisation", help you to remain faithful to the missionary commitment to which Francis continues to exhort you with the beautiful expression: "Cast your care upon the Lord and He will sustain you" (1Cel XII, 29).

Turn to the "Virgin made Church" (SalBVM), to the Queen of Apostles, to the "Advocate of the Order" (2Cel CL, 198) every day through the recitation of the Rosary, that exquisitely evangelical and Franciscan prayer.

With these sentiments, while assuring a constant remembrance for each one before the Lord, I heartily impart to you, Reverend Father, to the Chapter Members and to all your confreres spread throughout the world a special Apostolic Benediction.

From the Vatican, 10th May 2003.

John Paul II PP