2023 CIOFS Formation Guide
CIOFS (International Council of the Secular Franciscan Order)
We have begun the journey of celebrations and family gatherings. Each year, we are going to share simple materials for all OFS and YouFra fraternities, so that together with the rest of the Franciscan Family around the world, they can share the great joy of celebrating together these centenaries during which we will commemorate: the 800th anniversary of the Later Rule (Regula Bullata); Christmas in Greccio (2023); the Stigmata (2024); the Canticle of the Creatures (2025) and, as a culmination, the Easter of Francis (2026).
Last year we received material from the Conference of the Franciscan Family to guide us in celebration. Below, we share a few paragraphs.
… The celebration of the centenaries has the basic aim and purpose of fixing our gaze toward the future and charismatically strengthening our Franciscan identity…
.... The gift that St. Francis received from the Divine Giver is most fully realized in its complementarity and lively reciprocal communion. This is a motivating force in the lives of “all those who love the Lord with their whole heart” (First Version of the Letter to the Faithful 1, FF 178/1). Therefore, as a Franciscan Family, we invite everyone who is attracted to the evangelical beauty of the Poverello (cf. Laudato si’ 10) to join us in celebrating these centenaries. The centenaries offer us a valuable opportunity to invigorate the richness of our charism with a prophetic vision toward the future....
… The celebration of the centenaries is undoubtedly a good occasion to make the Franciscan Family visible in its entirety. Therefore, it would be very fitting for all activities and initiatives, at the national and/or regional level, to be coordinated by a commission representing the entire Franciscan Family. Ad intra and Ad extra: The centenaries are not intended to have a positive impact only within the Franciscan Family. Imagination and creativity must be brought to bear so that the centenaries impact out wardly upon non-ecclesial social and cultural… (Conference of the Franciscan Family 2022).
We would appreciate it if each national fraternity would encourage the work and proposals put forth in these materials for this year 2023, two formation and meeting topics on the Crib and the Rule, which we, your brothers and sisters, have prepared with dedication and effort. The material is available in four languages:
