From 4th to 7th June, the Chapter of Mats of the Province of the Immaculate Conception was held in Madrid. It brought together thirty-four capitulars and officials, including friars, brothers of the OFS and religious sisters. It was a meeting point to discuss and reflect on the three central aspects proposed by the Order: Charism, Communion and Mission.
The afternoon of the 4th June began with the invocation of the Holy Spirit and then the intervention of the Minister Provincial, Br. Joaquín Zurera Ribó, placing the meeting in the framework of the 800 years of 1223 until the glorious transit, at sunset on the 3rd October, 1226.
Work of the local fraternities
In the previous three months, the fraternities of the Province had carried out preliminary work by applying the SWOT analisys to the panorama of the three nuclei (Charism, Communion and Mission), in the friaries and in the Province, emphasizing perspectives, unmasking reticence and formulating proposals.
Chapter Development
On the 5th June, the study of the first nucleus related to the charism was presented, seen from five aspects with the contributions or diagnoses of the fraternities. Then, divided into four groups with secretary and moderator, the contributions of the fraternities were read and reviewed, and in the afternoon the summaries of each group were presented in plenary.
Thursday the 6th June, was dedicated to the second nucleus: communion; the exhortation in the hall was entrusted to Sr. Valeria Francisca Pasquali, of the Alcantarine Franciscans Sisters, "in the heart of the Chapter," Sr. Valeria emphasized, on a treasure that we carry in clay vessels. The treasure is none other than the badge of the charism in the history of consecrated life: fraternal life in minority. The work was done in three sessions.
On the third and final day of the Chapter, Friday, the 7th June, was dedicated to the third nucleus, that of the Mission, precisely the year in which five centuries of those twelve Discalced friars who, starting from Spain, brought evangelization to the American continent are celebrated. In the chapter house, the brothers of the SFO Manuel Sánchez Barranco and Andrés Francisco Gandolfo Santonja related to the mission highlighted the phrase "our cloister is the world." At the end of the day, as in the previous days, the moderator of ongoing formation, Br. Juan José Rodríguez, read the last paragraph of the final document.
Taken from the chronicle of Br. Antonio Arévalo Sánchez OFM, Provincial Secretary
