Augustinian Recollect Missionaries: A Congregation “always in Mission” (2/2)

Which “border” ministries do you currently serve?

In Morón, Cuba: we are in parish. We lack everything like the people, although thank God the residents of  this country do not lack – fruit of Providence – neither  the care of the Diocese nor the attention to the sisters by the Congregation. In addition,  an ARCORES project helps the parish cafeteria, especially now, offering bags of food, given the most acute need due to the pandemic. We are very limited by lack of resources, gasoline, food, medicine, because there is a vast field of communities to serve, but our  mere presence is already testimony to the people, who tell us, “When everyone wants to leave, you stay.”

In Lábrea (Amazonas, Brazil):  we share a mission with the Prelature in the parish tasks, in the educational ones and in the “desobrigas” every three months by the curves of the Purús, by boat; sometimes alone, sometimes accompanied, but on mission by the communities.

In Atapirire  (Anzoátegui, Venezuela): we attend a parish vicarate, devoid of a priest and is in our charge.  Totally away from the nearest city –El Tigre-, the sisters lack everything in the village, but they manage, if they have gasoline, which is very scarce and in droppers, to go to the city, and buy what allows to supply other families.  It also serves  the towns of Múcura  and Boca del Pao, almost on the banks of the Orinoco, when you have the resource of gasoline. There is a project with ARCORES for the needy and children in school. It is a population totally abandoned from government. Monsignor José Manuel Romero Barrios, from being appointed bishop of El Tigre, watches over the sisters and is very attentive to their needs.

In Kweiteh -Shangqiu-(Henan) China: we are in parishes. Despite so many difficulties and oppressive measures from the government, the MAR community is stronger. This past year that they could not go out to the parishes were able to further increase their formation and community and charismatic experience. It is a blessing to have that community and for the sisters to be united.

In Cochabamba (Chota, Peru): we act in a parish. It should be said that we are in the Sierra and, therefore, an isolated community that is inserted in the peasant world, poor, humble and very much in need of human and spiritual accompaniment.

In Guamote  (Chimborazo, Ecuador) we are in parish, with indigenous communities to attend and share with the Jesuits a project aimed at high-risk youth.

In general, our mission and education communities are located in poor areas, with major problems and heterogeneous student populations with many difficulties. Almost all our schools have a project with ARCORES, for different needs to attend to. Similarly, in several of our MAR communities we have a project to help different children who need this collaboration.

What is the vocational status of the MAR?

First of all we need to renew ourselves personally, communally and congregationally, returning to the sources, from who we are, what we have, from our poverty, but with the richness of a charism; involving the entire Congregation in this process of bearing witness and proclaiming Christ among the youth; creating awareness of vocational culture: the care of our own vocation and above all how to help each person, each child, each young person, and also each adult, to discover the will of God in their life, placing themselves in the world with meaning and for others, from the Christian vocation.

What specific work is being carried out in the field of youth ministry?

In the school of Maracaibo is implanted the movement JAR (Augustinian-Recollect Youth). Our insertion is more in parishes and, therefore, we have to assume the youth ministry of each Christian community in which we are; however, it does not take away from the fact that we have a youth-vocational pastoral project where all the traits of the charism fit. We have to adapt to the different realities in which we find ourselves, which are varied.

What is the relationship between the MAR and the Province of San Nicolás de Tolentino?

I imagine that our own within the fraternal and apostolic sharing of our works and presences where the Province and the Congregation have been and continue to be. The Seas have always found in the Order -in any Province of the same-, some true brothers who from the beginning have been accompanying us. Proof of this was the foundation that was made with Monsignor Ochoa, from the Province of San Nicolás de Tolentino, which is celebrating its IV Centenary.

What fruits would you highlight from this more direct contact?

The truth is that I do not have much knowledge about this reality to answer, but protected by some information requested, it must be said that there was always a good relationship with the friars both in Lodosa and Valladolid.

From Valladolid, a sister tells me that she always heard good comments about the relationship of the sisters with the friars, close relationships, and fraternity. This sister tells me that Sister María Luisa Moreno took care of several elderly, sick friars in Valladolid; it seems that one of them was Monsignor Arturo Quintanilla,who replaced Monsignor Ochoa as bishop in Kweiteh.

It is recorded that several friars who are or were on missions went to visit and visit the sisters of Monteagudo who had been like “their mothers” when they were little.

Many of our foundations have been made under the protection of the Province of San Nicolás:

• about China, a sister writes to me and tells me that:  “if the General of those 80s had not been FriarJavier Pipaón, from the Province of San Nicolás, it is very likely that we had nothing in China. He knew our emotional roots with China, although there was nothing legal that gave us rights, since when the houses of Spain, Colombia and Brazil were separated to be a new Congregation, the community of China belonged to the Augustinian Recollect  Sisters of the Philippines. It was he who succeeded in getting Rome to include in the Congregation the vocations that were being born.”
• Regarding our presence in Mexico:  The Augustinian Recollect religious living in this country where they had been asking for years that we go, to have there “the whole family”; they had bought a house that they had to give to others and then they bought and arranged for us the current one of Querétaro.  They were our legal guarantors for many years. We also share the work on CARDI, etc., and relations have been very good.
• In Taiwan, Friar Manuel Piérola left his house free for us to occupy and he lived for several years in the parish office… They were also our legal representatives.
• In Lábrea  we have shared with the friars many fatigues for decades; we also participated for a few years in the socio-educational project Lar Santa Monica, in Fortaleza (Ceará, Brazil).
• And I end by making a special mention of the accompaniment  received in  Monteagudo  (Navarra) from the origins of the foundation to the present day, which is priceless.

In times of difficulty, have you found support and help in this Province?

I think so, because there has always been a relationship of brothers and that leads to being able to count on them in the face of certain difficulties and / or needs that are never lacking.

Any reflection before the IV Centenary of the Province of San Nicolás de Tolentino?

To the SEA,I would say to my sisters that we are living in difficult times, times of crisis and reduction, but time of kairosto return to the sources. It was three women and Monsignor Ochoa who dared to cross the seas to go on an Ad Gentes mission; we must not lose sight of this.

In these historical moments we have to sharpen our ears and eyes to respond to the Lord, to the man of this time, to the Church from our reality, from our smallness and poverty, but rooted in the charism, passionate about Jesus, for his Kingdom, spreading the love lived in community and starting from a heart that discerns every day the will of God.

All this supposes, of course, a distinctive note from the beginning, that is, a great availability to change, to adapt to the new realities, to the new calls that the Church makes us, from our possibilities; detaching ourselves from the force imposed by tradition or everything that gives us security in the face of our fears and rearguards.

To the Province of San Nicolás de Tolentino  I would say that we always thank God for the gift received; and to thank each member of the province who has lived his vocation in the stretch of these 400 years, which is, in turn, to thank the Order, for his donation. We are nothing without God’s grace. Our history will always be a story of grace and sin, of holy men and sinners.

Without people and events no history is made, without the gospel there are no evangelizers and without evangelizers the Church does not expand. Without radical follow-up to Christ, the works are not sustained, even if much is invested. God’s work is that we believe in Him. Then, we must continue with the torch of fidelity, but always humble, united and in communion with the Order and the Church.