Taste and see how good is the Lord
More than fifty Augustinian Recollects who are presently serving in ministry in seeral different countries were present for the profession of the ten novices in Monteagudo, Spain. Among those attending were the four priors provincial who reside in Spain and the bishop of Tarazona, Most Rev. Eusebio Hernández, OAR. Precisely because the event was a celebration of the Church and a family feast, Missionary Augustinian Recollect Sisters and members of the Secular Augustinian Recollect Fraternity were also present, as well as lay friends of the friars’ community. Relatives of the newly professed came from as far away as Mexico.
Father Miguel Miró, Prior General of the Order of Augustinian Recollects, presided at the Eucharist. In his homily, first of all he expressed thanks to the Lord for these ten young men who desire to live out their love for Christ by being Augustinian Recollects. He invited the young religious to reflect on how God has been marvelously weaving into their lives a history of love. He thanked them for responding generously to the Lord’s call. He also expressed gratitude to the formation team and to the community of Monteagudo for their work in preparing the novices for this day.
Commenting on the Word of God proclaimed in the profession liturgy, Father Miguel Miró invited all those present to put their confidence in the Lord’s power, even in difficult times. Jesus gives us himself as the Bread of Life. “Jesus comes out to meet us and offers us new motivation to live, to love, and to serve. We must take the risk of opening our hearts.” The occasion of professing religious vows, Father General suggested, is a call to not let oneself be robbed of hope, exhorting the young religious, “Experience the love of Christ. Don’t follow those who have lost hope.” He reminded them that Pope Francis, in this Year of Consecrated Life, calls us to remember the past with gratitude, to live the present with passion, and to embrace th future with hope.
The new Augustinian Recollects
Upon completion of their year of novitiate, Miguel Ángel Isidro, Lucas Damián Sandanella, Luis Nahum Camarillo, Luis Otoniel Rosales, Dolmer Arévalo, Erich Estuardo García, Jesús Emmanuel Mendoza, David Enrique Conejo, Ken James Kayathinkal, and Hernán Alberto Mongua consecrated their lives to God by professing their vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience according to the Rule of Saint Augustine and the Constitutions of the Order. Throughout their year of novitiate, they had had the opportunity, accompanied by their formation team, to arrive at a deep interior appreciation of the Augustinian Recollect charism, history, and spirituality. They learned from experience that they cannot follow this road relying only on their own strength, and so with humility and gratitude to God and to the community leading them, they have embraced this commitment relying on the help of Christ, the one who calls them to follow him and sends them forth every day to make him present in their community and in the Church.
Novitiates directly under the authority of the Prior General
Taking the place of those who have completed their novitiate are nine new novices embarking on the journey of preparation to consecrate themselves to God. The new novices are from Mexico, Colombia, Panama, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic. This formation experience has been taking place in Monteagudo, beginning in August each year, for the past 186 years. It is a process, a joyful process, that has opened the doors of the Order to more than 2,000 Augustinian Recollects.
What is truly new in this year’s novitiate experience is not only the novices but also the formation team. Replacing the outgoing formation personnel are an international and interprovincial team appointed directly by the Prior General.
The last General Chapter of the Augustinian Recollects, held in 2010, determined that the novices of the eight provinces of the Order should be concentrated in only three houses of formation. The purpose of this decision was “to favor communion among the provinces and guarantee a charismatic formation.” The same ordinance determined a minimum number of novices, which should never be fewer than five; and at the same time, it reserved to the Prior General the authority to appoint the members of the respective formation teams. The chapter ordanance was implemented immediately. The Prior General, Father Miguel Miró, designated three novitiate houses for three different continents: El Desierto de la Candelaria, Ráquira, Colombia; Antipolo, Rizal, Philippines; and Monteagudo, Naarre, Spain. He also appointed the three novitiate formation teams and gave them their correspondng instructions.
New Formation Teams
On July 22 of this year the Prior General published his appointment of the formation team for the novitiate in Monteagudo to the priors provincal, to the houses directly under the authority of the General Curia, and to the Order in general. Three religious form the new team: Francisco Javier Jimínez García-Villoslada, prior of the community; Fabián Martín Gómez, master of novices; and Jiovanny Marcelo Pantaleón, vice-master. The prior of the new team is Spanish, the master Mexican, and the vice-master Dominican. During the profession ceremony the Prior General expessed thanks for the work of the outgoing formation team: Frs. Fermín Salvatierra, José Manuel González Durán, and Miguel Ángel Hernández.
The novitiate in El Desierto de la Candelaria, Colombia, had only one novice, and he has been assigned to the novitiate in Monteagudo.
The novitiate in Antipolo, Philippines, has seven novices this year. The members of the formation team, appointed last April 8, are Fathers Bernabé M. Dosdos, prior of the community; Leopoldo V. Estioki, master of novices; Ronel P. Gealon, vice-master of novices; Roland P. Cepe, master of prenovices; and Ian Anthony Espartero, president of the Provincial Secretariat of Formation.
The Prior General reminded the formation teams appointed this year how the novitiate is to “make its mark on the novices’ lives,” and exhorted them for this reason “to give witness to communion and to living the gospel.” Father Miró summarized the basics of formation as “personalized and communitarian accompaniment” in keeping with the spirit and the letter of the Itinerary of Augustinian Recollect Formation (IFAR), which the formation directors are to put into practice. Finally, he urged the members of the teams “to strive always to prepare themselves better and better to carry out this mission.”