Dear Friends,
May the Lord give you peace. Our Provincial Chapter concluded last Friday afternoon and at the moment we are in the process of making our personell changes. It can be a difficult time for many friars as they pack their bags and head for new pastures. Changes take place every three years and many friars are asked to take on leadership roles i.e. being servans of the brothers, new ministries etc. This is indeed a part of the ‘Franciscan Way’ of life and part of what we sign up to when we make profession. In a letter to the Young Friars in 2007 ‘Do Whatever He Tells You’ our present Minister General Br Jose wrote: “God makes use of the smallest events of life to manifest Himself. God wants to meet you where you are, in what you do, in the context of your everyday existence.” Today many friars have been invited to meet God in this context of a new invitation, a new ministry. 
Br Jose continues:
“Don’t go seeing God in other places. He is present in the places of the everyday. Seek God in the liturgy of the ferial days, seek God in the dust, in the dishcloths and in the sweat of your everyday. No, do not seek the Lord in the extravagant, in the sensational; seek Him in silent prayer, which is often so difficult; in the moments of desert and trial, which life offers you; in the evedryday course of life in fraternity, so often tortuous and charged with difficulties; seek Him in the everyday of your domestic work, in study or in the apostolate…That is where you will find the Lord.”
If you want to know more about the Franciscans please contact me at: brpatofm@hotmail.com
God is with you.
Fraternally,
Pat