God’s dream for us is humanity, revealed in the fragile and humble flesh of secular Franciscan women such as Giuseppina Ruvolo, and a Capuchin friar deeply in love with Jesus and revolutionary in his prophetic spirit: Father Angelico Lipani. God always incarnates Himself in the most afflicted realities to draw us back into His welcoming and provident embrace. Without seeking praise or recognition, but with the joy of serving the Kingdom, Father Angelico and our first sisters actively worked in service of the Kingdom of God, becoming the seed of a life that grows in secret.
We come from the heart of the Trinity and the Franciscan dream of fraternity, and we are bearers of the divine seeds of a charism, a gift of the Spirit, which must be sown in the soil of postmodernity as a prophetic response to the time we call today.
THE FRANCISCAN SPIRITUALITY
Saint Francis of Assisi
Our Founder, the Venerable Father Angelico Lipani, recognised in his time as a “true son of Saint Francis”, has passed on to us the Franciscan foundations according to the Capuchin reform. This reform, in seeking to live the Franciscan way of life authentically, affirms that the secret lies in continually returning to Brother Francis, the lesser one, not to copy his experiences literally, but to recreate his genuine intuitions in new cultural contexts. Fidelity and creativity are the keys to following Jesus more closely and loving Him more deeply. The simple Capuchin life, which was clearly embodied in Angelico Lipani, is essentially present in the Rule and Testament of Saint Francis. The reconstruction of the convent in Caltanissetta reflects his desire for a space that is solitary, yet not removed from the people, a structure that respects freedom. In the Sanctuary of the Lord of the City, he sought silence, the kind that allows one to listen to the Word of God in fraternity and to live it out in service to the most humble.
Saint Clare of Assisi
“Beloved seraphic Mother, she is full of wisdom.”
(Father Angelico Lipani)
The figure of Saint Clare remains to be fully discovered and explored, despite being an essential reference point in Franciscan spirituality.
In 1880, Father Angelico Lipani wrote a Franciscan Anthology on Saint Clare of Assisi, whom he lovingly called the Seraphic Mother, published in the Svegliarino dei Terziari Francescani:
“With great joy, dear Svegliarino, I studied the life of the great Franciscan, Saint Clare of Assisi. I patiently gathered all the wise and reverent words spoken by such a Master and compiled them into: The Spirit of Saint Clare, as studied by her daughter. I hope that my work may prove useful to Franciscan religious women as well as to tertiaries who, with fervour, seek their sanctification by observing the Rule of Saint Francis. If this is achieved, I shall have, in some part, fulfilled the will of the Seraphic Mother, Saint Clare, who wrote in her Testament: "I commend my sisters to the successor of Blessed Francis, our Father and Founder, and to all his friars, that they may help us to serve God better and to know holy poverty through their teachings and example; and I ask them with all the humility I am capable of, to ensure that we, like fragile little plants, may never falter in our sacred promises.”
For us Franciscan Sisters of the Lord, these writings are a spiritual double gift: They allow us to meditate on our Seraphic Mother, Clare of Assisi, and to know Father Angelico’s thought more deeply, drawn from such a genuine source as the Svegliarino.
All authors who write about the life of Father Angelico describe him as a religious man deeply attuned to the cultural and social concerns of women in his time. It is no coincidence that his charitable concern came to focus on the condition of women in late 19th-century Caltanissetta, and even more so on the poorest among the poor: orphaned girls.
There is widespread agreement among scholars that the founding of the Franciscan Sisters of the Lord also reflects Father Angelico’s vision and sensitivity to the dignity and agency of women. He was a man in harmonious balance between masculinity and femininity, a true Franciscan!
It is not surprising, then, that Father Angelico, as the spiritual and charismatic guide of women’s groups (the Franciscan Tertiaries and the Franciscan Sisters of the Lord), drew inspiration from the most original woman of Franciscanism: Saint Clare. He sought to illuminate women’s consecrated life with the radiant light of Clare’s charity and wisdom.
From Clare, Angelico chose to meditate on:
The gratuity of vocation (thanksgiving)
Perseverance in that vocation (renewed fidelity)
A vocation that makes one the Bride of Christ (Christocentric life)
