A CFR lay brother on:

THE LIFE OF VIRTUE.

If the lay brother is to be true to his calling, he must put himself last in every way that he can or knows how to and even in ways beyond his ability. This is his vocation, to be the lesser brother of all. This is in fact at the core of his identity in the church: to be lesser. Therefore the lifelong journey from being greater to being the "lesser" is penance. It is fueled by love, albeit impure at first, it is then refined over time.

He follows the Franciscan ideal of minority with the love of God as his light and he makes Christ his all. Christ is his joy. Christ is his pleasure. Christ is his breath. Christ is his prayer. Christ is his hope. Christ is his work and his leisure, his sleeping and his rising. But this implies a certain death. Death to self and all the roots, influences and holdings the world has on his heart. For the sake of his salvation and the salvation of the world the brother dies on the cross. He can die on the cross because Jesus died there first and sanctified its wood. As the brother is introduced to the wood of the cross, it is only his faithful "yes" at every step of the way that will enable him to hang from its wood. Unless he hangs fully from the wood, he is somehow holding back love for God and love for the Church. In his darkest hour, in his deepest emptiness and even in his deepest reluctance to proceed in the quest, it is then that his "yes" is the greatest love he can give.

Penance demands that the brother gives generously of himself to the people of God. As Christ is the prime Pascal

Br. Peter shares his testimony at a family retreat.

victim, so the brother becomes like Him in his own spiritual death and burial. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the point in which the brother's sacrifice is united to Christ who is the one true sacrifice pleasing to the Father through the Holy Spirit. The brother gives so others may have. He lives for God so God may live in the hearts of his people. He is present to them and not present to his own desires and plans so God can be present to His people. The brother is saved only when he loses himself in God's mission of love.

Deep at the heart of his life of penance is the winning of souls for Jesus and making atonement for the sins of the world in his own flesh. The greatest work of a brother are the hidden acts of sacrifice made and endured for the love of God and in reparation for the sins committed against the hearts of Jesus and Mary. It is essential to the life of the Church that the brother becomes as a vehicle of

grace in which God can pour out Himself on His people. Consequently the brother must keep his "house" clean and work toward not only removing any obstacle to that movement of grace but also doing things that expand his capacity for that grace: namely, practicing virtue so more virtue may be had.