Question.- The Secular Fraternity currently consists of 4151 members. How do you explain that so many lay people feel called to share the Augustinian Recollect lay spirituality and wish to share the mission of the Order?
Answer. – I have been present at the birth of two Fraternities and one of the reasons that has encouraged them for a long time to become part of our family, is to share the religious life. Usually candidates have been and are "the living forces" of the ministry through their commitment to the various services provided by the religious community. In fact, joining the secular fraternity is a way to formalize their membership, which is vital to the family. One thing worthy of note is the greater perseverance of those who already shared with us our mission. From looking at our numbers, they seem rather small. From the number of religious we are and the number of ministries we serve, it seems to me that secular fraternities will need to be more numerous; one in each ministry with an upward trend, through the passage of time.
Q. – How can you transmit the Augustinian Recollect charism to the laity?
A. – By being together in a shared mission. Sooner or later the people we work with will ask us what is the meaning of our existence. Although there are existential lessons in everyday life, in other words, it is essential to make it easy to know the basic criteria of our charismatic identity through: community life, the inner life, the church service, etc. It is not enough to celebrate our saints from the past; it is essential to translate the message of the gospel and Augustinian Recollect spirituality to the circumstances of our times.
Q. What do the brothers and sisters in the fraternities ask of our communities and the Order?
A. – A share in a conviction: laity join our Order to enrich it in their own particular way as Christians. They are often more immersed and exposed in many contexts and help us to have a wider horizon in the Church's evangelizing mission and dare I say, prevent us from drowning in projects centered on ourselves.
What do they expect? They say in their own way, to share more areas in life and I do not think they seek a codependency, or search for a greater role. I think they see we have received much from the Spirit and hope to share it with them. When they know the figure and teachings of St. Augustine they expect us to be teachers of interiority, experts in communion and religious who know how to live ‘in tune’ with the Church.
From their shared mission, they also want to be the hands and feet, the eyes and arms, advocates and active agents at the forefront of evangelization in the ministries in which they were born and reared. Somehow they can claim they have reached the age of reason in their apostolic commitment. They expect the mission to share as equals in an equal share of our charism.
With the Spanish National Council and the General Vicary.A programme of training for our Fraternities
Q. – In conjunction with members of the fraternities you are in the process of developing a training manual for the brothers and sisters of the fraternity. What areas stand out?
A. – The document is a synthesis of what the religious say fraternities should be and what we do not want them to be. It is a discussion paper that has many limitations but there are many religious and fraternity members who can identify with him. At present we are listening to pick up echoes of what the local fraternities feel in order to make them more concrete.
From the document one conviction stands out: membership in the fraternity is a vocation and as such, it needs to be presented, accompanied and discerned. The religious have a duty to provide our brothers and sisters of the secular fraternity, with a route for learning and a route for exploring, in the style of St. Augustine and the Recollection. And perhaps the commitment of accompanying them above our own personal interests, this can be even more demanding.
Although the document seeks primarily to develop a basic training syllabus it will also promote a spirit of accompaniment by the religious, to renovate our own source of spirituality on which we have always fed and to reach out to others to share our life and mission.
Q. – What is the relationship between the J.A.R. (Augustinian Recollect Youth) and the secular fraternity?
A. – I know that there are no J.A.R.s in all our ministries. In some provinces J.A.R. are very strong, in other parts of the Order its existence is very low. I personally do not know enough about this area.
Many years ago I was responsible for youth ministry in Mexico and started J.A.R. groups, making use of religious material developed and received from Spain and Argentina and I was encouraged by its success with young people. A few months later we asked this question: and when they are not so young, what then? The immediate response was: be part of the secular fraternity.
Moving from the J.A.R. to lay Fraternities is complex because of the diversity of how people understand its meaning. I can say that half a dozen boys now belong to the fraternity and with pride say, ‘we are the youngest members in the Fraternity, with barely twenty years.’
With Mexico's Fraternity.Expectations from the General Chapter
Q. – What do members of the Fraternity expect from the next General Chapter?
A. – I think it is time that some Fraternity members should participate in some sessions, particularly in the area of information. It's good to hear them. It would be a nice gesture to invite the president of the National Council and representatives from other countries not only to eat and celebrate with them, which we already do, but also to listen to their way of life.
Speaking personally, I can say Fraternity members do not feel they are a subject of priority in our meetings. They hope in the General Chapter there will be clear and forceful statements, both in the conception and promotion of fraternities and how to accompany them.