The Franciscan School for the Formation of Formators in Africa (FSFFA) is a new, joint initiative between four Franciscan Families.
From May 27 to June 10, 2018, a FSFFA seminar was held at the St. Bonaventure University-College in Lusaka, Zambia. The seminar was conducted by three Secretaries General from three of the Franciscan Families. They were joined by other moderators and formators from Africa.
Fifty-three formators from four Franciscan families participated, namely, the OFM Conv., the OFM, the OFM Cap., and the TOR. They came together to prepare, discern and do some fine-tuning in order to become more effective formators.
The seminar helped them get to know each other and experience Franciscan fraternity. Since 1992, three of the Franciscan families have been boarding at St. Bonaventure University-College and participating in joint formation. Each Franciscan family has its own separate living area, but the friars are constantly engaged in common activities. Apart from the studies they undertake together at St. Bonaventure College, they also come together for prayer, Mass, social work, and cultural activities. Therefore, the College is a very fitting place for inspiring formators about the value of fraternal, joint formation.
This seminar was divided into three sections, each running for two weeks. The first section offered material on the anthropological, psychological, Franciscan theological and practical dimensions of formation. Every morning two of those dimensions were covered and in the afternoon there were group discussions based on the morning lectures. The formators also had an opportunity to share their own formative experiences and to suggest ways to have a more integral spiritual formation.
In the evening, along with the Vespers, there were inner healing sessions in the presence of the Lord. This helped the formators to make a personal inner journey, to heal their wounds of the past in order to become healed healers.
Friar Louis PANTHIRUVELIL, OFM Conv., Secretary General for Formation (SGF)
