Franciscans of Primitive Observance - Community and Vocations Information

The information included in their tri-fold brochure is as follows:

Vocation Director
Franciscans of Primitive Observance
Co-Redemptrix Friary
30 Trinity St.
Lawrence, MA 01841-2644

FRANCISCANS OF PRIMITIVE OBSERVANCE

St. Francis of Assisi lived the Holy Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ in a radical and courageous way. He captured this way in the Rule of Life which the Lord have him. Toward the end of his life, St. Francis stated in his Testament that his brothers should live the Rule "simply, plainly, and without gloss."

As the Order grew, some embraced relaxations for the sake of higher studies or apostolic work. This legitimate development of a modern observance has borne much good fruit. However, from the beginning, there have always been those called to a strict, or "primitive" observance of the Rule. The Capuchin reform of the 16th century is the classic example of such movements.

Our community of priests and brothers was formed with the conviction that the Holy Spirit is calling us to wholeheartedly embrace a strict observance of the Rule of St. Francis. We began in January, 1995 under the auspices of Bishop Sean O'Malley, OFM Cap. We are again under his jurisdiction in the Archdiocese of Boston.

The Second Vatican Council called for religious institutes to return to their "primitive inspiration, ... The spirit and aim of each founder should be faithfully accepted and retained" (Perfectae Caritatis, 2). Such is our intent.

We are inspired and guided by the heroic early Capuchin reformers and their Constitutions of 1536. Like them we propose to observe St. Francis' Testament, and take his words and example as sure guides of discernment. By the grace of God we hope to imitate these holy men, who so captured the heart of our Seraphic Father, who so captured the Heart of Jesus Christ.

This way of life is first of all one of radical poverty in imitation of, and union with, Christ Crucified. By this we witness to His Kingdom and the Father's Love, which provides for all of our needs. In addition, we give priority to contemplative prayer, as St. Francis did, and to a life of penance, fraternity, minority, and manual labor. The silent testimony of a holy life of total renunciation, for the "one thing necessary" is our primary apostolate.

At the time of profession each friar vows to live "in total consecration to the Immaculate Virgin Mary, in obedience, without property and in chastity." Our Marian vow of total consecration therefore governs our entire religious life. Union with Our Lady is our path to holiness.

The community is governed by traditional religious obedience, including unswerving loyalty to our Holy Father the Pope and all Church Teaching. The Holy Eucharist is the center and source of our life.

SOME PRINCIPLES GUIDING OUR POVERTY

· Strive for immediate and total dependence on Divine Providence both communally and individually.

· Only those items will be kept which are strictly necessary (i.e., no TV, stereos, computers, musical instruments, washing machine, refrigerator, telephones, etc...)

· Travel is by walking, hitchhiking, public transportation or begging for rides. No air travel for the apostolate or ownership of cars.

· As far as possible, money is not accepted or used. No bank account is held individually or communally.

· Brothers are sent out to beg or work for food and supplies.

· No item may be kept for the apostolate that we would not have for ourselves. Buildings may not be established for apostolic work.

DAILY PRAYER SCHEDULE

2:00 AM Office of Readings

6:30 Morning Prayer

7:00-8:00 Mental Prayer

8:00 Holy Mass

12:00 Noon Midday Prayer

4:45 PM Evening Prayer

5:00-6:00 Eucharistic Adoration

9:00 Night Prayer

9:15 Holy Rosary

· A respectful silence is kept in the friary apart from breakfast and dinner in order to cultivate an atmosphere of prayer.

· Fridays are set aside as a strict day of prayer, silence, and solitude.

· All friars go regularly to remote mountain hermitages for periods of solitude and recollection

· The various communal fasting requirements include a bread and beverage fast on Wednesdays and Fridays and no eating between meals.

THE APOSTOLATE

Without any material means of his own, St. Francis zealously sought to spread the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ by preaching and caring for lepers and the poor. Likewise, the early Capuchins were noted for evangelical preaching and generous service to plague victims. Herein lies the model of our apostolic mission in the Church today.

Thus we seek to evangelize through parish missions, youth and other retreats, hearing confessions, spiritual direction, door-to-door evangelization and catechetical instruction. We also strive to serve those in need by pro-life work, food distribution, visiting the sick, elderly and imprisoned, and assisting at existing shelters, soup kitchens and hospices.

