In the evening of October 4 the Mass on the occasion of the Solemnity of St. Francis, at which the Master of the Order of Preachers, Fr. Gerard Timoner, presided, was celebrated at the General Curia. In his homily he said to the brothers: “This is my hope and prayer for you, dear brothers, to re-read the life of St. Francis, and to be found in your vocation, as preachers of the Gospel, witnesses of brotherhood in a world divided by hatred, of living evangelical poverty, in a world which values the accumulation of riches over social and environmental responsibility”.
Fr. Gerard also recalled the celebration of the 8th Centenary of the Stigmata, citing St. Bonaventure: “The true love of Christ had transformed the lover into the very image of the beloved”. He continued by recalling that the Stigmata of St. Francis have something to say about the hope of the resurrection of the body that is professed in the Creed: “If Francis’ closeness modeled in his body the wounds of Christ, while he was alive on earth, then we can hope that our closeness to Christ makes it possible for grace to transform our body like his resurrected body…faith is born and reborn only from the wounds of Christ dead and risen”.
At the end of the celebration Br. Ignacio Ceja, Vicar General, in the name of the Minister General, thanked Fr. Gerard for his visit to the General Curia.
