Franciscan calling
Some of our stories
Living as Franciscans
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Society of Saint Francis, European Province
 
some of our stories
 

Benedict SSF
Brother Benedict has recently moved to the new house in Cowgate Newcastle upon Tyne, having previously lived at Glasshampton Friary for many years where he was Guardian and Novice Guardian.  He is now the Assistant Minister for the European Province.

Although I attended both a Church Primary and Junior school I had no real interest in regularly attending a Church, yet I did have an over-riding sense of God in my life and a sense of God wanting me to serve him. I had no real knowledge of the Religious Life or of what it was about yet it was present from early on. When I left school and trained for a job in Law that feeling persisted and the continuous nagging away inside made me realise that I needed to investigate the religious life if I was to have any real peace.

I read a magazine article about the Religious Life in the Anglican Church and consequently obtained a list of religious communities, and literally went down that list with a pin; some of the communities sounded too strict, had too much silence, too much enclosure and so it came down to a choice between a Benedictine community which had a very attractive and appealing brochure and the Franciscans.  The Franciscans invited me to a weekend for men who were enquiring  about the Franciscan way of life.

My visit to Hilfield Friary did not tick all the boxes for what I saw as an ideal vocation, but the Friary had a simplicity and a ministry among wayfarers and the needy, which I found very compelling.  The then Minister Provincial  interviewed me and I do not think he was entirely convinced about accepting me, but agreed to take me for a trial period - and I am still here 41 years later!

Do I have regrets? Yes, of course! But aren't there in any walk of life? Has it been easy? Of course not, but on reflection why should it be?  But what I do know is that there is nothing better nor more satisfying than serving the Lord.    
Far from a running away from the world or being cut off from it, I have been more exposed as a friar to the world than I could every have imagined.  I have travelled and worked and prayed in far-flung places; I have lived in a tenement flat in Glasgow's gangland; I have helped people in their own spiritual journeys at our house of prayer and I have discovered that God ministers to me through the variety of people I have lived with or ministered to within the Franciscan community and beyond.  

40+ years as a 'Brother' and there is still room for improvement - now there's a challenge!
Brother Peter is currently based at Alnmouth Friary and was professed in October 2010

In 1991, the year when the Soviet Union collapsed and Latvia regained its independence, the head teacher of our school decided to invite some students from the RC Seminary to give us an input about Christianity: every fortnight a young priest would come and talk with us, a class of rebellious and sceptical teenagers. Despite my secular background and upbringing these sessions made a deep impression on me and before long I became a believer. Even though my faith at that time was rather immature, none the less, it was a turning point – I recognised that God existed.
However, time went by and sadly my initial zeal began to fade and I became more and more preoccupied with the excitement of exploring adult life. As a result, instead of seeking God and his peace, I was rushing headlong into the realm of illusions only to be torn apart by my desires and cravings.
Mercifully, about 5 years ago, my perspective of life began to change, I realised that my pursuit of happiness was bound to be agonising and futile until I woke up and started to listen to the voice of God within me. The longing to become what I am called to be, a child of God, became overwhelming and I felt drawn to join a religious community. I approached SSF and in April of 2007 I was admitted as a postulant.
My 4 years in community has been the most precious and enlightening time of my life. Through God’s grace I became aware of things about myself and the world that I was unable to grasp before. It is here where I have met many inspiring people and have read some amazing books. Being in the community is a wonderful gift for which I am very grateful.

Click to go to another individual's story: Benedict SSF,   John SSF, Liz CSF, Nicholas Alan SSF

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Phyllis joined CSF in 1977, was life professed in 1988, and has lived in various CSF houses during her time in Community. She is currently in Birmingham after the closure of the house in Somerset.

                                         

It took about 10 years to realise that God might be calling ME to the Religious Life – from a “no way, not me,Lord” to “Yes,Lord” after all the buts. I was working overseas when the “Yes” began to emerge, and sensed that God was asking me to go deeper – not better or busier but deeper. A transforming sermon on Luke 5 convinced me I could no longer live on the edge but had to launch into the deep.
 
Gradually I realised I was not being called to the community with whom I had been living nor to the community of which I had been an associate, but to the differently challenging Community of St.Francis. Since joining CSF in 1977 I have experienced many highs and lows and know that the religious life is neither a soft option nor an escape or even “tame” as some people suggest. God uses all the experiences which are brought into Community to enhance our life and God’s work. My call is not a one-off, I know God continues to call me to this corporate life of prayer, work and witness and no one is more surprised than me.

Click to go to another individual's story: Benedict SSF,   John SSF, Liz CSF, Nicholas Alan SSF, Peter SSF

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John SSF

John became a novice early in 2002, made his first profession in 2005, and his life profession on 4th April 2008, the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King.
 
John








How did I end up joining a Franciscan Community? It crept up on me and suddenly pounced. I was a Baptist for 25 years, a minister for half of them. From that tradition I received a love of scripture, a desire to communicate the gospel effectively and many other blessings. The civil rights leader Martin Luther King was my hero.
 
By exploring the retreat movement I discovered the power of silence to draw us deeper into God and stumbled across the realisation that there was a significant contemplative dimension to my personality that needed to be taken seriously if prayer and ministry were to be truly in and of the Holy Spirit.
 
The disintegration of my marriage and the accompanying recognition of guilt and failure prompted a lot of soul searching. Did God still want me to serve him, or to bow out gracelessly? Confused, I confided in a spiritual counsellor who accompanied me through the darkness and helped me to listen for my own inner voice. In my gospel reading one day, someone said to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go” (Luke 9:57). My sense that this was what God wanted to hear from me engendered a mixture of profound gratitude and terror. Gratitude marginally prevailed. I consented, still fairly clueless as to where ‘wherever’ might be.
 