MORE POSTS ON THE FRANCISCANS OF PRIMITIVE OBSERVANCE

"Thumbing their way down God's highway"

In an effort to collect and post articles and stories about the Franciscans of the Primitive Observance, something that is not particularly easy to do since they have no website and no real web presence anywhere, I came across this article. If you don't know anything about the FPO's this article is indicative of what I know about them. Public transportation is not really used by the FPO's. In a conversation with one of the friars several years ago, he told me how they hiked 75 miles to get to a retreat they were leading.

I will be trying to post more items about them and will try to get my hands on some of their "vocation literature". Once upon a time I had it, but seem to have misplaced it. Handwritten and photocopied, their tri-fold vocations "brochure" speaks volumes of their radical committment to poverty. With their permission I will post it online with contact information.

From the Roanoke Times

Friday, June 11, 2004

A pair of Franciscan friars on their way to Nicaragua hitchhiked through Roanoke on Thursday.

By Annie Thompson

On the sun-baked sidewalk near an Interstate 581 entrance ramp, two Franciscan friars prayed for a ride Thursday afternoon as they waited in their woolen robes, thumbs in the air.

They were on their way to Nicaragua from Emmitsburg, Md., where they started their journey Wednesday - without money or food.

They believe God will get them there.

"We just let God provide for us - even for food. And he always does," Brother Patrick Mary Ginty said.

Ginty and Brother Sean Patrick Hurley, both 24, have lived at the Mother of the Good Shepherd Friary in Emmitsburg since it opened last fall. They plan to establish such a community in Nicaragua along with four other friars who are traveling in pairs.

All six left Maryland on Wednesday morning. They will meet near Birmingham, Ala., where there is a community of Franciscans, and again in Laredo, Texas. They expect it will take about a month to get to Nicaragua.

After hitching five rides Wednesday, Hurley and Ginty made it to Roanoke about 7 p.m. That night, the Madonna House on Campbell Avenue gave them dinner, a place to sleep and breakfast because they are clergy members.

"One of our ministries is to clergy passing through," said Beth Ryan, a staff worker.

Wearing habits too warm for a June afternoon, with ropes each containing four knots to symbolize the vows they've taken, and a rosary around their waists, the Roman Catholic friars were not a common sight for Roanokers.

Passers-by honked, gawked and waved, but they didn't stop.

In Maryland, the pair lived with 13 other friars. Nine are left to continue the ministry there. Once the traveling six arrive in Nicaragua, they plan to build a modest house on a coffee plantation, establishing a new friary.

Hurley and Ginty plan to study philosophy in the South American country for about four years and later become priests.

While they waited, they prayed, read from their prayer books, sang songs and "waited for the Lord to show his light," Ginty said. They said it's easier to get a ride in the New England states, where people are more familiar with Franciscan friars, who have taken vows of poverty, obedience, chastity and total consecration to the Virgin Mary.

Hurley is originally from Rhode Island, where his parents still live. He is the oldest of four children and has been in the Franciscan community for four years.

"My family's very supportive. I see them once in a while," Hurley said.

Ginty is a native of Ontario, Canada. He joined the Franciscans three years ago.

"I did nothing constructive; in fact I was quite destructive," before becoming a friar, Ginty said. He said his life before entering the order was marked by the "typical party lifestyle."

"I realized I was seriously lacking something. Unless you have Jesus in your life, you can't have that fullness of joy," Ginty said. "That's what we try to bring to the people who pick us up."

The pair waited 3 1/2 hours on the northbound entrance to I-581 at Orange Avenue until they received a ride.

"The people who stop are always the ones who need it. It's a beautiful thing," Ginty said.

Two women who asked to be called "Quarter Pounder" and "Blondie" gave them a ride.

"The Spirit led me to stop," one said before driving away.

End of year (2004) follow up:

THEN: The friars were picked up by two women, who asked to be called "Quarterpounder" and "Blondie," after standing on the northbound entrance ramp to Interstate 581 at Orange Avenue for 3 1/2 hours.

NOW: All six of the friars from the Mother of the Good Shepherd Friary in Emmitsburg, Md., who were hitchhiking in pairs, made it to Nicaragua safely in about three weeks.

- Annie Thompson

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"Franciscans of Primitive Observance come to the Mount"

By: Megan Wertner

From Mount St. Mary's "Mountain Echo"
Posted: 12/3/2003

Picture is not from original article, but is a picture of the FPO's from a recent 2008 post on Cardinal O'Malley's blog.

