Community Discussion

A friend of mine was considering joining the Third Order when friend of our cautioned him to consider first whether or not he'd be able to live the spirit of poverty like St. Francis. I told him that, for the tertiary, it's more a matter of living simplicity and detachment. I think he'd like to gear more from Friar Anthony his thoughts on how exactly we should live this out. Obviously, no one is going to be completely detached from all things over night, but it's more about seeking detachment and finding occasions go practice a spirit of poverty/simplicity. To be honest, ironically, I think the friend who was cautioned actually does live fairly simply. But, I wanted to give him a better answer as to how the tertiary is called to live poverty-- and why one ought not hesitate thinking he might not be called to it in the same degree as a Franciscan or something. To me, it sound like the one giving caution might be thinking that Franciscans are all called to be poor like St. Francis was poor.