Highlighted Thoughts Concerning The SFO

a) Secular Franciscans will really achieve a genuine Franciscan identity in mind and heart only through a thorough formation in Franciscan spirituality and charism.

b) Secular Franciscans need to make their fraternities genuinely Franciscan; that is, they are to be prophetic, open and alert to the signs of the times, having an all-encompassing vision of the future.

c) The goal of this formation and Franciscan identity is to be a living sign in the world and in the Church where the Secular Franciscan receives and give s strength and inspiration.

d) The lives of the Secular Franciscan should show a balance between "being" and "doing," aware of the directives of the gospel and acting with a visible dynamism, simplicity, and constant endeavor to do more. Franciscan values must be emphasized: healing hatred with love, replacing war and hostility with peace, sectarianism with openness and understanding, selfishness with a spirit of service, hypocrisy with candor and straight-forwardness, irresponsibility with commitment, injustice with justice, individualism with a spirit of brotherhood and cowardice with courage.

e) For Secular Franciscans, a unifying element in their thought and work is their unswerving loyalty and service to the hierarchy. These will enhance their Franciscan mission of promoting peace by word and witness. Indeed this very mission obliges Franciscan to cultivate a spirit of harmony and mutual helpfulness among all Christians.

f) A live fraternity will offer to the world the Church's testimony of the presence of divine love among all and the need now to practice mutual brotherly and sisterly love.

g) The Secular Franciscan evangelizer and reconciles in the church and in the world by adopting as a norm of life and action the ideals of the Peace Prayer of St. Francis.

h) The Secular Franciscan's pattern of action in the church is teaching religions, making us of the use of the means of communications to spread the social doctrine of the Church, and also participating in the world of the missions.

i) The Secular Franciscan's evangelical action in the world  is to proclaim the Word, to give individual and communal witness in their secular life, to participate in basic education programs, to collaborate in the founding and maintenance of trade schools, to promote the general welfare of the people, to be available for service, and to adopt and uphold a Christian position in politics. 

j) The Secular Franciscan's efforts at reconciliation in the world take on various forms, all done in the spirit of poverty, brotherhood, and charitable assistance to the needy: for example, avoid buying what we don't need, be available to help others, reject all violence and hatred. False ideologies, erroneous gospel-interpretations, a one-sided vision of the problems of underdevelopment. In Fact the Secular Franciscan should involve themselves in all activities relating to the common welfare, in political, economic, social and educational enterprises, above all in defense of the family, human dignity and moral values.