Hi Kid,
Well the Secular Franciscans are members of the Franciscan Order. The Franciscans are about 800 years old, founded by St. Francis, and there are four disciplines in the order. The First Order are the Friars Minor, these are the priests and brothers, the
Second Order are the Poor Claires who are Nuns and were founded by St. Claire of Assisi, the Third Order, who are also religious, and the Secular Franciscans which is made up of lay people, married and single, men and women. Becoming a Secular Francisan is a process that takes about a year and a half involving study and discerning if we do in fact have a vocation to the order and their way of life. The Secular Francisans are an important part of the Franciscan Order and are as much Franciscans as are the priest, brothers and nuns.
The term Conversion of Heart is one that I first heard through the Franciscans, although I am sure that it is not a novel idea within the Church. Basically, we believe that for many there is a time in one's life that there is a conversion event, for me it was watching the movie, The Passion of the Christ. Prior to that although I had been a Catholic my whole life, I was not a very good practicing Catholic. For others, faith grows over a lifetime. Either way though, conversion of the heart is a lifelong process where we are constantly converted to Christ.
One of the benefits that I have seen in my involvment with the Secular Francisans is that I have found order in my prayer life. One of the things that we do is pray the Liturgy of the Hours. If you are unfamiliar with these prayers, they are broken into times during the day, morning prayer, evening prayer and nighttime prayer. They consist of Psalms and scripture passages for each day. Before the SFO (Secular Francisan Order) if I thought about it, I would pray, now I set aside time to to be with God in prayer.
The SFO also follow the Rule of Francis which is based entirely on the gospels. The SFO are considered a vocation just as being a priest, brother or nun is a vocation and therefore we are called to discern if this is what God is truly calling us to do.
The ministry is to bring Christ to the world where we live, to our families, friends, neighbors and co-workers. We do this by being an example of Christ to those we meet everyday.
There is also self examination involved, two questions that have had an impact on me; the first was what is holiness to me? I had to think about this for sometime before I felt that I could put it into words. I know that Jesus calls us to be holy, but I was not sure what the word meant to me.
The other question requires a little background. Francis had a horror of lepers and would avoid them as much as possible until one day he was not only able to embrace a leper, but kiss him as well. Francis felt that his fear of lepers was a stumbling block between he and God and once he embrased the leper, that stumling block disappeared. The question was what is my leper? Both of these questions had a profound effect on how I view myself and others around me.
At the time of Francis, the Church had much corruption in it and I'm sure that many have heard the story of how God spoke to Francis and told him to repair His Church. At first Francis thought that meant that he was to repair the church buildings in Assisi. It was only later that he realized that God meant to repair the Church, not church buildings. There have always been problems within the Church, it is made up of people who sin, but at the same time God has raised up great saints to repair His Church, Francis was such a person.
As for your last question, do we want to convert people to the Catholic Faith, although I believe as do all Franciscans, that the Catholic Church is the Church founded by Christ, we are to bring the face of Christ to those we meet, not necessarily Catholicism although it is a vital part of who we are. I would say that we bring Christ to the world first and Catholicism second. Christ is the primary message and it is up to God if someone comes to the Church.
Well this has gotten pretty long and you probably got more information than you wanted, but I hope this answers your questions.
God bless,
Nancy
PS, I believe that there is also a Third Order of Franciscans in the Anglican Church.
