Our Charism
Every religious community has a unique charism. A charism is a gift from the Holy Spirit, which gives the community its identity. You can’t pinpoint a charism in one word. Rather, a charism describes the unique way of life of each individual community. It includes their life of prayer, their spirituality, their communal life, and their apostolic works. Charisms are a gift of God to the Church in response to a particular need at a particular moment in history. (See Vita Consecrata n. 36)
The key elements of our charism as Franciscans of the Eucharist of Chicago are:
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Franciscan
As Franciscans, we strive to follow Jesus in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi. St. Francis was inspired by Christ to live the Gospel in a joyful, radical way with a particular attentiveness to ongoing conversion, Gospel poverty, and caring for the poor. We look to the writings and life of St. Francis to order our life, and members wear the traditional Franciscan habit with sandals upon beginning novitiate. Within the Franciscan family, our community is descended from the Capuchin branch - a 16th century reform movement in the Franciscan Order. The Capuchin dimension of our life informs our contemplative prayer style (extended silence in communal prayer, Office of Readings, Daytime Prayer, Rosary prayed in private each day, preference for simple, reverent liturgies) and our life of poverty (living and serving in poor neighborhoods, a focus on austerity in our living spaces, engaging in a life of simple, humble tasks for love our God and neighbor.)
Christocentric
Just as the Person of Jesus Christ was at the center of St. Francis’ life and spirituality, so too our life and spirituality are centered on the Person of Jesus. In the profession of vows, each friar and sister states: "I devote myself to hearing the call of the Gospel to convert my life to Jesus Christ through prayer." This primacy permeates everything we do and especially informs our style of teaching, preaching, and evangelization. Whether we are in the classroom, speaking with neighbors on the street, speaking at a retreat, or offering a parish mission, we strive to help everyone we encounter develop a deep and lasting relationship with Jesus Christ, the only one who can truly give what men and women of our time are so deeply longing for. Our whole life is designed to facilitate seeing, loving, and serving Jesus - hidden in the Eucharist and hidden in the poor we are privileged to serve.
Eucharistic
As Franciscans of the Eucharist, our spirituality and our lives are deeply shaped and nourished by our daily encounters with Jesus in the Eucharist - first at Mass and then flowing from the Mass into Eucharistic Adoration. In addition to making the Eucharist the center of our communal and personal prayer, we are also entrusted with emphasizing the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist in our teaching, preaching, and evangelization efforts and making our outreach centers for the poor “Eucharistic Centers,” where volunteers and those being served alike can encounter Jesus hidden in the Eucharist. All of our buildings include a chapel in which the Blessed Sacrament is reserved. We also offer Eucharistic Adoration during our main apostolic outreaches and always encourage retreat groups to pray a daily Eucharistic Holy Hour during their time with us.
Faithful sons and daughters of the church
Each member of our community embraces the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience through our profession of public vows. We regularly study and review the Church's official documents on religious life and enthusiastically embrace all that the Church teaches about faithly living the religious life in our day and age. Following the example and exhortation of St. Francis, faithful adherence to all of the Church’s teachings and loving obedience to the Holy Father and our local bishops are essential components of our life. In accordance with the Church's vision for religious life, we strive to offer a supportive and complementary presence in the Archdiocese of Chicago and any future diocese in which we may one day serve.
Living as brothers and sisters
St. Francis of Assisi wanted his followers to relate to one another as brothers and sisters, showing mutual respect and charity and anticipating one another’s needs. We strive to foster this spirit in our fraternal life throughout the day. Our community has both a men's and a women's branch, united around one common charism and way of life. Important dimensions of our fraternal life include working together in our common apostolates, enjoying recreation time together at meals, and being attentive to the ways we can encourage and serve one another. We strive to conduct meetings and group conversations with honesty, charity, and an encouraging spirit that invites everyone to contribute to the conversation.
reliance on divine providence
Following St. Francis's model of poverty as radical dependence on God, we rely on Divine Providence to provide for all of our needs and the needs of those we serve. Everything we have for our personal use or apostolates is a gift from God and we strive to be grateful and faithful stewards of His abundant providence. Living a life where everything is a gift means making ourselves available to receive what God wishes to send us. Each day, we are called to make sacrifices of our time and our plans in order to receive, properly store, care for, and distribute the donations that are entrusted to us for our community's needs and the needs of the poor that we serve. When doing our evangelization work, we do not receive salaries, but rather entrust ourselves to God and receive whatever He inspires people to give as stipends or free-will offerings.
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Service to the poor
For any follower of Jesus, especially for those following Him in the footsteps of St. Francis, service to the poor is not optional but an essential part of living the Gospel. In our community, we give concrete expression to this by choosing to live and serve in poor neighborhoods. The exact form of service is flexible and can adapt to the needs of the neighborhood, but our apostolate will always be centered on relationship with and direct service to the poor. Every member of our community is involved with our apostolates that care for the poor, as this is an essential part of our identity. Service to the poor is also an important way that we evangelize and invite others to join us in encountering Jesus and experiencing for themselves the connection between seeing Jesus in the Eucharist and seeing Him in the poor.
A life of simple, humble tasks
St. Francis wanted his followers to foster a spirit of humility and poverty through doing simple, humble tasks with their own hands. In our community, we integrate this aspect of the Franciscan charism by doing our own work. Our friars and sisters takes turns cooking, cleaning up after meals, serving as porter, doing general maintenance tasks, unloading donations, setting up for events, and regularly cleaning our living and mission facilities. We strive to learn how to perform the simple, humble duties of everyday life with a contemplative spirit as well as an attitude of joy and generosity. While we all have different responsibilities, each member takes part in these activities in some capacity. This also give us an opportunity to foster our fraternal life, as we work together and care for communal spaces, and our life of poverty, as we care for the gifts God has entrusted to us.
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Ongoing conversion
Ongoing conversion is another hallmark of Franciscan spirituality and an essential part of our community's charism. St. Francis taught us that if we hope to convert the world, we have to focus on converting the person we see when we look in the mirror. Our life of prayer, fraternal life, daily rhythm, and initial and ongoing formation are all set up to help each friar and sister move further along the path of personal conversion and conformity to the life of Christ. Care is taken that each member of our community receives the proper support, education, and formation necessary to foster this life of ongoing conversion. As St. Francis taught us, we strive to encourage others on their own path of repentance and ongoing conversion both through the witness of our lives and through our words in our teaching, preaching, and other evangelization efforts.
