What Makes Pope Francis so Franciscan and Why Now?

A timely new wind is blowing the in the Church and society in the person of Pope Francis and in the Franciscan family. What makes this Franciscan message so important for today? A consideration of three themes in the writings of Pope Francis and how they converge with the practices and insights dominant in the Franciscan tradition serves to illuminate our own “moment” and task in the contemporary world. Tune in and find out!

Young Adult Catholics: Why Questions are Better Than Answers

A growing number of studies are examining Catholic young adults and they are all reporting the same results: young adults are leaving in droves. However, when these studies are examined more closely, they offer a more interesting story than the “leaving in droves” narrative provides. This talk will explore the ways people are studying young adults, lift up important takeaways from these studies, and distill a set of questions to craft a ministry for Catholic millennials and iGens.

Ongoing Conversion and the Role of Emotions in Franciscan Spirituality: Franciscan Joy

In the popular imagination Franciscan spirituality is often reduced to cute and sentimental depictions of the animal-loving Francis. But looking closely at the spiritual path of ongoing conversion that Francis took, along with the paths forged by Clare and many lay affiliates, we find there was always a gravitas to the joy Franciscans experienced. This talk contrasts Franciscan joy and mere cheerfulness in the final installment to a work on the emotional range in the Franciscan tradition. The purpose of my work on emotional range in the Franciscan tradition is to explore the role various emotions have in the process of ongoing conversion and to rescue the Franciscan spiritual tradition from the pitfalls of mere quaintness and cuteness.

Pope Francis’ Integral Ecology and the Consistent Ethic of Life: Calls for a Wider Moral Vision

June 18th: Franciscan Contemplative Prayer: Prayer for a Busy People in the World, 7pm PDT

Franciscan Contemplative Prayer was developed for those fully engaged in the world.  Franciscans have helped lay people to pray daily in the midst of the distractions of business and family life.  While contemplation can sound suitable only for a monastery, Franciscans have worked with lay people for centuries to give them the tools for contemplative prayer.  We will focus on how suited this rich tradition is for the 21^st Century. 

Summer Franciscan Zoom Lecture #4: with DR. MAUREEN DAY

Young Adult Catholics: Why Questions are Better Than Answers

The final video from the summer lecture series is now available for viewing on the YouTube Channel FST EDU1

A growing number of studies are examining Catholic young adults and they are all reporting the same results: young adults are leaving in droves. However, when these studies are examined more closely, they offer a more interesting story than the “leaving in droves” narrative provides. This talk will explore the ways people are studying young adults, lift up important takeaways from these studies, and distill a set of questions to craft a ministry for Catholic millennials and iGens.

Lesser Ethics: Retrieving the Good Life in the Franciscan Tradition

This interdisciplinary Zoom virtual conference seeks to tease out a new, more relational methodology for ethics in our time.

It does so by addressing the question how we can make the Franciscan intellectual and spiritual tradition, in particular its articulation of moral goodness and concern for the common good, relevant and fruitful for a present-day ethical practice.

Living Franciscan Values in our Contemporary World

Presented by Benjamin Johnson, O.F.M. Cap.

This seminar will offer a chance to reflect on Franciscan virtues within the context of contemporary life. We will begin with an overview of poverty and humility in the life of Francis of Assisi, and how this was subsequently theologized in the thought of Bonaventure of Bagnoregio.

With this foundation, we will then reflect on embodying these virtues within our own lives, especially in consideration of our faith, families, and the care of creation. We will particularly focus on how we can manifest Franciscan virtues in the concrete and material reality in which we find ourselves.

The Spiritual Significance of St. Francis in the Theology of St. Bonaventure 

Presented by Dr. Luke Togni

This course will explore the ways in which St. Bonaventure understood the importance of St. Francis of Assisi as a model for Gospel perfection and the imitation of Christ, and even more, shaped his theology.

By introducing students to key texts representing Bonaventure's theological use of Francis and his sources for understanding the povorello, they will become familiar with the riches of Franciscan tradition and learn about the theological underpinnings of its commitment to poverty, humility, and charity.

