On July 14 and 16, 2026, in two separate sessions, the Province of St. Joseph, Spouse of the B.V.M.: in Romania held a Spiritual Chapter for its friars. The Chapter coincided with this year\u2019s celebration marking the 800th<\/sup> anniversary of the transitus<\/em> of St. Francis of Assisi.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Chapter took place at the Roman Catholic Franciscan Theological Institute in Roman, Romania. Eighty-two friars attended the first session and forty-two the second. This division was necessary to accommodate the large number of participants. However, both sessions followed the same theme, featured the same speaker, and offered the same program. Friar T\u0103lin CLEMENT<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On July 14 and 16, 2026, in two separate sessions, the Province of St. Joseph, Spouse of the B.V.M.: in Romania held a Spiritual Chapter for its friars. The Chapter coincided with this year\u2019s celebration marking the 800th anniversary of the transitus of St. Francis of Assisi. The Chapter took place at the Roman Catholic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":101321,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[132,117,148],"tags":[206,1043],"class_list":["post-101332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-federations","category-fimp-en","category-news","tag-romania","tag-spiritual-chapter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101332"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101334,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101332\/revisions\/101334"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe theme of the Chapter was, \u201cWe Are an Evangelizing Fraternity\u201d<\/em> (cf. Constitutions 91, \u00a72), ties into the 2024\u20132028 Provincial Four-Year Plan: \u201cThe Life of a Conventual Franciscan Friar: Ongoing Formation.\u201d<\/em> Friar Massimo VEDOVA, Professor of Franciscan Spirituality at the Pontifical Theological Faculty of St. Bonaventure (Seraphicum<\/em>) in Rome, led the reflections. Friar Cristian DUMEA, the Provincial Vicar, directed the liturgy for both days.
\nIn his two reflections, Friar Massimo began with a simple question addressed to every friar: \u201cHas there been an event in your life that changed you?\u201d The answer, he explained, did not lie in a transformation that we plan for ourselves, but in the \u201cshape\u201d God quietly and steadily gives to each of our lives\u2014a shape we do not invent but are called to recognize. To illustrate this idea, he reflected on three interconnected themes drawn from the Testament<\/em> of St Francis: \u201chistory,\u201d \u201cthe brothers,\u201d<\/em> and \u201cprayer.\u201d<\/em> History, with its events and encounters, even those we did not choose\u2014our family, our country, even our vocation itself\u2014is the place where God\u2019s work is revealed. The brothers have limitations, but these limitations are not obstacles\u2015they are gifts. Because it is impossible to change them to suit our own image, we are compelled to search more deeply for the true sources of life. Prayer, finally, is the place where history and fraternity find their meaning.
\nFriar Massimo also described the opposite path: pursuing personal ambitions through career advancement, strategies, and alliances that can gradually lead a friar to aspire to \u201cthe office of Guardian,\u201d or a more comfortable assignment, or to a more favorable situation. These desires are not evil in themselves, he explained, but the shape God prepares for each person is always truer and deeper than any goal one might set for oneself.
\nReflecting on the words of the Testament, \u201cThe Lord gave me brothers,\u201d<\/em> Friar Massimo pointed out that fraternity is not a choice we make anew every day, but a gift received once and for all. In light of the tangible, practical character of Franciscan faith, he also recalled St. Francis\u2019s devotion to churches and priests. Francis\u2019 faith was lived in practice, not just conceived in thought. He also described evangelization in simple yet demanding terms: telling another person, \u201cYou are my brother,\u201d in a world that often rejects whatever does not conform to its own way of thinking, especially when the Gospel challenges that way of thinking.
\nEach day included Mass celebrated with Midday Prayer, presided over by the Minister Provincial, Friar Damian-Gheorghe P\u0102TRA\u0218CU. The afternoon was focused on discussion. The friars divided into six groups for reflection and discussion before gathering again for a plenary session.
\nThe groups\u2019 summaries revisited the same key words\u2014shape, transformation, ideal, and reality\u2014drawing on their own vocation stories. Many recalled that they had entered the seminary initially out of curiosity or because of the example of a friar rather than from fully mature motivations. Later, those initial motivations were deepened through genuine formation and obedience. The friars also paid heartfelt tribute to the priests who were able to discreetly discern in certain boys and young men the signs of a call to consecrated life or to the priesthood. The groups also emphasized that evangelizing today means reaching out to those who are lost in an increasingly secular society, and that the most convincing witness ultimately remains fraternal life lived within the community.
\nBoth days of the Spiritual Chapter concluded with Evening Prayer, Exposition of the Eucharist and Eucharistic Benediction, followed by an outdoor fraternal dinner. As we celebrate the 800th<\/sup> anniversary of the transitus<\/em> of St. Francis, this year\u2019s Spiritual Chapter calls us to be \u201can evangelizing fraternity\u201d and continues the journey that the Province of Romania has followed for more than a century. As Friar Massimo VEDOVA reminded the attendees, the true measure of that journey lies not in the goals achieved, but in the shape that God patiently gives to every life and to every fraternity.
\nWe give thanks to our good God, who, through the intercession of our Holy Father St. Francis, has blessed us with these days rich in grace and communion. May what we have received together bear fruit in the life and mission of each one of us!<\/p>\n