e) Cruising again

At the cost of many efforts and years, my children’s Recollection is recovering and settling down again. However, an indelible mark will remain from the vicissitudes of the 19th century: since then those who were born to devote themselves to contemplation in the convent, by force of circumstances -in which they recognize the hand of God-, throw themselves into active and ministerial life.

The change was recorded in 1908 at the Chapter of San Millán de la Cogolla (La Rioja, Spain), which accepted active life as a new orientation for the Recollect community. In the following years, the legal and vital readjustment of the Recollection was carried out, which, as of 1912, was recognized by the Holy See as a full-fledged Order, independent for all purposes from the Augustinian Order.

From then on, throughout the 20th century, the Recollects took a broader flight and opened up to ministries of a very diverse type: missions, parishes, schools, charitable works… In a word, they tried to put into practice the principle that I had instilled in them: to always listen to the voice of the Church to attend to its needs.

To cite just one glorious page of Recollect activity in this century, let us mention the mission that flourished for nearly thirty years in mainland China. Conversions and vocations multiplied there. Everything was cut short by the expulsion of the missionaries in 1953. On the other side of the bamboo curtain remained an entire Christianity, of which only in recent years has any news leaked; a Church of martyrs that does not stop growing.