Jean Vanier’s classic book “Community and Growth” had sat unread on my shelf for years. I opened it, and was captivated by his descriptions of the call to community and the call of the poor. Both of these calls reverberated around my heart. Some vague memory induced me to read Brother Ramon’s ‘Franciscan Spirituality’. This template of discipleship, with its simplicity and itinerancy, seemed to fit me. It revealed a pattern that made sense of the broken jumble that was all I could otherwise perceive my life to be; it presented inspiring challenges; it resurrected my dreams.
 
Visits to friaries immersed me in liturgical catholic worship. This required adjustments and rethinking, but proved over time to be liberating, full of beauty and joy, not the superstitious straitjacket of my prejudiced imagination. Weirdly I felt I belonged in this strange territory. Step by step and under the authority and care of the brothers I made the transition to a new home. All of me came. Positive and negative life experiences. Grace and grit. All of me was received.
 
Six years on I have lived in and visited poorer places and people than before and hope to do more of this. I am still at home moving from brokenness to wholeness in the company of these lovely, infuriating Franciscan brothers and sisters, seeking to follow Jesus wherever.

Click to go to another individual's story: Benedict SSF,  Phyllis CSF, Liz CSF, Nicholas Alan SSF, Peter SSF

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Liz CSF

Sr Liz made her first profession in April 2007, and has recently moved to the new community house in Metheringham, Lincolnshire.
 
Liz










My name is Sr Liz, an ordained priest and currently a sister in First Profession with CSF at Metheringham in Lincolnshire.
 
So why am I here?
Well the ‘seed’ of Community has been around for some time. Over the years in times of quiet reflection I have felt God’s promise of a deeper and more intimate relationship with him, a constant searching and yearning. It was during the Life Profession Service of another sister, that I (rather alarmingly) felt an overwhelming sense of ‘belonging’ and knew that this was something that I needed to explore further. Drawn by the freedom, joy and spontaneity I had seen, I began to hear myself asking those unspoken questions, knowing in my depths that I had to step out in faith and trust (although I confess rather tentatively and not without much apprehension!). There was something about searching for a corporate rhythm, routine and discipline of life that was rooted in prayer, because I firmly believe that all that I do has to come from that solid foundation, from that centre of being in relationship with God, a relationship that is renewed daily in prayer, word and sacrament.
 
So five years on, how has it been?
Well, it has certainly been a time of great change, transformation and revelation, of much emotional upheaval and turmoil but also a time of great liberation as the different aspects of my life begin to come together, like the pieces of a jigsaw. Each piece is being carefully refined and transformed as I am brought to a greater place of healing and wholeness in God’s love and as I begin to really discover the person God created me to be.

Click to go to another individual's story: Benedict SSF,  Phyllis CSF, John SSF, Nicholas Alan SSF, Peter SSF

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Br Nicholas Alan made his life profession in 2002, and is presently Guardian of Glasshampton Monastery.

Nicholas Alan










Where does a vocation begin? For me it was more of a growing conviction only recognised in hindsight, but I remember a time when there was something about the words ‘monk’ and ‘monastery’ that kept leaping out of the page in books that I was reading. I was studying Theology at university at the time, and finding some of the critical theologians hard going. It was the books by monks and nuns that really captured my imagination – people like the Cistercian Thomas Merton, or Dom Henri Le Saux, a Benedictine who went to India taking the name Abhishiktananda, a Christian in Hindu robes. Here was a faith lived with integrity and abandonment to God, which called for a response from my heart.
 
It took me a while to make up my mind though. First I wrote to various communities for men in the Church of England, asking if I could live alongside their community for a while. They all seemed to say, Why not try the Franciscans? So I went to visit Hilfield Friary in Dorset, but I knew it was too early for me to join. I wanted to see the world. Eight years later, now living in Korea, I knew that it was time to return and get on with what I believed God had been patiently calling me to do.

Many things drew me to the Franciscans. Partly it was the corporate commitment to prayer at regular times each day. I had tried to do that on my own, using the SSF Office Book and re-connecting in spirit with the SSF, but it was so difficult on my own to maintain the discipline. I realised I needed the help of others in my prayers. And I didn’t like living alone. Community seemed to offer the balance of individual space and the companionship of others on a spiritual path. And Francis, full of wisdom’s folly, was a refreshing and exhilarating example of poverty and joy in his love of God and all his brothers and sisters.
 
But in the end, what kept me in the SSF was simply that these brothers and sisters were the people I had come to know and love. They were and are my family. How could I think of leaving them? And it wasn’t just them. Friendships with members of other communities, not just Anglican but Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Buddhist too were increasingly important to me. They were all part of what I had become. Of course the desire for a wife and family was still there, but somewhere along the line a choice had been made and one path followed with another left unexplored.
 
And in this company of brothers and sisters, both those with whom I live and pray and those I have visited and come to know as friends, with these companions I honestly feel that living this life makes a difference. People visit our communities and are changed: refreshed and revitalised in spirit, strengthened to live their own lives to the full. People and groups we visit find something in this crazy choice of ours that inspires them, just as I was inspired as a student. When you live this life for a while, you soon realise that it is not you who work any of these miracles, it can only be God. And if God is here, then the one thing necessary has already been found.

Click to go to another individual's story: Benedict SSF,  Phyllis CSF, John SSF, Liz CSF, Peter SSF

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