Looking forward to the next general chapter, and on the eve of the Epiphany, January 5 of this current year, Fr. General, Javier Guerra has addressed a 5 page letter to all religious of the Order.
As heading of his letter he introduces the idea of St. Augustine about the relativity and ambiguity of time. This idea serves him to greet everybody a happy new year which just started and likewise to remember the more important events of the year 2008. With these events, each community and each religious should include all those that are done with love. Even though these are just simple gestures they are works which bore the seal of the Holy Spirit. That which is done with love “does not belong to the past but is always present and has a touch of eternity”.
From the past to the present and with God’s guidance, Guerra continues looking forward towards the immediate future. He enumerates various events that will take place this year 2009 like the five provincial chapters; the 100 years of Restoration of the Province of St. Thomas of Villanova and the 50th anniversary of the birth of the Province of St. Rita of Cascia.
Fr. General continues to elaborate the main theme of his letter, which is the revision of the Constitutions. He summarizes what has been done in the last four years wherein the General Chapter of 2004 “received an interior calling and enlightenment which manifested to us the will of the Word Incarnate”. Inspired by the mystery of the Epiphany, Guerra says that “we are proud to raise our heads high, and see far beyond our horizon, and leaving the certainties of the past which for quite a time guided us with security, but flickers or wanes its light and does not sufficiently illumine us in our way to fidelity which is the demand of our time”.
After mentioning the diverse documents addressed to the whole Order and the primary measures to encourage the process of revision, Fr. General recalls how that phase ended last march 31 by submitting the contribution to the Collaborating Commision created for that purpose. The said Commission organized all materials submitted and sent them to the General Council in Rome .
The General Council immediately created a technical committee whose task is to study the gathered materials/documents and to elaborate alternative texts from those numbers in the Consitutions questioned or criticized by the religious This Commission is composed of religious from the different provinces of the Order of diverse origin. To realize their work, they convened in the novitiate house of Our Lady of Good Counsel, Monachil, Granada . They had their gathering from September 22 to October 9. Guerra continues that “by this time the commission was enthusiastically doing well its task of embodying and clarifying the suggestions received”. The report could be submitted to the General on November 29 in San Millan de la Cogolla.
All suggestions notwithstanding where they come from must be in Rome before may 15, 2009. The New Phase
The letter of the Prior General to all the religious of the Order demonstrates the document submitted to him by the technical commission. It is an informative document which gathers the complete text of the Constitutions of the Order, the Rule of St. Augustine which is in Spanish and latin, the Forma de Vivir of the first Recollects approved in 1589. Aside from these, the different contributions or sharing made by the religious and communities were also inserted in small bold letters.
Fr. Guerra affirms that the first stage “has contributed to a better knowledge of the texts of our Constitutions and a more committed living of our charism”. He believes however that the effort to gather the identification of the numbers in the Constitutions and those of the additional Code which need clarification, improvement, change or deletion or possible reformulation of the texts, has not been fully realized .
Having all these in mind and in view of the General Chapter in 2010, Fr. General admits that until the celebration of the general chapter, “there is still time to correct and cure the possible deficiencies”. Then he invites all religious to continue sending more suggestions and observations: “encouraging everybody to contribute in a more systematic organized way than what has already been achieved”.
Fr. Guerra concludes his message indicating the manner on how to proceed or continue with the phase he has just initiated. The suggestions/contribution should be sent to the respective provincial of each province, who in turn will take charge of studying and deepening them; after which they will submit them to the General Curia. Likewise the Institutes of the Order must study the text presented by the technical commission and submit the result to the Council. All suggestions notwithstanding where they come from must be in Rome before may 15, 2009.