The Augustinian Recollect Gerardo Ruiz (Arnedo, La Rioja, Spain, 1948) has just celebrated his 50th years of his priestly ordination (07/15/1973). For this reason he has been interviewed in the ministry where he currently serves the People of God, the Rectory of Saint Monica in Mexico City. This has been his vital and vocational testimony.
How was his childhood?
I was born in Arnedo, 48 kilometers from Logroño, the capital of La Rioja, on April 18, 1948, in a humble family My father worked in a factory and my mother dedicated herself to the home. we were four brothers, all boys, and I am the penultimate by age. My childhood was healthy, sheltered by family and school, with children’s games that were not were absent, and living with the rest of the family. Today we are already a small family, most of them have been called by the Lord to his presence.
Since I was little, my family was in contact with a priest, Eliseo Lerena, who arrived in town before I was born and stayed with the family for up to two months before I was ordained a priest.
He accompanied me in many ways, he was a very active priest, very creative, very pleasant. What I experienced with this good priest was very supportive. When my family told him that I was going to the seminary of the Augustinian Recollects of Lodosa (Navarra) he was very happy and supported me; I found in him a figure, an example to follow, because of the way he lived the priesthood .
This memory that I keep of him is very strong and very alive. In fact, he was very important in the life of the whole family. Curiously, Don Eliseo fell to the ground while he was pronouncing the homily of the last mass he celebrated. A few days later he passed away, on May 9, 1973.
I was ordained on July 15, so it became a very intense event for me, a whole host of emotions and memories that rushed into my mind and in my heart and that, after the years, I still treasure.
How was his first service as a priest?
They sent me to Mexico City, to the Parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe of Hospitals in Colonia Doctores, where I stayed for four years. That parish was a true university where closeness to suffering and illness helped me to sensitize myself with that reality. It was a whole training in Humanity. I was dedicated to spiritual care in the ER, I was very young and it was my first approach to pain. I learned to earn the trust of the people you meet for the first time. I will always appreciate the guidance of a colleague who suggested not asking who wanted
Communion or confession, but first of all to be interested in the reality and the struggle of each one of them present who then, little by little, already asking for the sacraments.
With that experience, the reality of death causes me some concern, but not fear. I’m not saying they push me of course… But when I have to officiate at a funeral, I don’t like speak of death as a loss, but of a temporary separation. I believe in Jesus and in the Resurrection. For example, he doesn’t feel sorry for losing my parents, it’s just a temporary detachment.
As a priest, is there a sacrament for which you have a preference?
I would say they are the Anointing of the Sick and Reconciliation. With the first I have had very nice experiences for the opportunity to accompany someone at that crucial moment; especially when someone at that moment tells you:
— “Father, I am calm and waiting for the Lord to call me. My only suffering is to see my sad family”.
Is there anything you particularly dislike?
What annoys me the most is gossip, gossip, condemnation, criticism, disqualifying others… When we are not good Samaritans but we make the talk of those who have fallen from grace.
What about the Augustinian Recollect charism, what is it that most attracts you?
I like the sense of community with which we live and do things in the Augustinian Recollect Family, sharing everything with others, knowing that everything is for the benefit of all…
In my case, this is something I learned since I entered the seminary, and almost without realizing it account makes me feel like we are truly family.
How is your work with the Federation of Augustinian Recollects of Mexico?
I received the appointment as Assistant of the Federation of the Augustinian Recollects contemplative meetings of Mexico on behalf of the Holy See in September 2020, with monasteries in Mexico, the United States, Brazil, Costa Rica, Colombia and Kenya.
My role as an assistant is to support the nuns in keeping their charism contemplative alive; For this I visit the communities and accompany them in coexistence, in the spiritual exercises, formation talks, monthly retreats…
I am also here to support the Federation Training Team to prepare all those courses and materials on the contemplative life according to Saint Augustine. Lastly, I support the tasks of the Federation’s government team so that all communities of contemplative Augustinian Recollect nuns live, act, grow and support each other in the same way.
What balance do you make of these 50 years of priesthood?
These days the Word of God is touching me a little more, and I believe that the balance of these 50 years is something like this, very biblical: “I am only a poor servant who has done what he had to do; and if there is something good that I have done, it is the Lord’s thing, I have been an instrument that He has used to do his construction site”.
Since that first experience in Hospitals, which was very strong, I have always been very happy with what he had to serve. I have been very happy taking care of the mass of children, I have been very happy everywhere I have lived with my brother friars. I thank the Lord because it is He who has acted through this server and, more than doing my assessment as a priest, it is a celebration to give thanks to the Lord who has acted through me.
The celebration of the golden jubilee of the Augustinian Recollect Gerardo Ruiz took place on Saturday 15 July at 7:00 p.m., with a Eucharist that he himself presided over, in which he was accompanied by many of his religious brothers, coming from the communities of Mexico City and Queretaro.
In his homily, frater Gerardo gave extensive thanksgiving to God for the blessings he has received: his birth, his parents and siblings, his religious vocation and his health, the communities in which he has carried out his pastoral work, his priesthood.
“It comforts me to know that Jesus supplies, and by far, what is lacking in me… I shudder when from my smallness and my mediocrity I think who I represent, in whose name I act “, he indicated. Applause resounded in the Saint Monica temple in Mexico City when he finished his speech.
After the Eucharist, all those present were invited to a moment of talk and an aperitif with sandwiches and desserts prepared by members of the Pastoral Council. It was also a time for reunions of religious who have worked in Saint Monica and they could now greet their former parishioners.
The honoree was personally congratulated by many people, who asked him to pose in souvenir photos or for social networks.
