At Saint Rita Parish in Madrid, José María Sánchez Martín, president of the Commission on Vocation Ministry and Secretariat of Education Apostolate and Youth Ministry of the Order convoked a meeting last April 21. Twenty religious attended the said meeting. They are the in-charge of nine schools of the Order in Spain and responsible for the youth and vocation ministry in this country with the greatest number of Augustinian Recollect religious having 37 communities and more than 300 religious divided in four provinces.
In 2004, the Order had published a Plan of Vocation Ministry, and now the Secretariat presented a concrete program in five sections, where concrete actions, persons in-charge and precise periods are elaborated. Vocation ministry is ended with an inventory of the existing Vocation Animation Team (VAT) in Spain, composed of religious and lay persons. At least, there are eleven teams, aside from other similar groups, which are directed more clearly to social ministry.
Youth Ministry
The last General Chapter ordered the Prior General “to organize vocation and youth ministry in the Order, giving priority to interprovincial collaboration.” In countries like Spain with several provinces present, each province moves independently from each other, and the Chapter was seeking for the appointment of a coordinator, with the purpose of unifying objectives and concerting efforts.
The Recollect Augustinian Youth (RAY) defined by Sánchez Martín as “our charismatic proposal to the youth,” was one of the strong points of the day. Nowadays, there exist specific statutes of the RAY, but it seemingly needs a more practical document, an itinerary. In relation with the RAY, one cannot overlook the theme for the great gathering set on July 18-23, 2013 in Rio de Janeiro, just before the World Youth Day that will be held there from July 24-28. In this case, the team in-charge of the organization of this immense gathering has already been appointed.
The last point was the program of the Secretariat of Education Apostolate, within which Sánchez Martín made an allusion to a missionary program of evangelization for the schools. Likewise, he emphasized the advantage of greater collaboration among the schools of the Order in Spain. Among those present, a commission was formed that would elaborate a poster and logo for the 2012-2013 academic year. This poster will be common for all the Recollect schools of Spain. And they will also be adding some materials in common and organizing joint activities.