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IV Day of the Capuchin Family

IV Day of the Capuchin Family

July 3, 2020

The anniversary of the ecclesial approval of the Capuchin reform with the Bull "Religionis Zelus" (July 3, 1528) is the occasion for this celebration of our spiritual family. A family unit that binds the Capuchin friars with the associated contemplative nuns, the institutes of consecrated, religious and secular life aggregated to the Order, and other associations and lay institutions founded or overseen by the Capuchins.

This date serves to remind us of our common spiritual affiliation and to reanimate our mutual relationships at various levels: general, regional and local. We remain thankful and willing to work together beginning from our common roots, in order to continue building our legacy of fraternal relationships. Health precautions due to the current global pandemic discourage face-to-face gatherings, but they do not prevent us from feeling in communion, especially through prayer. For this reason, on July 3, we propose that every fraternity take the time to pray together in this spirit, remembering gratefully all the members of our spiritual family.

A special reason for celebration is the imminent canonization of Mother Francesca Rubatto, founder of the Capuchin Sisters of Loano: we thank the Lord! We continue to pray zelously for the prompt beatification of Mother Maria Lorenza Longo, founder of the first Capuchin Poor Clares monastery in Naples, and for progress in the causes of so many founders and foundresses.

We ask this July 3 that the Lord may rekindle in us the fire of his Spirit.

Fraternally,

Br. Leonardo Ariel González Ruilópez OFMCap
Delegate of the General Minister for the Capuchin
Nuns and the institutes aggregated to the Order

Prayer for Capuchin Family Day

Set Us Alight

O Holy Spirit
fill the hearts of your faithful
and set them alight with that same fire
that burned in the heart of Jesus,
while he spoke of the Kingdom of God,
while he announced the good news:
“The Father is pleased to give you his kingdom …
you are all brothers!”
 
May that fire speak to us,
as it spoke to Francis and Clare,
as it burned in the first Capuchins,
and glowed in the founders and foundresses
of our spiritual family.
 
You alone, Holy Spirit
can set this fire alight
and it is to you that we must turn
in our weakness,
in our poverty,
in our hearts in which the fire has gone out,
that you might reignite that warmth
of the holiness of life, of the power of the Kingdom.
 
O Holy Spirit,
grant to us anew
to welcome you in our lives
that we might bring you to service in the Church
to give you back to the poor, the last, and the least.
 
This we ask you
through the intercession of Mary, the Mother of Jesus,
full of grace and communion,
model of the serving and fraternal Church. Amen.

(Adapted from a prayer of Cardinal Carlo Martini)

Last modified on Thursday, 18 June 2020 17:06
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