Five Augustinian Recollects over 80 years old come to our page to express their opinions and experiences about the care of older adults. All continue to work in the ministries served by the communities of which they are a part.
Miguel Ángel Tejada
Tudelilla, La Rioja, Spain, 85 years old.
Resident at the Colegio San Agustín in Valladolid. Advisor to the Augustinian Secular Fraternity-Recollect. Since its launch in 2011 and until 2018, he has been in charge of the San Ezequiel Moreno Residence of the Augustinian Recollects for religious requiring nursing care.
The community must always have an attitude of fraternity with all the brothers. Hiring specialists for the special care of those who need it is not enough. It is essential to accompany them at all times, doctor’s appointments, therapies, hospitalizations, for their walks in the garden.
We must also involve them in those community events and celebrations they can attend. And it does them a lot of good that religious from other communities visit them and show them their affection.
Frutos Salvador
Valdegena, Soria, Spain. 85 years old.
After a long life of pastoral activities, today, he accompanies with his witness, affection, and patience, listening to the formators, aspirants, and postulants residing in the St. Augustine Seminary in Mexico City.
The truth is that I do not consider myself very old yet, despite my 85 years. I do what I can and more. My job in the community is now to take care of the garden. Also, as the chapel is so close to my room, I never miss the different prayers of the day.
They say that at 75, you can already consider yourself old, but that’s not true in all the communities I’ve lived in. The religious of all communities have always treated me like a brother, without distinction of age or physical condition.
I am pleased and very grateful to all the religious with whom I have lived. To the younger ones who have as their responsibility the care of the sick, I ask them to always act with affection; And to those who are sick, be a little patient and do not feel annoyed or show a bad mood, because then others will respect us and help us a lot.
From those who live with me, I only hope they like and accept me because everything else I need, they give me.
Rigoberto Castellanos
Capilla de Guadalupe, Jalisco, Mexico, 87 years old.
After a long life of pastoral action in parishes and educational centers, mainly in Costa Rica and Mexico, he currently resides in the headquarters community of the Vicariate of Mexico and Costa Rica, from which several parishes and temples are served.
My faith has not altered with age, and it’s not of any concern because I have always lived my life serving others.
I have been very healthy all my life, but I just turned 87, and in the last four years, I have suffered from kidney cancer to the point that I had a kidney removed. Now, from that, I’m excellent.
The progressive loss of sight has been the hardest for me; thank God I retain peripheral vision, which allows me to walk well and see at a distance. I walk well, and I do it daily without getting tired.
With new technologies and screens, I can significantly increase the font size of the liturgical books to celebrate Mass and follow the liturgy of the hours without problems. However, I have always loved reading, and now, I find it impossible without a tablet. The issue of eyesight has been challenging for me.
All these problems have made me more humble in needing others to move, go to appointments, or do other activities. Although I have never felt excluded from the community, I constantly struggle to ask for help. And I do not deny that it is difficult to accept help, even in simple things.
I can still perform valuable pastoral services such as celebrating Holy Mass, confessions, and assisting the sick. I’m also better at listening to people in their spiritual needs fills me with joy and offers me great tranquility; I feel fulfilled serving in what I can.
Francisco Javier Hernández
Cascante, Navarra, España, 82 years old.
After 26 years as bishop of the Diocese of Tiangua, in Ceara, Brazil (1991-2017), he has been until last year residing and collaborating in that Diocese in pastoral matters. He has just published a book on the Christian Initiation of Adults sponsored by the Brazilian Episcopal Conference. She resides in the novitiate convent of Monteagudo (Navarra, Spain), in a life of health care and rest.
It is good that we communicate positively, so I am always open to dialogue and any community action that can improve each person’s performance. Today I live as God allows me to live. Maybe even a bit accelerated.
I have already gone through episcopal retirement, but I still lack time to dream, plan, evaluate, and crown my service to the Gospel and the Church with pleasure. For example, in my head, there are always new proposals to encourage the transmission of the faith, Christian life from a catechumenate inspiration, and pastoral conversion.
I believe that we always need to renew concepts and practical experiences, collect more data on the Christian experience and form, and form many of the Church’s members. In matters of evangelization, there is no retirement.
Cenobio Sierra
Salamanca, Guanajuato, Mexico, 82 years old.
He was in his early youth a good connoisseur of the Hospitales neighborhood of Mexico City, where he attended to the sick from the Parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe; later, he was even vice-master of novices, but his most extended and most experienced vocation has been that of a missionary in the Amazon, in the Prelature of Labrea. There he has left his life and his health. He currently cooperates in the Parish of Guaraciaba do Norte, in Ceara, a place with a better climate but where he does not rest serving the People of God.
I do not feel an extraordinary witness as to my direct relationship in pastoral work with the elderly or sick. When I returned to Mexico, newly ordained, my first assignment was in the Parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe of the Hospitals, where I stayed for about two years.
One of those years, complete, I visited the oncology ward daily to bring pastoral care. I recognize that I saw much misery there and listened to many suffering brothers.
Later, at the beginning of the 80s, when I was already working in the Prelature of Labrea (Amazonas, Brazil), I lost my right eye when I suffered a retinal detachment. Right there and after suffering from an ear ulcer, I lost hearing in my right ear.
Another heavy blow to my greeting I suffered in 2006 a heart attack that has made me, until today, continue with specialized coronary care. But likewise, half blind, half deaf, cardiopathic, and completely old, I do everything I can here in the Parish of Our Lady of the Joys of Guaraciaba.
When I encounter the disease head-on in those I care for pastorally, I feel compassion, of course, but I know very well that I am not a Saint John of God or a Camillus de Lellis. Instead, I try to serve them as best I can.
I have to say that I am most pained and impressed by the diseases of the soul. I attend the service of the sacrament of Penance, and I am a great devotee of St. John Mary Vianney.
