Franciscan Community Volunteers
The Franciscan Community Volunteer program includes the following components:
? SERVICE ? COMMUNITY ? SPIRITUALITY
SERVICE:
The Franciscan Community Volunteer program features a 11 month of service with those who are poor in the St. Cloud metro area. The volunteers seek, through their work with those who are struggling on the margins of life, to discover God in the persons they serve. As volunteers engage in various forms of service, they seek to cultivate an interior love for those who are poor. A variety of experiences working for justice are available to the volunteers. Franciscan Community Volunteers are placed in work settings that suit their previous education and experience. They receive work supervision in their site placements.
COMMUNITY Franciscan Community Volunteers live in an ECUMENICAL, intentional Franciscan Community. Together they develop a covenant of shared goals, committing to live with and for each other. Believing in living the Gospel of peace, love and mutuality, they are dedicated to working through the difficulties and celebrating the joys of community living. Community living provides an opportunity to live a lifestyle committed to justice and simplicity.
Franciscan Community Volunteers participate in the daily operation of the community and share in the care and upkeep of the house. The ?house? is actually a home shared with a small community of Franciscan Sisters. They are on a bus line and are close to the sites where the volunteers work, offering the availability of walking, biking or using public transportation. Along with the day to day experience of living together, cooking and eating together, buying groceries, cleaning, and sharing with each other their work experiences, the volunteers strive for a spirit of compassion, friendship and mutual support in carrying out the goals of the program. Community life may be the most difficult, while perhaps at the same time, the most rewarding part of the experience. As they address the injustices in the world, they begin by working on creating a more just world at home.
SPIRITUALITY AND PRAYER The spiritual journey is an integral part of the Franciscan Community Volunteer Program. Together they will reflect on spirituality within the context of our culture, as well as its meaning in the midst of working with those who are poor and marginalized. Weekly meetings covering topics such as the Catholic Social Teachings, social justice, etc. as well as weekly Sharing from the heart are an integral piece of the program. In addition, there are retreats, offerings of spiritual direction and other opportunities for faith and spiritual growth.
The mission of the Franciscan Community Volunteers is to invite young adults into a process of companionship with the poor in the spirit of Saints Francis and Clare. Franciscan Community Volunteers are committed Christians, ages 21-30. They seek to fulfill this mission through a 10 month program of direct service and advocacy with those who are poor and share community living supported by prayer, reflection and discussion on the Gospel. As a unique experience in the Franciscan tradition, the volunteers will not only serve those living in the margins, but also discover some of the ways in which poor people reveal the message of the Gospel. Franciscan Community Volunteers work in cooperation with and share the charism of the Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls, Minnesota. The Franciscan Community Volunteer Program is located in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
We are the Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls, MN. We are a Catholic Organization and the Franciscan Community Volunteer program is an ecumenical faith-based, long term volunteer program. It is our expectation that people that join our program will be open to learning and growing in their faith, honor each other in their beliefs, and have a foundation of Christianity.
