Pentecost Letter from the Holy Spirit Province
Letter of Provincial Minister Paul Smith, OFM (Province of the Holy Spirit)
Dear Friars,
Pace e bene from "Domus Pacis", Assisi, where 126 friars are gathered in Chapter with some additional 20+ support staff caring for our needs of document translation, simultaneous interpreting, secretarial, liturgy animation and co-ordination, communications and hospitality. There is a great spirit of fraternity here, even when we don't speak the same verbal language. There has been good quality sharing in the Conference and language groups and these are the forums where some real work is done. Dinner table conversations and informal gatherings add to that cameraderie and feeling of being brothers.
It is also on occasions like this that I am reminded again that our Province has something of the 'best of both worlds' through our belonging to the South Asia, Australia, Oceania Conference (SAAOC) and by "associate member" status with the English-speaking Conference (ESC). Partnering with our brothers of SAAOC and East Asia Conference (EAC) is a wonderful experience of breadth in cultures, customs, languages and church in mostly non-Christian countries. Being welcomed by ESC provides not just a similar vocabularly but a wider experience of a comparable Western secularised world where the Catholic faith is lived differently than in Asia. The daily 'English-language liturgies' comprise about 50 brothers from several Conferences of the Order: SAAOC, ESC, EAC and COTAF (Transalpine).
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| Provincial Minister Paul Smith, OFM (Holy Spirit) presiding at Eucharistic Adoration at Santa Maria degli Angeli during the Chapter |
I am pleased to be here on your behalf and I pray often for you, my brothers in Holy Spirit Province. I pray in thanks for the good works, the holy lives and the faithful commitment you bring to our part of the world as friars minor. I pray, too, for the challenges we have and for patience and perseverance, wisdom and courage to deal with them together. I ask God to direct us where we see gaps and weaknesses in our fraternal and ministerial lives and help us to 'repair our house' where it is broken.
I am often approached by other Provincials and Custodes here asking about particular friars whom they have met in other places, or asking about their men working in our Province, or ministers simply expressing gratitude for our hospitality when overseas friars have visited us for ministry or vacation.
Conscious that our Province feast day is soon, I wondered what I might write as it has been a custom to do so. I chose not to write a summary of the Chapter as you have plenty of other reliable sources for that information. I sat and thought before this morning's Mass of the Holy Spirit [Thursday] prior to the election of the Minister General about images we use to portray the Spirit, and some are 'two edged'. I can see only gentleness in the dove, but flames of fire can destroy land and buildings ... or provide warmth on a cold night and also make food palatable. Wind flattens homes and crops, yet blows away the ugly cobwebs, spreads seeds for new growth and refreshes us on a hot day.
It was only two months ago when we were reminded of the force and power of wind when tropical
Cyclone Pam wreaked havoc upon the people and the islands of the tiny Pacific nation, Vanuatu.
We
saw the results on television from a safe distance, but it was a very different experience for those
subjected to this natural force first hand in the midst of the Pacific Ocean. How contrasting is the
name of the ocean which surrounds their homes and the trauma which they experienced. The lives of
those people were changed instantly by hurricance force winds. Their world was turned upside down
by the tremendous release of energy of an element of nature. Unrecognisable landscape and devastated
communities were left in Pam's wake, their simple homes flattened to the ground or washed into the
sea. The death toll was remarkably and thankfully less than a dozen people, but almost 100,000 lost
their homes, crops for sustenance and their livelihoods, and required some sort of humanitarian aid.
The magnitude of devastation, homelessness and suffering led many to contribute in some way to the crisis. As you know, our Province contributed some funds to the Diocese of Port Vila (Vanuatu) as a practical support and sign of solidarity. Bishop John Bosco Baremes SM has recently written to thank us on behalf of all peoples whom the diocese will be able to assist to renew their lives and the face of the earth.
Soon afterwards, we learnt of another larger tragic power, that of the earth moving and shattering the tiny and poor nation of Nepal, killing 7000 people. Similarly, the world rallied to assist the tens of thousands of people injured and the hundreds of thousands left homeless: money was raised to feed, clothe and house them. Humanitarian and rescue agencies were quickly airlifted into the region providing for all kinds of needs, and so the bonds of humanity were once again showing themselves strongly in difficult times. The force of wind, the unpredictable and uncontrollable activity of the earth's techtonic plates, but the power of humanity working together.
On the feast of Pentecost, we celebrate another 'power' (in the best sense of the word), a creative power of an altogether different dimension and magnitude, one which informs and inspires our faith and changes lives. It is the power that was received by a small and unsophisticated group of men and women gathered in Jerusalem, in difficult times, waiting for a promise to be fulfilled. T
he horizons of
their world were limited to the countryside of Galilee and Palestine - they did not feel any worldwide
support - until the Holy Spirit opened their hearts and minds to a greater world beyond. Nothing
could have prepared them for the magnitude of their enlightenment as they responded to this earth shattering
experience of the creative spirit of God. To stand in its path was to catch on fire with God's
love. In an instant their world was also turned inside out by a power released into their hearts and
minds, souls and bodies, manifesting as flames above their heads.
This rush of creative energy, which unifies more powerfully than natural powers can tear apart, poured itself out among the disciples. Their eyes and their hearts were opened to see a new world through new eyes. The differences of culture and language that had separated one from another crumbled.
Suddenly each could speak and hear, with the same understanding, the stories of God's kindness. It is this Spirit of God that changes lives still today. Pentecost celebrates the outpouring of God's spirit upon the disciples then ... and now. If we allow it, lives are changed forever. Those influenced by the Spirit see things differently, know things differently, hear things differently, and are sent forth as apostles to share what they see and know and hear.
So, on this day, we remember how the first disciples, newly baptised by the Spirit, became apostles and were sent forth, sent out, sent beyond the comfortable yet confining horizons of Galilee. We also remember that as today's disciples we too are called to express the wonderful gifts within each of us: "There is a variety of gifts but always the same Spirit. The particular way in which the Spirit is given to each person is for a good purpose" (1 Cor 12:4,7). We are being called by this General Chapter to be 'Brothers and minors in our times', to continue 'bearing the gift of the Gospel' and using our particular gifts as friars minor for the benefit of others. No-one can say 'I have nothing to give'.
Dedicated to the Holy Spirit, may our Province always acknowledge and trust the Spirit's role in leading us as a group of 'brothers and minors in our time'. May our life's journey - as individuals and as a fraternity - be Spirit-filled, enabling us to stand side by side with each other and with those to whom we minister by our example and prayer. We know that we can do little by ourselves alone but, in the name of Jesus and with the gift of the powerful Spirit which moves like wind and flame in unexpected ways and transgresses all boundaries, we can do far more than we can imagine.
Thank you for the way in which you release the Spirit of God with a 'Franciscan flavour'. Enjoy your
Spirit-filled celebrations on this feast of the Province. And please do continue to pray for the General Chapter and follow its activities and deliberations through the Order's website and the English-speaking Conference Daily Briefing to which I recommended you sign up some weeks ago. You won't get better
than these for content and immediacy.
Fraternally,
Paul Smith, OFM
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