Thursday, June 6

For today’s program, the Capitulars went on a pilgrimage to Cortona, (Province of Arezzo) Italy. This event was also designed to accommodate a one-day meeting of the priests of the region of Umbria who, some time ago, had reserved the Chapter auditorium. 

In the morn­ing, the Capit­u­lars vis­it­ed the Le Celle Her­mitage near Cor­tona.  It brought back the mem­o­ry of St. Fran­cis of Assisi in these blessed lands as well as the fig­ure of Broth­er Elias who was the sec­ond Min­is­ter Gen­er­al of the Order. The her­mitage was a tru­ly spir­i­tu­al place, leafy and qui­et. It is now under the care of our Capuchin brothers.
The Capit­u­lars moved on to the Shrine of St. Mar­garet of Cor­tona.  Her relics are pre­served in this mag­nif­i­cent church. She was a lay woman who real­ly made an impact in her day. She was a peace­mak­er, always guid­ing her broth­ers towards greater char­i­ty and the encounter with Christ. Her exam­ple of courage in the face of life’s adver­si­ties reminds us, even today, that only the Gospel can give mean­ing to our existence.
After lunch, the fri­ars vis­it­ed the church of San Francesco where they prayed before var­i­ous relics used by the Poverel­lo of Assisi: his habit, a litur­gi­cal book and a pil­low. In par­tic­u­lar, the fri­ars paused before the mor­tal remains of Broth­er Elias.  It was a time to grate­ful­ly acknowl­edge our broth­er, who under­stood how to com­bine faith with human genius.

The Capit­u­lars thanked the Lord for this day of rest and for open­ing their hearts to our Fran­cis­can origins.

Fri­ar Aure­lio ERCOLI, Chronicler

 

Today we are tak­ing a break to trav­el to Peru­gia and Cor­tona.  We have been around each oth­er almost all of every day for the past few weeks.  It is good to get out­side and remem­ber that there is a big world out there.
In the Gospel, Jesus prays for those who are in the world.  His gath­er­ing of a group of dis­ci­ples was not to form an exclu­sive band which con­cen­trat­ed on their own needs.  They were to go out to share the bless­ing that they had received.
As we view the var­i­ous church­es and mon­u­ments of Peru­gia and Cor­tona, it might not be a bad idea to look around at the peo­ple com­ing and going on their way.  Our meet­ing in chap­ter is not only for our­selves, it is also for them.  It is to make us truer to what we say we are, so that we might be that for them.  May we be one in Jesus and the Father, so that they might be one with us and them.