Junior Adam Windsor was approached by a bearded young man wearing a grey robe in Patriot Hall one evening. "For the love of God, could you spare a meal?" the man asked. Windsor gladly used his flex dollars to buy food for Brother Sean Patrick.

Brother Sean Patrick is one of seven Franciscans of Primitive Observance (FPOs) who arrived in Emmitsburg last June. The FPOs came to prepare four of their men for the priesthood at the Mount and currently live in a house off campus. This group includes two priests, two friars enrolled in the seminary, two friars studying philosophy at the college, and another friar who helps care for his brothers.

The FPOs live a simple life in imitation of the apostles, walking where they need to go, begging for food, and sleeping on the floor. They strive to be completely reliant on God's providence and to be "totally emptied of self," explains Brother Sean Patrick. Their physical poverty is a "material expression of a higher spiritual goal."

Brother Sean Patrick, 24, joined the FPOs when he was 20 years old. He was impressed by the friars who had very little, but were joyful and seemed to have "something real, something deep." He is now studying philosophy and hopes to become a priest.

The Franciscans of Primitive Observance began with six friars in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1995 and now includes sixteen members. Their apostolate is evangelization and working with the poor.

Brother Sean Patrick says that evangelization is often "re-evangelization" in today's world. The brothers run retreats for men, women, and children, give talks in local schools, visit people door-to-door, pray outside of abortion clinics, and help parishes who need priests.

The friars also assist other religious orders in their missions, minister in prisons, and help people living in impoverished areas. They remain available to help where needed and "try to be the presence of Christ" wherever they go.

Prayer is the FPOs' "top priority," says Brother Sean Patrick. "It's in prayer that we receive strength to keep up the apostolate." The friars structure their day around prayer. They attend Mass every morning, say or chant the Liturgy of the Hours, pray the rosary together, and have Eucharistic adoration for an hour each day. In addition to daily private prayer, each brother is required to make several solitude retreats a year to different hermitages.

Another essential element in Franciscan charism is penance. The brothers do penance for their sins and for the sins of the world. They try to make it known that people can always turn back to God. The friars' effort is "not just social work, but spiritual work," states Brother Sean Patrick.

The brothers try to serve as a witness to family life as they pray and work together in their community. Windsor enjoys seeing the brothers around campus. He says, "Not only they, but all the different orders are so nice."

Brother Sean Patrick has found Mount Saint Mary's to be "friendly." He hopes that it will become a place where "faith can be nurtured, taught, and upheld and that the college will become known for that."

Where will the Franciscans of Primitive Observance be in the future? According to Brother Sean Patrick, "Wherever God wants us."

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Franciscans of Primitive Observance

Small group of monks, nuns brings prayerful, ascetic mission to New Bedford

By Bill McNamara, Standard-Times correspondent
Staff photos by Hank Seaman

Article originally published in 1997

These Franciscans are a group with no baggage. Literally.

They own no radios, televisions or other worldly possessions. Meat, sweets and snack foods are not in their diets. They sleep on the floor and rise in the middle of night to pray. The men's gray habits are their only wardrobe, the big cowls marking them as Capuchins. They have no mode of transportation other than their feet. And they operate with no budget; there's little to account for besides spiritual formation and growth.

Most of their hours, day and night, are spent praying and toiling for the spiritual welfare of the populace.

The seven Franciscan Friars of the Primitive Observance, along with seven Capuchin Recollect Sisters, are radical by today's material standards. Even by the standards of their own larger Franciscan order, the reform group is extreme in its strict bond to an ascetic way of life. Direct ministering to the community is a minor part of their mission.

Invited to SouthCoast two years ago by Bishop Sean O'Malley -- himself a member of the Capuchin (reformed) division of the Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans) -- the New Bedford-based group of monks and "nunks" are fashioning one of the strictest religious communities in this region and perhaps in the Western world.

Clearly, the 14 monks and nuns would prefer prayerful anonymity to any public notice of the self-denial characterizing a lifestyle that hearkens back to their mendicant founder, St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226).

They would rather "turn the other cheek" than look to the lens of a camera or submit to a news interview. (Their superiors, Father Pio Mandato and Sister Theresa May, spoke respectively for the friars and sisters.) They do it now -- the media thing -- at the behest of journalists who believe that more general awareness and understanding of their vocation can have exemplary effects for the community.

