What St. Francis Did When He Desired to Know a Course of Life

For anyone desiring to know their own call from God, Thomas of Celano offers some advice from his own writings on St. Francis.

• [St. Francis of Assisi]He wished that the Lord would show him the course of life for him and his brothers, and he went to a place of prayer, as he so often did.

He remained there a long time with fear and trembling before the Ruler of the whole earth.

• He recalled in the bitterness of his soul the years he spent badly, frequently repeating this phrase. "Lord be merciful to me, a sinner."

Gradually, an indescribable joy and tremendous sweetness began to well up deep in his heart.

• He began to lose himself; his feeling were pressed together; and that darkness disappeared which fear of sin had gathered in his heart.

Certainty of the forgiveness of all his sins poured in, and the assurance of being revived in grace was given to him.

• Then he was caught up above himself and totally engulfed in light, and, with his inmost soul opened wide, he clearly saw the future.

(Life of Saint Francis by Thomas of Celano, Chapter XI)

Are you desiring to see your future more clearly? We invite you to our Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity discernment retreat May 17-19, 2013. Click here to register. Expect more great advice from St. Francis and St. Clare.

Franciscan Sisters Invite You to May 2013 Vocation Discernment Retreat

During this week that included the selection of Pope Francis to serve our Catholic Church and the whole world, we invite you to reflect on your own call from God. Consider these discernment helps from our own Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity as well as pray with a significant passage from The Life of Saint Francis by Thomas of Celano.

Chapter VIII
The first work that blessed Francis undertook, after he has gained his freedom from the hands of his carnally-minded father, was to build a house of God. He did not try to build a new one, but he repaired an old one, restored an ancient one. He did not tear out the foundation, but he built upon it, always reserving to Christ his prerogative, although unaware of it, for no one can lay another foundation, but that which has been laid which is Christ Jesus. (Thomas of Celeno)


Discover your passion. Discover the gifts God has given you and use those gifts to search for that which makes you free. Trust God who has placed the longing for freedom within you. I love the freedom of being a Sister. I have discovered the mystery of God within me and within the world in which I live.
Sister Mary Ann Spanjers

Each morning at communion time, I pray "Lord, I trust in your plan for my life." I know that my human effort, or even my good will, is not enough for my transformation into Christ, therefore I trust in Him and His mercy.
-Sister Winifred Crevier

I knew that God wanted me to be a Sister. I just had that innate sense...as I live out my vocation the more I see how important community really is. That's one of the things that drew me here.
-Sister Anne Marie Selinsky

Don't be afraid to step out and try something that you've never done before. And the more you go beyond yourself the more you do grow and the more Christ has to take over. And beautiful things happen.
-Sister Hannah Johnecheck

We invite you to our May 17-19, 2013 Vocation Discernment Retreat. Click here to learn more about the retreat. The world needs you.

Franciscan Retreat Notes-Take Up Your Cross

Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity Year of Faith Vocation Discernment Retreat February 22-24, 2013 continued Pope Benedict XVI's purpose of the year of faith: "to give fresh impetus to the mission of the whole Church to lead human beings out of the wilderness in which they often find themselves to the place of life, friendship with Christ that gives us life in fullnes. It is a summons to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord." (Porta Fidei 6)

We also looked for guidance and inspiration from St. Francis' text Mt 16:24: "If anyone wishes to come after me let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me."

St. Bonaventure's writings were a valuable weekend resource:

...the one who desires to give herself to Christ must put aside, forget everything else, and enter into the secrecy of her own heart.

We prayed with these 'Bonaventurian' words written to women religious:

Draw near, O handmaid, with loving steps to Jesus wounded for you, to Jesus crowned with thorns, to Jesus nailed to the wood of the Cross.

Gaze with the Blessed Apostle St. Thomas, not merely on the print of the nails in Christ's hands; be not satisfied with putting your finger in the holes made by the nails in His hands; neither let it be sufficient to put your hand into the wound in His side; but enter bodily by the door in His side and go straight up to the very Heart of Jesus. There, burning with love for Christ Crucified, be transformed into Christ.

Fastened to the Cross by the nails of the fear of God, transixed by the lance of the love of your inmost heart, pierced through and through by the sword of the tenderest compassion, seek for nothing else, wish for nothing else, look for consolation in nothing else except in dying with Christ on the Cross. Then, at last, will you cry out with Paul the Apostle: With Christ I am nailed to the Cross. I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me. (Gal 2:19-21)

Was there any part of the retreat especially appreciated? View the comments to hear from the retreatants themselves.

