On July 29, and after three years without an official meeting, the community of Saint Augustine of Oxnard received the members of the Fraternities in the United States, convened under the motto “Walking Together in the Wilderness of Life”.
Members of the Secular Augustinian Recollect Fraternities (FSAR) of Los Angeles, Montebello, Oxnard and Santa Ana (California) met on July 29 at the priory of Saint Augustine of Oxnard to celebrate, after three years without official convocation, the annual meeting of Fraternities.
The joy and emotion were evident in the faces of those summoned, who had been they missed sharing formation, leisure and spirituality all together in the same place.
The Fraternities of Christ the King, Our Lady of Pilar, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Saint Benedict and Saint Augustine, both those that have their meetings in English and those that use the Spanish as the vehicular language, met in person.
The enormous distances from the country, in some cases, or the age and health of some of the members, in others, they prevented the presence of the Fraternities of New York, New Jersey, Florida and from the Californian city of Milpitas, 520 kilometers north of Oxnard.
At the meeting there was a conference on the indicated theme, a special reception for the Candidates for the Fraternity with a more basic training on what the Fraternity is and how it works and a guided visit to the museum that remembers the venerable Alfonso Gallegos (1931-1991), Augustinian Recollect, auxiliary bishop of Sacramento and named venerable by the Church in the current process of beatification of him.
There was also room for the joint experience of faith. In addition to the usual prayers and the Eucharist, there was a space dedicated especially to praying for the sick.
The meeting ended with a joint walk along the beaches of Oxnard, in an outdoor climate and really nice interior in that natural space of great beauty.
