IntentionalCommunity
Sharing the FrancisCorps experience together is key
to a successful FrancisCorps experience!
Volunteers achieve this by committing to living in an intentional, faith-based community rooted in the spirituality of Saints Francis and Clare of Assisi. This experience is much more than simply living as “roommates”. While living in community, volunteers are responsible to and for one another and come to rely on one another in times of joy and times of challenge. Volunteers share much including their frustrations, spiritual journeys, personal feelings, successes, and prayer lives to name a few and they do this using flexibility, compromise, gratitude, and an overall understanding we are interdependent with those around us. By uniting the lived experience together with faith and welcoming God into the community, volunteers grow in awareness of themselves, others, social justice issues, faith, and how God is working in their lives and in the lives of others.
These are some of the ways the FrancisCorps community turns roommates into a community!
Daily Shared Prayer
At the center of a faith-based community must be our personal and shared relationship with God. Every day, the volunteer community commits to come together to actively participate in prayer to keep at the center the community’s experience the importance of faith and spirituality as well as a reminder that God is present in the lives they share. Each day the community members take turns planning prayer as a way to share their own gifts, prayer styles, and spirituality with the community.
Daily Shared Meals
So much happens around the dinner table. We share about our days, our joys, our struggles all while being nourished. It is with this sense of sharing in mind, that volunteers commit to share at least one daily meal in community with each other every single day. Volunteers take turns preparing these daily community meals as a way to share responsibility and care for one another.
Weekly Community Nights
The volunteer community is part of a much larger community here in Syracuse. This extended community includes the staff of FrancisCorps, the Friars, Sisters of St. Francis, FrancisCorps Alumni, Secular Franciscans, and many more! With this in mind, one evening each week is reserved as a Community Night in which a member of this extended community is invited to share in the daily meal and prayer as well as an activity planned by the community as a reminder to the volunteers they are not alone and that they have support on their journey.
Weekly Mass
Each day the volunteer community gathers in prayer in part to remember the importance of God’s presence and to keep it at the center of all we do. At Mass on Sunday, as Catholics, we experience that presence in a real way. It is with this in mind that the volunteer community commits to sharing Mass each week together as a shared experience of God’s real presence in our lives so that it might nourish the volunteers not just individually but also as a community.
Weekly Faith Sharing
While prayer and Mass are opportunities to experience God’s presence, faith sharing offers the community the space to share what that presence is saying to them and challenging them to do as well as what support and prayers they need to rise to the challenge. Along with faith sharing, this weekly time also serves as an opportunity to address issues and house business while keeping God at the center of those conversations. Much like daily prayer, volunteers take turns facilitating these weekly gatherings to share their particular lens through which they experience God’s presence.
Tour the FrancisCorps House and explore our home in Syracuse, New York!
LIVING IN SYRACUSE
“Intentional community means so much more than just having roommates or friends because we share the experience of our service and our faith. Living in community allowed me to share my personal journey, learn from the experiences of my community members, and grow deeper in my relationship with them and with God. It strengthened my ability to hear God’s voice in my life and confidently follow His plan.” – Paige, FrancisCorps 24
