From April 2 to 6, the inter-Provincial team of revitalization, recently appointed by the Prior General as determined by the last General Chapter, towards the end of the year 2010, has convened in Rome, near the General Curia. The highest governing body of the Order, in its ordinances, had assigned some ambitious objectives to this team It must offer to the religious, fraternities and laypeople of our ministries vocational orientation spiritual accompaniment, spiritual exercises, retreats, experiences of interiority and recollection, lectio divina (spiritual reading) and theological formation.”
Therefore, its targets include both the religious and lay people around them. And the same thing applies to its components; those who form this core team are all religious, but with it regional teams will be formed (Europe, Asia, North America and South America) and, on the third level, other zonal or national teams; it is desired that the lay people who are close to the Order take active part in them.
The five religious who gathered in Rome came from Mexico, Philippines, Spain, Colombia and Italy. For five days they lived together in an atmosphere of silence and discernment. The Prior General, Miguel Miró, who was almost always with them, opened the session by stressing the urgency of renewal and the important task that the core team is called to accomplish.
Augustinian Exercises
During the Mass The President, Enrique Eguiarte, presented some outlines which were discussed and which served as guidelines for the elaboration of detailed plans for important activities that have to do with spiritual life and on-going formation. Plans that seek to strengthen the renewal in spiritual life and are proposed as something common for all the members of the Order.
The determination that has a far-reaching effect refers to the spiritual exercises, that every Augustinian Recollect religious should do every year. With the year 2014 in mind, the core team has started elaborating a common text for a five-day retreat on topics that the Order has already determined. Although, more than the talks, what is more important is the experience that is expected flow from an atmosphere of silence and interiority.
After the core team has elaborated the fundamental text, the next step is for it to prepare some religious and lay, who will collaborate with them in the task of guiding the groups of the entire geography of the Order. The same thing will be done in the years to come.
Workshops/Courses and CARES
A plan of workshops on Augustinian prayer was also presented and was accepted. For now, there will only be 20 workshops for which a manual will be prepared. Normally, they will last 60 minutes, of which 10 will be theoretical.
Another initiative presented by the team is the on line course on Augustinology. The course will be offered in Spanish and in English with the academic support of the universities that the Order has in Colombia and the Philippines. It will be composed of 12 modules, which will be presented in two years and in two levels, in accordance with the degree of the student, with an option to a licentiate.
Finally, these past years, were witnesses to the birth of several Centers of Augustinian Recollect Spirituality (CARES), particularly in Mexico, and strategies of developing and gradually implementing them in other places of the geography of the Order are being seriously considered.