From October 7 to 12, the Desierto de la Candelaria (Boyacá, Colombia) welcome the first module/course of empowerment of augustinian leaders with the objective that they themselves be future directors and coordinators of the new augustinian spiritual exercises and prayer workshops in the style of St. Augustine. The courses have been designed by the Team for Revitalization of the Order. This first edition put faith on the coordination and the high spirits of the augustinian recollects Enrique and Carlos María Domínguez.
The success of the course has become a patent with the creation of, among the new leaders, different teams that coordinate the imparting of the spiritual exercises and prayer workshops to the diverse borders of the Order in Latin America.
Silence
The participants Enrique Eguiarte, director of the publication “Augustinus”, explained that the exercises according to St. Augustine intend to go into different subjects from the augustinian and recollect perspectives. For this purpose the revitalization team has drafted a “canonical” text of the exercises, as well as a series of strategies and dynamics that must be carried out inside these new augustinian exercises, among which absolute silence should reign during the days of the exercises, as well as the importance and centrality of the eucharist and liturgy of the hours is emphasized.
After the welcome greetings and the introduction of the course, Carlos María Domínguez dynamically livens up the presentation of all the participants coming from the different places of Latin America. He subsequently presented various materials prepared for these exercises. The quality of the print and his excellent presentation drew attention to and is recognized by all. Eguiarte explained in the afternoon the dynamics that is pursued in the exercises, as well as the main lines of the theme chosen for this year which in concrete is the subject of revitalization and community fraternal life.
Practice
The second and third day of encounter stood for a two-days hands-on spiritual exercises. All the participants were invited to live and learn the two days exercises that they themselves have to impart afterwards. The fourth day after the two-days absolute silence exercises is dedicated to evaluation of the lived experience, as well as to the gathering of suggestions and answer questions. This dynamics was inspired by Jairo Soto, Provincial Prior of the Province of Candelaria and member of the Team of Revitalization. In the afternoon of the fourth day, Eguiarte made a presentation and introduction to Prayer Workshops after that of St. Augustine. The morning of the fifth day was dedicated to the application of the prayer workshops, and in the afternoon Carlos Maria answered questions raised from the workshops and coordinated the evaluation of the same.
The sixth day the course ended with the Thanksgiving Mass before every one returns to the country where he/she performs their pastoral works. Among the participants the following chanced upon each other: the Superior General of the Augustinian Recollect Missionaries (MAR), Myriam Neira; the Provincial Vicar of Province of St. Thomas (Venezuela), Hugo Sanchez, the Provincial Vicar of Peru, Ricardo Rebolleda; the Vicar of Argentina, Dario Ruben Quintana, and Sofia Lopez, of the Augustinian Recollects of the Ailing. Two lay persons from Colombia, four from Argentina and five from Venezuela also participated.
Next engagements
Within the process of revitalization of the Order, the Father Prior appointed a team composed of six religious from different provinces to design a series of spiritual ways and strategies that will help in the revitalization inside the Order. As fruit of the encounter of said team that took place in Rome during the Easter Week in the current year, two initiatives came up: the augustinian exercises and the workshops on prayer according to St. Augustine.
This course at El Desierto de la Candelaria is the first of the five that will be imparted in the different borders of the Order so to be empowered in the augustinian spiritual exercises and the workshops on prayer according to St. Augustine. The next courses will be for those in the Philippines, from October 28 to November 1; that of Mexico, from November 4 to 8 of November; that of Brazil, from 25 to 29 of November; that of Spain and Europe, from December 2 to 6.