General Minister begins report to Chapter

• "In each era, the evangelizing mission takes a twofold direction: one that goes within the Christian community and the other that goes out of it...Mission ad gentes ought to be considered as the primary, essential, never-ending task of the Church. This criterion is also valid for the Order."
• "Mission can then be defined as the way of restoring the gift of teh Good News we have received by going inter gentes to proclaim the Gospel in word and deed to all who are near and far, to both believers and unbelivers, either because they have abandoned the faith or never been evangelized in the first place."
• "The field of mission of the Friars Minor is the inter gentes, i.e., in the squares and on the roads, in the places where men and women gather, live, work, suffer, and enjoy themselves. We cannot just simply be waiting for those who will arrive; it is necessary that we be on our way to go and meet up with men and women and proclaim the Gospel with creativity and boldness."
• "The fraternal dimension in evangelizing mission is fundamental for us...It is necessary to build prophetic fraternities, signal-fraternities, places of Gospel references of faith, prayer, and meaningful living where they actually feel sent to proclaim the Good News."

The Spirit of Prayer & Devotion:

• "We must admit that the quality of our liturgical celebrations often leaves much to desire...I cannot fail to remind the brothers that a good liturgical celebration requires preparation, and that the norms of the Church do not exclude creativity." 
• We are challenged "to move from prayer as obligation to prayer as encounter." 
• "To move from observance to creative fidelity in prayer."
• "To make prayer the soul of our activity."

ESC friars listening to the General Minister's report

• "Obedience creates true fraternity and strengthens the sense of belonging to it."
• "We are called to be converted into men of love for all...Living in chastity implies channeling our affectivity in three directions: God, the fraternity, and mission."
• "Like Francis, beginning with his conversion, it is necessary for us to stop adoring ourselves."
• "To the victims of abuse committed by our brothers I ask pardon in the name of the whole Order."
• "Seeing the vow of poverty from these perspectives, we must confess that we are not poor, that we do not live without anything of our own, that we allow ourselves to be led easily from the logic of consumerism, taking on in practice what we undoubtedly condemn in theory: 'we are what we possess.'"

Marc LeGoanvec, OFM (St. Joseph, Montreal) makes a report of his coetus group.