From Leprosy to COVID-19: The Problem of Suffering in the Franciscan Theological Tradition

Presented by Dr. Katherine Wrisley Shelby

In his Testament, St. Francis recounts the story of his conversion by recalling how he “[began] doing penance in this way: for when I was in sin, it seemed too bitter for me to see lepers. And the Lord Himself led me among them and I showed mercy to them. And when I left them, what had seemed bitter to me was turned into sweetness of soul and body. And afterwards I delayed a little and left the world.” 

Beginning with the Poverello’s ministry to lepers, the Franciscan Tradition has historically responded to what systematic theologians today would call “the Problem of Suffering” in rather unique ways. With an eye toward COVID-19, this course will consider the Franciscan Theological Tradition as a locus of resourcement for thinking about this problem in light of the current global health crisis: How does one follow the path of Francis when considering how to best minister to COVID-19 patients? How might the Franciscan Tradition offer meaningful ways forward for thinking about the Problem of Suffering, both theologically and spiritually?

This course will turn to certain key figures and texts from the Medieval Franciscan Tradition — including St. Francis himself, The Tree of Life by St. Bonaventure, and a selection of texts pertaining to or written by medieval Franciscan women — in consideration of these questions. 

Care as Contemplation/Contemplation as Care in the Franciscan Tradition

Presented by Dr. Krijn Pansters

For Francis of Assisi, communal and personal prayer were indispensable elements of mendicancy, which can therefore be called truly active-contemplative. In quite another way, Clare and her enclosed sisters also combined care with contemplation.

It was not by alternating preaching and praying like the brothers, whose main activity was the provision of cura animarum to people in the world. It would be by living contemplative lives as a form of caring and by experiencing care as a central tenet of a contemplative practice.

Withdrawn behind walls and with limited caring activities, they strove to share the ideals of minoritas in the same spirit of “fraternal” love, service, and dedication. Like male Franciscan spirituality and mendicant living, female Franciscan spirituality and communal living would be free from “care and anxiety [cura et sollicitudine] about this world,” yet far from uncaring.

Their care would be toward the Father in heaven, toward the founding mother, toward the self, toward each other, and toward others.

These categories of Clarissan contemplative care are the subject of this course.

Capuchin, Conventual and OFM friars are invited to a special gathering to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the Earlier Rule of 1221.

PLEASE NOTE: This conference, scheduled for summer of 2021, has been rescheduled for the summer of 2022.

NEW DATES:
July 13 - 15, 2022

• With William Short, OFM (main lecture) and Jacques Dalarun (public lecture)
• This weeklong course introduces the foundational figures of Francis and Clare of Assisi. Pioneering a new approach to forming Christian community in the thirteenth century, their vision of a form of life “according to the gospel” drew criticism from many in their day, yet it endures today in the Franciscan Family worldwide. This course explores the basic elements of that life, its distinctiveness then and now, and the possibilities it offers to those seeking Christian life in common today.
• Includes a public lecture by Prof. Jacques Dalarun: “Clare of Assisi and Thomas of Celano: An Essential Relationship”
• COST: £75

• With Daniel Horan, OFM (main lecture) and Ilia Delio, OSF (public lecture)
• This weeklong course focuses on Franciscan contributions to the development of Christian theologies and spiritualities of creation in the age of global climate change. It considers how the Franciscan tradition can build on the teaching of Pope Francis’ Laudato si’ and contribute to a robust understanding of pour place within the community of creation, drawing on insights from figures including Francis of Assisi, Bonaventure, Angela of Foligno John Duns Scotus, and Peter of John Olivi.
• Includes a public lecture by Ilia Delio, OSF: “That All May Be One: Evolution, Artificial Intelligence, and the Body of Christ”
• COST: £75

• With William Crozier
• This two-week seminar explores the theme of love and knowledge in St. Bonaventure’s work. Taught through live classes, this course guides participants through Bonaventure’s thought on the nature of theology, the Trinity, Christ, the shape of Christian knowledge and living, and mystical rapture. Participants will read Bonaventure’s text, The Soul’s Journey into God, as well as other key texts.
• COST: £100 • Places are limited for this advanced seminar. For more details and how to apply, click here.