Friars of the Renewal

Francis of Assisi left everything to seek the "one thing necessary", to live a life that was completely in accordance with the Gospel. That is what monasticism is about. That is what monks do or are supposed to do. All his pastoral and apostolic work sprang from this basic commitment to live the Gospel without compromise. Whatever the canonical status of the order he founded,however different may have been the motives of many of his followers, Francis was a monk; and his monastic strain has been alive and well in the Franciscan Order ever since. Padre Pio was a model Capuchin, but he could be seen as a model monk too, a
staretz like St Seraphim of Sarov. Franciscans were called something else because western Canon Law takes for granted that monks follow the Rule of St Benedict, and nobody is saying that Francis was a Benedictine.

One piece of evidence that the monastic element is still active among Franciscans is the tendency to form new communities, make new attempts to follow the Franciscan ideal. This has happened throughout Franciscan history. Just as soon as a pope has managed to unify the Franciscans, so new groups are formed. It shows the fecundity of Francis's vision and spirituality. It is best explained by the three elements or dimensions that make up the Christian life according to the Camaldolese tradition. (There is a special link between the Camaldolese monks of Monte Corona and the Capuchins.) They say that there are three essential elements in Christian life: solitude,or a one-to-one relationship with Christ; community, in which we find Christ in the context of fraternal love; and, finally, the forward thrust of unrestricted love. Finding a balance between the first two is a constant pre-occupation. The third is a maverick element and takes many forms and works at
different levels. It is what happens when the unrestricted divine Love meets and transforms unrestricted human love. It happens in contemplation. It happens in ever-renewed attempts to follow an ideal, in this case, the ideal of St Francis. It ia also the secret behind the great variety of observances in monasticism. I hope these videos will introduce you to a new community within the Franciscan family.