On Tuesday, November 18, 2025, the Franciscan Family of Morocco celebrated its annual meeting at the diocesan house of Rabat. Sixteen Friars Minor, six Poor Clares and thirty-one Franciscan sisters from six different institutes gathered, representing almost all eighteen Franciscan communities of Morocco. Some travelled for more than six hours to attend this family gathering, which has become an important annual tradition. It was a joy to get together, to meet a dozen new faces – the brothers and sisters who joined us this year – and share the joys, sorrows, and challenges of our fraternities, often located far from each other.
Several themes touched many of us: the challenge of rebuilding fraternity with the new brothers and sisters, the challenge of work and renovation in many homes, the necessity of being available and flexible in a continuously evolving environment and the importance of remaining firm in Franciscan humility and simplicity.
Br. Frédéric-Marie Le Méhauté OFM, Minister Province of the Friars Minor of France and French-speaking Belgium, helped us to deepen, in an original and stimulating way, the Canticle of Brother Sun of St. Francis of Assisi, of which we celebrate its 800th anniversary this year. A canticle of joy born in the heart of darkness and of the night. A canticle which calls us to a fraternity beyond our “comfort zone”, with brothers and sisters which are called not to dominate. A canticle in which no animal or creature appears that we can possess, paving the way for a joyful mutual dependence. A canticle which invites us to dare to dream of our world, our future, and our Franciscan Family. The echo of these new words has long resounded in our sharing groups, demonstrating how deeply these challenges touch us and how they call us to live and contemplate our personal and community life in a deeper way, inspired by the Gospel.
In our family there is no fraternity without communion…So we gathered around a big banquet with what everyone had brought, amused by the amazement of each group for this abundance. And it all culminated (and was fulfilled) at the Eucharistic table, to the sound of songs directed by our Poor Clare sisters, just as it began, with the violin that accompanied the Canticle of Brother Sun. The Gospel of the day, the meeting between Jesus and the publican Zacchaeus (Lk 19:1-10), taught us to continue to share what we have experienced: “Come down now”, the Lord tells us from the ground, come down and be yourself, abandon all these illusions about yourself and the world and live the salvation you dream of in this fraternity of sharing what you are at the heart of your daily life…
Br. Stéphane Delavelle OFM
