Fraternal life is one of the basic foundations for the Franciscan Friars of the Third Order Regular. This Fraternal life is lived in a local friary where the brothers witness to Gospel values and are nourished by community and prayer.

We find God not only at the Eucharistic table but also at the banquet table-- in the deep recesses of our hearts and in the laughter of those around us.

We live in small fraternities, usually composed of two to seven friars. The central value of community is not merely utilitarian, people living together under one roof for the convenience of apostolic work. Rather, for us, community living is about the willingness to share our lives with one another as brothers. The effort to live a fraternal life is nourished by our common prayer. The friars try daily to celebrate Eucharist and the Liturgy of the Hours together, often with the laity or Secular Franciscans.

We are called together as God's sons to be one in the Spirit. Our call to live the Gospel life is heard not only as individuals but as a community. We are committed to a life in which we experience the grace and salvation as a community, therefore, we have a responsibility to cooperate in the salvation of our brothers. Just as Jesus was the center of the community he gathered about himself, so Jesus must be the center of our community today.

Our Lifestyle as Brothers in Fraternity:

To be BROTHER  in community is founded upon the common faith in the Lord which is shared and upon a common vision of living that faith through the traditions of a religious community.

• BROTHERS choose to live a celibate life in community with other men who share the same vision and hope.

 

• OUR VOWS:
  
  To BROTHER is to choose to live with impermanence in relationships, in possessions, in power, to have time and energy and gift to be for one another.

• POVERTY
  
  To BROTHER is to let go of possessions, role expectations, and even reputation in our freedom to care for the earth and its people.

• CHASTITY
  
  To BROTHER is to invest in integrity, intimacy and friendship yet to let go of one all encompassing human relationship.

• OBEDIENCE
  
  To BROTHER is to listen to the Spirit and the cry of the earth, listen to the men and women with whom we stand, listen to Jesus as the One who comes, as the One Who calls us to let go, to follow.

• The religious priest or brother today   finds himself challenged as other friars before him to respond to the needs of the world and the church. He seeks to express with his life in community the message of Jesus. The friars as BROTHERS, seeing the needs of the world tries to respond as Jesus would have responded.

It was the love of Jesus that brought about a change of heart in his first followers, and it is in his love that will change our hearts, if we are willing to share with one another our love for Jesus, and as a result of this we can begin to share our whole life, our joy, sorrow, anger, disagreements, peace and material goods. if we are open to it.

The Lord wants to bless us with the gift of himself in our brothers in community.