The Chapter of Mats 2024 was the culmination of a process that began in the fall of 2023 with groups from four Provinces of the United States and Canada. 36 secular Franciscans, 36 solemnly professed friars, three simply professed friars, a postulant, three Franciscan nuns and two Poor Clare nuns took part in this process.
During the regional meetings, the participants, divided into two groups, reflected on the themes: Renewing our Vision; Walking in a Particular Style; Embracing the Future. Each group elicited concepts from the themes and were asked to perform a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis on each concept. After a break, the two groups came together to share their analyses and find commonalities and differences. Some of the most important concepts were then highlighted.
The provincial level Chapter of Mats was held in conjunction with a retreat for the friars. The meeting with 34 friars, plus 17 seculars, sisters, and nuns took place on Saturday, May 11 at the conclusion of the retreat.
Three breakout sessions took place. In the first round the friars were separated from the seculars, nuns and nuns. All members were asked to review the regions’ responses published on the Province’s website together with other relevant material. Each group was asked the questions: “What is Charisma?”, “Who are the friars?”, “What is unique about us?”.
In the second round the participants were invited to form groups of five and move from table to table, mixing friars and secular/religious participants. In this session, the groups discussed what “Walking in a Particular Style” meant.
The third moment focused on “Who and How we serve”, so that participants were able to identify the places that were most important to them.
Once all the areas had been addressed, the participants met again in the plenary session. Here, the groups scanned the results of the previous two sessions to familiarize themselves with the concepts and results of the discussion. The plenary session was then asked to rank their survey responses to find the greatest commonalities.
The Friars Minor of the Province of the Immaculate Conception see a need for change in the future direction of the Order and the Province. Relying on Divine Providence and cooperating with the Holy Spirit, they believe that they need to be more dedicated to prayer, a common life, simplicity, and Evangelical joy.
According to the seculars we must be more in the community, with people, beyond church structures, and in habits. We must also truly investigate the sociological factors around our fraternities and must invite our brothers and sisters from the other branches to join us in fraternal gatherings and ministries.
