A day marked by the service of authority, evangelization, and Franciscan memory

On Tuesday, 7 July, the brothers taking part in the VI Chapter of Mats Under Ten OFM continued their journey in Assisi with a day shaped by prayer, reflection, and direct contact with the places that safeguard the living memory of Saint Francis. The morning began with Lauds and lectio divina on “The service of authority in Franciscan life”, led by Fr. Jakub František Sadílek, OFM. Drawing from lived experience, he invited the brothers to understand authority not as dominion, but as a service that accompanies, listens, and sustains the life of the brothers. In his meditation he offered a few simple and profound images: the friar called to be father, mother, and brother; authority that first learns to be a son; a motherhood made of welcome and prayer; and the service of the Good Shepherd, who helps each brother to discover and live their own path within a fraternal community.

After a time of personal meditation, the reflection continued with Fr. Sergio Massironi, who developed the theme of today’s areopagi of evangelization. Beginning with the biblical cities of Antioch and Athens, he noted that evangelization cannot be reduced to a strategy or a presence in places of power, but is born wherever the Gospel generates new relationships, capable of bringing together people who otherwise would remain apart. He recalled that Christian joy is not an ornament of proclamation, but one of its deepest signs, and that the little ones, the poor, and the excluded are the privileged recipients of a revelation that transforms life from within.

The morning concluded with spiritual conversation in groups. The brothers were invited to ask themselves to what conversion the Lord is calling them, so as to exercise an authority able to animate fraternity and to respond with creativity, hope, and courage to the challenges of our time. It was a time of listening and discernment, in continuity with the synodal method accompanying these days of Chapter.

In the afternoon, the participants went to various Franciscan places. The Italian-speaking group visited San Damiano. The meeting began with a reflection by Fr. Martín Carbajo, OFM, dedicated to gratuity, fraternity, and the economy, drawing from the experience of Saint Francis. In the place where the Lord spoke to the heart of the Poverello with the invitation, “Go and repair my house”, Fr. Martín recalled that Francis progressively discovered God’s gratuity through a path marked also by searching, mistakes, and fragility. The encounter with the leper was presented as a decisive experience of reciprocity: Francis not only drew near to the leper, but was also welcomed by the leper, thus discovering a new way of relating.
The reflection emphasized that, in the Franciscan tradition, a person’s greatness is not measured by power or efficiency, but by fraternity. From this perspective, goods are called to circulate as gift, and the economy finds its meaning when it serves relationship, the dignity of each person, and the building of community. Work, poverty, and the use of money were also read in the light of an evangelical freedom that does not break bonds, but purifies them and orients them toward the common good.

After the reflection, a friar from the local fraternity offered an introduction to the sanctuary of San Damiano, helping the brothers to enter into the history and the spiritual meaning of the place: there, the place where Francis heard the call to repair the Church, and where Clare lived with her sisters a radical form of following the Lord and living the Gospel.
 

See all the photos of the meeting