Discern well while choosing Candidates

All over the Order the provinces along with the vocation promoters are busy around this time of the year to promote candidates to our life. The promoters have worked hard for the entire year in motivating and preparing the candidates to embrace our life. They have been prepared to live a challenging charisma and spirituality of the capuchins. But remember that we are not interested in numbers but quality. We need men who are men of God, prayer and spirituality. Men who can commit themselves to our capuchin style and charisma. The candidates must be informed about the great capuchin spirituality which is not only to be studied but to be lived. It has to be made visible and witnenessed in today's world. The world is waiting to see those good old capuchins with a broad smile of poverty and simplicity. The capuchins who revived the drooping spirit of the church and the faithful. The capuchins who walked an extra mile in evangelizing the missions. The capuchins who were ready to go anywhere and anytime. The capuchins are still respected and called by clergy men to look after the faithful and preach the word of God.
In order to have big numbers brothers let us not forget to keep our rich spirituality in mind. Let us not compromise it. The candidates who who will be accepted have to be accepted with a lot of discernment. Not accept those who want to run away from the responsibilities of human life and take shelter in a monastery to live a comfortable life. But discern such a way that these candidates would be ready to lay down their lives for Jesus and the church. Candidates who will not compromise with the Christian and capuchin values but will promote and live them with conviction.they will keep in mind the clarion call of Pope Francis to be poor for the poor church. The candidates are to be selected  with proper background check of faith and morals too. Check on their spiritual, moral and psychological health too.
The formation process is tedious and we need good formators to form these good candidates well discerned and selected. Formators who will be fathers and brothers to these young men seeking Gods love and compassion, seeking to find and searchin God in the fraternity. The formators are becoming rare these days, it is challenging and thankless job but we do it for the love of the church,molder and society. We salute to those formators who have taken their repeonsibility seriously and serving the order in the campus of formation.
Let us pray that God may send good men to our order. That all these men be prepared with best formation. That they be given all the Franciscan formation to make them the voice of st. Francis today. St. Francis is heard and felt in the person of pope Francis. Can we not also make known n present our great father and founder st. Francis. Let him walk on our streets in our persons. Let Francis be preaching to infidels and non Christians through each one of us. Through us let us keep our creation as handiwork of God. Let us bring people to creation to experience the great, big and good Lord whom Francis experienced.