Invitation on World Consecrated Life Day to Vocation Discernment Retreat

As the Catholic Church invites reflection on the Consecrated Life with today's Presentation of the Lord feast, Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity take this opportunity to offer two invitations. First, we invite you to reflect on the topic of consecration in the light of  our own Constitutions. Second, we invite you to experience Franciscan Consecrated Life with us at our Motherhouse, Holy Family Convent, Manitowoc, WI.

1. Here's a text on consecration from our Documents:

In a free response of love to the call of God, we enter more intimately into a covenant relationship with Him through our vowed life in the Church. By professing the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience, we follow Christ, virginal and poor, Who redeemed and sanctified us by obedience unto death. Thus, united with Him through likeness to His life and death, we can rise to a new selfless love in Him.

By our vows we uniquely liberate ourselves from the principal obstacles to love-a divided heart, the fascination of material things, and the tendency to pride: we free ourselves for greater love for God and for all mankind.

2.  Experience being with us while discerning your own call from God. Our next vocation discernment retreat is February 22-24, 2013. You will not be alone. There are already young women ages 18-35-like yourself-registered.

Click here to learn more.

Invite to Franciscan Sisters February Vocation Discernment Retreat

It is time to reserve your spot on the next Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity Vocation Discernment Retreat. The date is February 22-24, 2013. Click here for more details.

As you anticipate this God experience, begin by praying with St. Clare:

O God, You are every good. You are power, You are generosity, You are beauty, You are tenderness, You are courtesy, You embrace us. You crown us with holiness, You took on the passion for us, You delivered us from darkness and reconciled us to God. You adorn us with virtue and illuminate us with perfection. You work in us through grace. Amen.

St. Clare and St. Francis, pray for us
In this Year of Faith, direct us Lord Jesus Christ in Your way for us.

Franciscan Vocation Discernment Advice: Be Little Christ

In Ubertino Da Casale's The Tree of the Crucified Life of Jesus written in 1305 is found a passage worthy of Franciscan vocation discernment. Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity offer an exerpt from Book 5, Chapter 4 as a prayer of love this Advent, Christmas season.

I beg you, Lord, let the glowing and honey-sweet force of Your love draw my mind away from all things that are under heaven, that I may die for love of the love of You, who thought it a worthy thing to die for love of the love of me.

(This prayer has been included in past collections of St. Francis' writings. Its authenticity is no longer accepted, however, as it is , it is a proven earlier medieval composition of patristic inspiration.)

Therefore, those sons [daughters] who have been fashioned in the likeness of their father, by the fire of his seraphic vision, must understand that their fashioning has to take place in their soul and be carried out by the glowing crucifixion of Jesus. So they will be living their lives like "little Christs," smaller figures of Jesus, as it were, perceiving themselves in their mortal flesh transformed into Christ.

(Like Francis and Clare, we are called to be "little Christs" in our world. Are you? We invite you to our February Vocation Discernment Retreat. Click here for more information.)

Vocation Discernment Retreat Notes: Lk 9:3

Our Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity November Vocation Discernment Retreat focused on St. Francis' Rule of Life drawing wisdom from Luke 9:3 (Jesus told them: 'Take nothing for the journey--no staff, no bag, no bread. no money, no extra tunic.)

Reflection on this theme included emphasis on the gift of faith and the importance of  baptismal consecration.

Consecration means to set oneself aside for service to God. In truth, all consecration is by God and to God. God is the one who inspires us to totally give ourselves to Him and all consecration is ultimately to God alone. God, however, does not do anything in us or to us without our consent, our free will.

Therefore it is necessary that we choose to give ourselves to God and that we ask to be consecrated. The ultimate and most important consecration is Baptism whereby we are set apart for God, by God. All other consecrations should help us to grow in our baptismal consecration. At our Baptism we promised to turn away from sin and live the Gospel life. -Fr. Patrick Greenough, OFM Conv

John Paul II's May 22, 1988 Letter to All Consecrated Persons also was referenced:

Paul's words, especially in the Letter to the Romans, show that all of this newness of life, which is first shared with us through Baptism, includes the beginning of all the vocations which during the course of a Christian's life will call for a choice and a conscious decision in the Church. Indeed, every vocation of a baptized person reflects some aspect of that consecration in the truth which Christ accomplished by his Death and Resurrection and made part of his Paschal Mystery: "For their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth"(Jn 17:19).

What conscious decision have you made which shows your commitment to being consecrated to God in the Church?