The monks themselves would rather think of those spiritual advantages accruing without benefit of publicity but they are all for mutual acceptance and understanding. Indeed, from the time of St. Francis, the Franciscans have been notorious for their jollity, sociability and human relations.
As Father Pio observes, "They have been the authentic Christian humanists of Western society."
Most people who do come to know them and to confront their radical way of life react with shock to the degree of renunciation practiced by the young women at Mother of God Convent on Bullard Street and the young men at Immaculate Conception Friary on Rivet Street, north and south ends of town respectively. (It wasn't a deliberate strategy to keep them apart.)

"I was just stunned when they told me how they lived," said a woman whose household was visited by two of the friars. "They have nothing, not even a radio to turn on for a little music. That seems a bit extreme to me, but they don't seem to mind at all."

Asking not to be identified ("I'm not a critic. I don't want them to think of me as a critic"), the woman said it shook her up to see how dependent society has become on more and more material possessions. "And maybe that's their message. It's a good one but, goodness, denying themselves the pleasure of switching on some music in their life strikes me as a drawback."
She recalled that "they loved the music our radio was playing while they were here; they kept commenting on it."

That's it, says Father Pio. They pick up their arias and overtures and birdsong as they make their rounds of the community, as did St. Francis. Music and other pleasures of life they don't have to make room for in their own cubicles.

"God provides," says Father Superior who has been a Franciscan priest for 12 years.
He and his fellow-reformers in New York sought out Bishop O'Malley when they felt ready for reorganization. After "much dialogue" over the course of about six months, the invitation arrived from the Fall River diocese. Again with the help of the bishop, the friars found a temporary home on Kempton Street, New Bedford, until about a year ago when they moved to Rivet Street and went to work on serious renovations. (The diocese is supporting the group as it gets established.)
There are two priests, Father Pio and Father Pat, who joined the community here in New Bedford. Four friars are studying for the priesthood. Brother Joseph, who was in his final vows at the New York community of Capuchins, will remain a lay brother. An expert carpenter, he led the renovation project.

Reception in the neighborhood has been "very positive," according to Father Pio. "We've gotten to know a lot of the families, kids especially, and more and more people are coming to the door for confession or for spiritual guidance. But we try not to take over any parish responsibilities. We want to complement their work. We often refer people to the parish."
Their ministry involves preaching, conducting missions and retreats, and working with young people.

"Being a small, young community," says the group's leader, Father Pio, "we each have to wear a lot of different hats. We still spend a lot of time perfecting our constitution, going back to the founding principles and to the Capuchin reforms in 1536. The cross is always there. Our willingness to struggle through it is the key to growth."

Above all, says Father Pio, "we have to protect our contemplative life, but we do it in the marketplace. How to respond charitably? We don't want a revolving door, but we do want to respect people's dignity."

A day at the friary goes, more or less, like this: 2 a.m., night vigil, office of readings; 6:30 a.m., morning prayer together followed by an individual hour of prayer and solitude; 8 a.m., Mass; then class, study, work, etc.; noon, midday prayer and recollection, pickup lunch; afternoon work and study; 4:45 p.m., evening prayer in common, followed by one hour of silent eucharistic adoration; 6 p.m., supper (the monks take turns preparing and serving), recreation, followed by Compline (the evening prayer), the rosary and, finally, the Grand Silence (close of the day, normally around 9 p.m.)

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More posts on the FPO's

Franciscans of Primitive Observance

One of the benefits of a vocatins conference is the ability to talk to so many people doing this work from around the country, especially people who are optimistic and excited about vocations work. Since this is our first year at the NCDVD we are spending a lot of time meeting people for the first time, while for others it is a time to get caught up. Actually it has been good for Fr. Shlesinger who has seen many of his classmates from the North American College in Rome. However, it seems that I actually know quite a few people here, and have had a chance to catch up with some people myself.

That was the case in the picture above. I had forgotten that the Franciscans of the Primitive Observence send their seminarians to Mount Saint Mary's, but was very happy to see them and find out that one friar in particular, Deacon Andrew, FPO was at the Mount. I met Br. Andrew several years ago at the March for Life and had some correspondence by mail with him. It was great to see him again, and to be able to congratulate him on his ordination to the Diaconate.

The FPO's if you've never heard of them, are a group that splintered off of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, and are - well, they are really old school. They are probably about as close to living St. Francis' original rule as you might find. Just take a look at Br. Andrew's habit. It was pretty hot yesterday, and that habit it made of heavy wool. It's thick and unhemmed, and looks a whole lot like what I would imagine their seraphic father's habit to look like.
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