Secular Franciscans: Bringing the Gospel to life

Come and see. It’s an invitation Secular Franciscans regularly extend to others and one that current members say they are glad they accepted.

“They kept saying, ‘Come and try it, come and try it,’” says Lillian Vashon, OFS, of Winslow. “So I did go, and from the first meeting, I loved it, so I stayed.”

Lillian professed with the St. John the Baptist Fraternity of Winslow in 1978, just four years after the fraternity was established, and she was among those who gathered at St. John the Baptist Church on June 9 to celebrate the fraternity’s 50th anniversary.

“I like it a lot, so I’ve been in it all this time,” she says. “I’m into God, and I think that it helped me a lot to strengthen my faith in God.”

“I joined the secular Franciscans, and I have been so happy, so joyful, so wonderful,” says Martha Patterson of Waterville, who professed with the fraternity three years ago. “It’s really wonderful to trust in God for a change and not keeping asking Him for things but just to say, ‘God, I trust in you.’”

“It has helped me be a lot closer to God, and the bad times don’t seem so bad,” says Dolores Hutchison, age 95, who has been a Secular Franciscan for 44 years. “I would pray to Francis and Clare, and it just made me a better person, I think. My prayers mean a great deal to me, especially at this time in my life and with everything going on in the world.”

The Secular Franciscan Order (OFS) was founded by St. Francis of Assisi more than 800 years ago and canonically established by Pope Honorius III in 1221. Secular Franciscans are men and women, single or married, who seek to follow Christ in the spirit of St. Francis and to bring the Gospel to life where they live and work.

“It is just the whole charism of the life of simplicity, the life of humility, just following in Francis’ footsteps and just really wanting to gain a closer relationship to our God. Francis figured out how to do that, so it’s like, oh, cool, if he figured how to do that, I can follow his way,” says Kay Spofford, OFS, a member of the St. John the Baptist Fraternity.

“We seek to bring the light of Christ to others every day,” says Daniel Spofford, OFS, a member of the St. John the Baptist Fraternity and regional minister of the St. Elizabeth of Hungary Region of the Secular Franciscan Order, which includes northern New England and eastern Massachusetts. “We try to be kind, generous, compassionate, try to have an open ear, try to put God first rather than ourselves first and try to sow peace in the world.”

Secular Franciscans spend time in prayer, reflection, service, and community, through which they seek to grow in faith and find refuge and renewal.

“Prayer is very important as is the sense of community. They are very much into helping each other and helping others,” says Sister Carol Martin, PFM, the fraternity’s spiritual assistant. “They have a monthly meeting where there is always a teaching on St. Francis, time for prayer, and time for sharing and fraternity.”

“We gather together in fellowship monthly and pray and reflect on the Gospel and also St. Francis’s life to bring it to life in our lives and to reinforce it every month,” says Dan. “We’ve become a family, and as a family, we love each other, and we help each other, not only in faith but in our life situations — as we go through difficulties and when we have joys.”

“It’s like brothers and sisters. We are one. We’re old. We’re young. We’re in between, but you would never know it because we all just love one another, and we have a great sense of people helping other people. That is what I like. It is the spirit of joy,” says Martha. “I think just being around them brings that joy, that wonderful feeling, that loving feeling that I have been searching for.”

“It’s sort of a microcosm of the Catholic Church, the universality of the Catholic Church. So, it’s been a blessing, especially when things aren’t going well in your life, you have a fraternity. We’re kind of small, but we’re very harmonious, and it’s been a beautiful thing,” says Kathryn Swegart from the town of Rome.

Fraternities often have apostolates, initiatives they are committed to helping and serving. The St. John the Baptist Fraternity, for instance, has supported Colby Catholics, the campus ministry program at Colby College in Waterville, and refugee families settling in Maine. The members also embrace Corpus Christi Parish initiatives. For instance, the parish’s Clothesline of Comfort.

“We were asked to bring winter and other clothing for the poor, and we had four truckloads of items. It was huge. We sorted and had 1,200 pieces of clothing. We gave it to schools. We gave it to the soup kitchen. We gave it to the homeless shelter. They were overjoyed to have the donations,” says Dan.

The members also helped with a food drive, during which 65 boxes of food were collected for area food pantries and the soup kitchen.

“This year, the focus was on restocking the local food pantries. Some of them got hit hard with the storms we had back in December. The St. John’s Food Pantry and the other one here in Winslow got flooded. The Lighthouse Soup Kitchen lost electricity, so they lost quite a few things,” says Kay.

The St. John the Baptist Fraternity also sponsors the Blessing of the Animals in early October, around St. Francis’ Feast Day, as well as Transitus, a service celebrating St. Francis’ passing from this life to the next. The fraternity also organizes the Blessing of the Creches during Advent, and members have taught junior high, high school, and college students about St. Francis and Third Order Franciscans.

“Gospel to life, life to Gospel makes you take a deeper dive into being a witness in the world, even in small ways. It is a vocation. It is a calling,” says Kathryn. “I think it’s humility, of course. Anytime you read about St. Francis, ‘humility’ is a huge word.”

As Secular Franciscans, Kathryn says they also share in St. Francis’ love for nature.

“It makes me appreciate the simplicity, the beauty of God’s creation. St. Francis saw it as the masterpiece of God wherever he looked,” she says.

In addition to being a witness to others, these Secular Franciscans emphasize how much they have been strengthened in their faith through the fraternity. Dan, for instance, recalls attending a regional retreat on St. Francis and the Eucharist.

“It was life changing. Even though I go to adoration, it brought me back to the core of myself and how much St. Francis revered the Eucharist,” says Dan. “We all felt joy at the retreat in knowing that Christ is our center. It just raised us up, all of us. We were all floating out there.”

In addition to the St. John the Baptist Fraternity in Winslow, there are fraternities located in Houlton, Kennebunk, Lewiston, Norway, and Windham. If you feel that God is calling you to do something more and believe you may have a Franciscan vocation, you can email Dean Astumian at [email protected].