On the weekend of February 2 to 4, a small group of 14-year-old teenagers from the Romareda School, in Zaragoza, held the “Restless Heart” retreat in the Augustinian Minor Seminary of Guadalajara.
In December, the team of friar advisors of the ARY itinerary met to schedule a series of retreats to strengthen the identity of the ARY groups that had been formed in the 2022-2023 academic year in the different Augustinian communities collections in Spain., therefore, one of the guidelines of the ARY Synodheld during the summer of 2023 in Salamanca, it was deemed appropriate to hold the retreat “Restless Heart”, one of the most popular and important retreats of the Augustinian Recollect Youth- ARY-. Guadalajara was the place where the retreat with which the “Milan” stage began, according to the itinerary of the young Augustinian Recollects.
This retreat is aimed at young people who wish to begin the itinerary or wish to strengthen their presence in the recently formed group to promote an experience of God and his infinite love, leading to conversion, to the experience of fraternity, to feel part of the Church, and the initiation into the Augustinian-Recollect youth community.
Eight adolescents from the third year of Secondary Education at the School participated. Romareda. The group was recently created and it was considered appropriate to invite them to a day of coexistence and retreat that provokes the encounter with Christ and subsequently, offer the ARY group as a reference community in the following Jesus.
The first day of the retreat sought the integration of the group. The teenagers carried out an excursion to Medinaceli, Soria, where they enjoyed the beauty and tranquility of the town to join the Augustinian Minor Seminary in the afternoon, in Guadalajara, Spain. At the end of the dinner the retreat was presented with the help of a story “Die in nonsense”, a team activity to make known that Jesus is our base and allows us to reach high, and with a prayer to conclude the day.
The retreat followed the themes of the ARY itinerary, so on Saturday they discussed the next topics:
How does Augustine perceive man?
The God I believe in. Proclamation of the love of God.
Augustine, a young man of Restless Heart.
Augustine, a young man in search of the truth.
The family.
The column of the retreat was in “The Celebration of Light”, a penitential act in which the young person is invited to receive the light of Christ.
On Sunday only one topic was addressed: What is the ARY? The adolescents were for the Eucharist and given a cross, a sign of their life and experience encounter with Christ in the retreat.
In addition to this proposal of evangelization with the help of creative resources, educational and fun, without losing the depth of the Christian faith, adolescents carried out a gymkhana on basic knowledge of Christianity, they had a youth evening, numerous integration games, and free time to get to know the city from Guadalajara.
We especially thank the religious of the Our Formation House Our Lady of Good Counsel in Monachil, Granada: Gerardo Luzardo and Elio Rincón who advised and participated very actively in the retreat. Likewise, five religious Augustinian Recollects, Héctor Molina, and four from the Saint Augustine Formation House of Las Rozas: Luis Ángel Delgado, Abraham Montoya, Iván Ramírez, and Jorge Valtierra, They supported the retreat and learned a lot about the work in their respective groups.
