From August 17-22, the simply professed friars of the provinces present in Spain lived a week of silence, prayer and contemplation under the guidance of Friar Felipe Sada Alegria, OAR.
A summer of silence and desert
From the evening of Sunday, August 17 to the afternoon of Friday, August 22, the young professed friars of the Provinces of Our Lady of Candelaria, St. Nicholas of Tolentine and St. Thomas of Villanova gathered for their annual retreat. Under the direction of Friar Felipe Sada Alegria, the week was an invitation to stop and enter the “desert” of the heart.
Friar Philip, with a deep and clear voice, repeated a slogan that became the axis of his days: “Pray, contemplate and be silent”. This call to silence was not evasion, but openness: to strip oneself of the exterior noise and interior bustle to make room for the God who speaks in the depths of the soul.
The desert as a place of encounter with God
Each day included formative meetings in the morning and afternoon, with reflections lasting between half an hour and an hour. Afterwards, the friars received a written guide to orient their personal meditation time.
The “desert” was not understood as empty, but as a place inhabited by God. There, in the stillness, the heart opened to the presence of the Lord. To encourage this encounter, the evenings were enriched with community prayers: Marian meditations, the Holy Rosary and times of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.
Questions that challenge the heart
The experience was not only an exercise in silence, but also in discernment. The question that echoed day after day was direct and transforming: “What do you want from me, Lord?”
The young professed learned to place themselves in the hands of Providence, remembering that “we are in the palms of God”, until they could confidently pronounce the psalmist’s prayer: “To do your will, O Lord, delights me”.
From the desert to everyday life
The aim of the Spiritual Exercises was not to remain in the desert, but to return to the everyday world renewed, “being the same, but not in the same way”. As the liturgy of the sixth hour teaches: “The desert is no longer his place, nor is he hidden in the mountains; tell them if they ask where, that God is – without a shroud – where a man works and a heart responds to him”.
With this certainty, the simply professed concluded their week of retreat: strengthened in prayer, serene in silence, trusting in Providence and ready to continue building their Augustinian Recollect vocation with a heart open to the Lord.