Franciscan Charism

Patrick Colbourne OFM Cap. has a good article on SFO Franciscan Charism. It can be found here.

It starts:

When I speak of charism in this paper, I intend to signify a gift of the Holy
Spirit that promotes a response to the Gospel that involves a specific Gospel
insight which is put into practice in a specific environment. We may refer to a
person's response to the Divine as their spirituality. Within this general area,
people are gifted with particular insights, particular vocations, to live within
specific circumstances as they respond to God's presence in their lives.
Although he admired saintly monks, St Francis was not a monk. Although he
supported, challenged and encouraged lay people, he was not a Secular
Franciscan. There is something very specific in every call from God to holiness,
and it is that specific quality we seek to explore as it is described in the
Pauline Rule of the SFO.
When promulgating the SFO Constitutions, Emanuela
De Nunzio mentioned three specific characteristics of the SFO: secularity, unity
and autonomy. These qualities are all set out in the first two paragraphs of the
Pauline Rule. The SFO is secular in so far as its members "strive for perfect
charity in their own secular state" (Rule 2). The Secular Franciscan Order is
one is so far as "it is an organic union of all Catholic fraternities scattered
throughout the world" (Rule 2). It is autonomous in so far as it carries out its
vocation within the Franciscan family, under the common fatherhood of St.
Francis, "in various ways and forms but in life-giving union" with the other
branches of that family (Rule 1).

A highlighted extract follows:

Because Seculars live in the context of "the world", they are in a privileged
position to demonstrate that there is no disjunction between life in the world
and living the Gospel. The Gospel is not an artificial adjunct to human life,
and one does not have to withdraw from human life to live the Gospel.
The
Rule exhorts them "to go forth as witnesses and instruments of her (the
Church's; italics mine) mission among all people, proclaiming Christ by their
life and words" (Rule 6). The Rule suggests that union with Jesus for the
Secular Franciscans consists in their "faithfully fulfilling the duties proper
to their various circumstances of life" (Rule 10).They must necessarily come
into contact with the goods of the world, but they are exhorted in the Rule to
simplify their material needs and to remember that they use material goods as
stewards (Rule 11). In the spirit of the beatitudes, as pilgrims and strangers
on their way home to the Father, they should mortify and tendency to possessions
or power (Rule 11). In their families they are urged to promote peace, fidelity
and respect for life and as husbands and wives they should bear witness to the
world of the love of Christ for his Church (Rule 17).

I would urge a reading of this entire paper.