On the eve of their solemn profession, the Augustinian Recollect friars perform the rite of renunciation of goods, a gesture of interior freedom and total surrender to the Lord. This act, recently experienced by Friar Helfrid Palmis and Friar Neil Robert Alilain, reminds us that consecrated poverty is a way of communion, fraternity and trust in divine providence.
An Augustinian Recollects gesture of faith and evangelical poverty
The September 26, 2025the Augustinian Recollect friars Helfrid Palmis y Neil Robert Alilain took a decisive step on their way to ordination to the priesthood: they performed the Rite of Renunciation of Goods. Rite of Renunciation of Goods. Before their Major Superior and the assembled community, they freely and firmly declared their willingness to live in full coherence with the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
This gesture, which might seem a simple formality, has an immense spiritual depth: it is a matter of placing in God’s hands all that we are and all that we have. placing everything we are and everything we have in God’s hands.. The young friars promised to carry out their mission trusting in divine grace, and to give themselves to the service of the Church and the people of God with the witness of their lives.
This sign is not merely formal, but an act of faith and trust in the Lord. Both friars expressed their desire to live in conformity with the teaching of the Church, following the way of the poor Christ, who… “though he was rich, yet for our sake he became poor, so that by his poverty we might be enriched. “though he was rich, yet for our sake he became poor, so that by his poverty we might be rich” (Phil 2:7). (Phil 2:7).
In the words of the Constitutions of the Order:
“The religious, in making profession of poverty, by renouncing himself and all his goods, remains radically oriented to his Creator, and available for the contemplation and possession of God himself, the supreme good of man and the joy of his heart” (Const. 47). (Const. 47).
Poverty as a sign of communion
The Constitutions of the Order recall that the religious, in renouncing himself and his goods, “is radically oriented to his Creator and available for the contemplation and possession of God himself, the highest good of man and the joy of his heart, “remains radically oriented to his Creator, and available for the contemplation and possession of God himself, the supreme good of man and the joy of his heart” (Const. 47).“(Const. 47). This renunciation is not loss, but fullness: a path of trust in the providence of the Father, which frees from every bondage and opens us to true love.
St. Augustine taught that authentic poverty is not limited to lacking things, but to not having not having one’s heart attached to anything but God.. This is also expressed in our Constitutions:
“The poverty of the religious is not only in not having anything of his own, but principally in not being attached or fond of anything” (Const. 49).
A community that becomes one soul and one heart
The renunciation of goods also has a profound communitarian value. It is not only a personal act, but a commitment that nourishes fraternal life: “Consecrated poverty, which makes all things common in God, is the source of peace, fraternity and communion” (Const. 46).
Helfrid and Neil’s testimony reminds us that what the first Christian community in Jerusalem once lived – “they were of one mind and one heart directed toward God” – was a “one heart and one soul”.“they were of one mind and one heart directed toward God” (Acts 4:32). (Acts 4:32) – is actualized today in every religious profession, as a seed of unity and charity.
Preparation for the priesthood
With this rite, the two friars prepare themselves to receive the priestly ministry, offering their lives to Christ and to the Church from the Augustinian Recollect spirituality. Their resignation is an act of hopeIt manifests the conviction that all that is given to God returns multiplied in grace, fraternity and apostolic fruitfulness.
We congratulate Friar Helfrid and Friar Neil for this faith-filled step, and we ask the Lord to sustain their dedication so that, one day, they will be able to pronounce with joy and confidence the words of the formula of solemn profession:
“I give myself wholeheartedly to this family, until we all become one soul and one heart directed towards God.”