Br Crispin Mary, CFR on:

THE BROTHERS APOSTOLATE

One of the many great things about our faith is that it takes so very little to "please" our God. Most of our lives will be spent simply negotiating the turns of every day life. The daily duties are where the drama of the spiritual life will take place. For most of us, we imitate the passion of our Savior in situations that are not very passion inspiring.

This holds true in community life as well. The consecrated life of a friar: the life long quest to plumb the depths of the mystery of Gods love; to ascend the lofty heights of contemplation; to be reshaped in Gods image on the anvil of sacrifice. It takes us friars to the places "where angels fear to tread"; to the desk heaped with unfinished community business, to the dusty work shop, to a feverish kitchen stove, to the phone that rings off the hook. Life's great pilgrimage often takes us straight to the busy post office or into rush hour traffic. And what a blessing it is! Being faithful to the Lord in every day life is like waltzing with the Spirit, a mysterious unity of body and soul in every twist and shift as the music plays on and on to an uncertain ending. This is when God is truly the leader of ones life and we in turn are opened to receive His love with its many, often changing faces.

The Lord has given us many brothers in community. For all of us CFR's, serving God means serving our brother "more tenderly than a mother cares for her children in the flesh" as St Francis reminds us. Hand's on work is a major part of how we serve, yes, the poor, but also our brothers of the community. We do as much of our own work as possible (and some that is impossible) with a view to being poor in fact and in spirit but also so that we can put the gospel ideal of fraternal charity into effect in our every day lives. This ideal of fraternal charity is the inspiration and genesis of so much of our lives as friars who are all about "renewal". A faithful friar can rightly say with our Lord, "This is my body which is given up for you".