Who We Are
“So I advise you:
in whatever way you think it is better to please the Lord God
and to follow in his footsteps and his poverty,
do it with the blessing of the Lord God and with my obedience.”
– Saint Francis, Letter to Brother Leo
Welcome Brothers!
Welcome to our new website of the General Secretariat for Formation (SGF) of the Capuchins!
We are on a path of formation and we need to update ourselves every day.
It is a beautiful thing to be able to enter into the heart, mind and vision of Jesus our teacher,
of St. Francis our brother, of St. Clare our sister and of all the Capuchin Franciscans who are in the world.
We are happy to be able to invite you to take inspiration
from the Capuchin Franciscan way of life to increase meaning, love and joy!
Integral Franciscan Way
In the context of reading and personalizing the insights of our new text of the Ratio we thought of sharing with you some points on Integral Franciscan Updating and Formation. In our enthusiasm and also with our limited perception of the objectives of religious life we may tend to concentrate too much on only one aspect that is intellectual or spiritual while neglecting the other. But today integral formation will involve spiritual, human, intellectual, pastoral and charismatic dimensions. Ratio will also help the formators to prioritize the themes for the formative programme. That is to ask the question of what is specific to our Capuchin Charism while learning from other good Charisms existing in the church and outside.
Our Brother Francis and Sister Clare have already set a new model for us to follow. A model of universal integral living, respect and sharing. We need to prepare our young brothers and sisters to be integrally universal in loving and living the Gospel values being good and recognising the good present in others. At the Order level also we need mutual collaboration, shared formative initiatives, dialogue between jurisdictions and learning from other cultures with openness to their richness. We hope next to the Gospel and our Constitutions, Ratio will help us focus our attention on the essentials of Capuchin fraternal and spiritual preparations.
We invite the formators to wake up and update themselves every day. A good formator should know the traditions well and the current reality in theology, other sciences and the periphery of their respective context. Thus to form in an integral way we need to open our hearts and mind to the goodness present everywhere while going deeper into our Christian and Franciscan roots.
Fra. Charles Alphonse & Jaime Rey Ofm Cap
General Secretariat for Formation
Logo Of General Secretary For Formation OFMCap
– Design by br. Peter Kim OFMCap from S. Korea
– Size: 1670 x 1670
“The Lord gave me brothers. It was revealed to Francis that to be able to live like Jesus, brothers are indispensible. God has created us different, unrepeatable and unique.” (Ratio Fotmationis 35)
“Brotherhood guarantes freedom and fosters gratuity in inter-personal relationships, and these require, unconditionally from all the brothers, that they renounce any kind of power. For Francis, without freedom, creativity and responsibility, no truly fraternal relationships can exist: In whatever way it seems better to you to please the Lord God and to follow his footprints and poverty, do it with the blessing of the Lord God and my obedience.” (Ratio Fotmationis 37)