The Request

Just a moment ago I posted my provincial minister's letter approving my request to be admitted into temporary vows. Here is the letter of request to which he responded.

Fr. Francis Gasparik, OFM Cap., Provincial Minister

Capuchin Franciscans, Province of Saint Mary
Saint Conrad Friary, Provincialate
30 Gedney Park Drive
White Plains, NY  10605-3599

May 24, 2013

Dear Father Francis:

God’s peace and goodness be with you and all the brothers of the Province of Saint Mary.

With this letter I formally request admission to temporary vows in the Order of Capuchin Friars Minor in the Province of Saint Mary. I am asking to make this commitment of my own free will and without coercion from anyone.

I understand the seriousness of the commitment I am about to make. With all my soul I desire to live by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to do this after the example of Francis of Assisi and his Capuchin descendants. With all my heart I desire to live the consecrated life. I firmly believe God has given me the grace to love others in chaste celibacy; to share my talents in poverty, without anything of my own, holding back nothing I receive from God for myself; and to heed the divine will in obedience.

I come to you as a brother in Jesus Christ who is eager to share our charism of fraternity with the whole world; as a person of prayer, a cultivator of holy silence and solitude; as a servant of the justice and compassion of Christ, God-made-human for the sake of all peoples; and as a lover of simplicity who strives to be authentically poor with the poor.

The prospect of professing vows fills me with peace, but it is not a peace of stasis. It is, I trust, the peace of Christ, who has unlocked potential energies within me. In initial formation God has increased my longing to be a brother in a spirit of true minority, and God has pushed me beyond the previous limits I put on charity toward others.

I commit my life to the God of Jesus Christ as a Capuchin Franciscan friar. May it please God for me to embrace this life of penance for my good, the good of the Capuchin order, and the good of the Church and the world. Thank you for considering my request, and may God bless your ministry to the brothers.

Fraternally in Christ,

Bro. Anthony Zuba, OFM Cap.