May We All Be Franciscan
by friar Marcos Quesada Navarro, OFM Conv.

I am a Conventual Franciscan friar from Costa Rica and a member of the Custody of Mary, Mother of Mercy, within the Province of Our Lady of Consolation. I also teach Franciscan theology in Rome, a ministry that continually draws me more deeply into the life and vision of St. Francis. As we celebrate this Franciscan Jubilee Year, I invite you to see 2026 as more than an anniversary. Eight hundred years after the passing of St. Francis, the Church is not simply looking backward with affection. We are being called to look forward with courage.
St. Francis belongs not only to the past. His witness has not faded with time. In many ways, the centuries since his passing have only made his life shine more clearly. He still speaks to a world longing for peace, exhausted by division, wounded by violence, and often unsure where to find hope.
Pope Leo XIV placed peace at the heart of this Jubilee Year of St. Francis. That is fitting, because peace was central to the gifts Francis received from God and shared with others. His greeting, “May the Lord give you peace,” was not a pleasant phrase nor a polite religious custom. It was a way of life.
For Francis, peace begins as a gift from God. It is to be received with humility, protected through prayer, and then carried into the world through daily acts of reconciliation, simplicity, and love. Francis did not offer peace as a political strategy. He offered it as a spiritual path. This path is urgently needed today.
Franciscan peace is never limited to one part of our life. It includes peace with God, peace among people, and peace with Creation. These are not separate. A heart reconciled with God becomes more patient with others. A person who sees every creature as a brother or sister becomes more attentive to the earth. A community shaped by the Gospel becomes more attentive to those who are poor, vulnerable, forgotten, or afraid.
In this Jubilee Year, perhaps we can offer a bold but deeply Christian invitation: May we all be Franciscan.

Not everyone is called to wear a habit or enter religious life. But all of us can receive something of the spirit St. Francis lived so clearly: humility, joy, fraternity, reverence for Creation, care for the vulnerable, and the courage to seek peace where others have given up.
For our Province of Our Lady of Consolation, Pope Leo’s invitation comes at a powerful moment. As our Province enters its second century, the question before us is not only how we remember St. Francis, but how we cultivate his spirit to shape the next 100 years of Franciscan life and ministry.
The Franciscan Jubilee is more than a series of solemn celebrations. It is a turning point – a renewed commitment to a world that is more peaceful, more fraternal, and more attentive to the beauty of God’s Creation.
Eight hundred years later, the little brother of Assisi continues to point us toward Christ. The future still needs the Franciscan spirit he so faithfully lived.