On August 22, 2011, the New Constitutions of the Order have been promulgated by the Prior General; it is a fruit of a revising labor that lasted six years. This text which describes the ideal Augustinian Recollect and regulates the life of the religious, is borne out of a will for renewal which found its river-bed in the General Chapter of 2004. From that well represented assembly to that celebrated in October to November 2010, all the communities and organisms of the Order dedicated themselves to reflect over their own lives and to suggest improvements in the legislation.
These efforts were crowned with the official approval by the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life. In the decree of last May 31, addressed to the Prior General, this Vatican Office praised the new redaction, which it considers "enriched and well consolidated."
Greater Wealth
In the decree of promulgation, the Prior General himself emphasizes: the new text is "enriched with the Gospel references and thoughts of St. Augustine, with the Forma de Vivir and the teachings of the Magisterium. For this reason, it is offered to the friars as a mover of renewal and as an ever-flowing and inexhaustible fountain of illuminating inspiration. Consequently, concludes Fr. Miguel Miro, it should be for the religious the basic book for his initial as well as permanent formation."
Augustinian Material
The more numerous novelties are found in the Augustinian section. There are more than 400 passages from St. Augustine added into the text. They are better distributed through the chapters. This shows that, in the field of Consecrated Life, there is hardly a topic on which St. Augustine has nothing to say. It practically offers the reader of the Recollect Constitutions a true Augustinian Corpus of the Consecrated Life.
Numbers
In effect, the former text of the Constitutions only had 79 citations from St. Augustine. Today there are as much as 483. Of these, 33 are textual paragraphs incorporated into the constitutional text. The quotations appear distributed in the 11 chapters of the Constitutions in this order: Formation (133 quotations); Consecrated Community (102); Apostolic Community (85); Order of Augustinian Recollects (80); Praying and Penitent Community (34); Protection of Common Life (24); Particular Observances (8); Government (8); Temporal Goods (6); Observance of the Constitutions (2); and Augustinian-Recollect Family (1).
A total of 44 books of the Bishop of Hippo are quoted. The most quoted is the Rule (83x). The others, in the order of importance, are Sermons (69); Commentary on the Psalms (67); the Letters (44); the Confessions (35); On Holy Virginity (31); The City of God (21); On the Works of Monks (19); Tractates on the Gospel of John (18); Soliloquies (10)