“Put him under obedience!” I hear that from time to time, usually from someone who has never actually served in a position of leadership. In reality, that action is rare. It’s one-sided, for one thing, and runs the risk of not attending to the broader issues at play. It’s authoritarian and likely to overlook the needs of all concerned. It emphasizes the power of the person in authority to the detriment of a vision in which all the members of the community must be paying attention to the impulse of the Holy Spirit and engaging in the effort to bring that impulse to fruition.

St. Francis understood clearly that obedience was a central tool for an individual who wanted to avoid the temptation to let their will dictate rather than the Father’s. He always wanted a friar with him so that he could exercise the virtue of obedience and minimize the risk of self-will. But obedience is a communal virtue, too. Francis also insisted that the Holy Spirit was the true Minister General of the order, and that the friars had to listen to the Holy Spirit’s promptings, recognizing that such promptings could come through anyone, even through creation itself.

Every four years, the friars of the community engage in a multi-phase process of discernment, obedient listening, to what God is calling us to at this moment in our history. This process includes several key practices: the provincial’s “visitation,” which is a personal interview with each member of the community about their life, ministry, experience of community, hopes, dreams, and struggles. The individual visitation leads to a communal conversation involving all members of the Province, where major themes and initiatives are identified; and the “Provincial Chapter,” where those themes and initiatives are refined into a plan for the Province’s new four-year term. The minister provincial and his definitory, or provincial council, and the various offices and commissions of the province are tasked with carrying the plan out. In this phase, too, obedience, in the form of listening and remaining attuned to the impulse of the Holy Spirit, must be exercised.

I appreciate greatly how unified the friars of the province have been throughout our most recent exercise of this collective obedience. Over the course of the past several administrations, the impulse of the Holy Spirit has been received, affirmed, and developed, helping to shape the direction of our Franciscan life and ministry. Central themes have emerged, including intercultural and intergenerational living, care for our aging friars, and welcoming new generations into the Franciscan Order. These priorities, rooted in Franciscan charism, continue to guide our witness to the Gospel and the rule and life that St. Francis entrusted to us as our primary patrimony. We stand ready to carry that treasure into the life of the Church in these coming four years.