In the Augustinian-Recollect Family there are male religious, contemplative nuns, female religious of active life, lay people committed from their adult life and young people with restless hearts. They all have in common a feeling of being attracted by the Augustinian and Recollect values: community, interiority, love of wisdom, solidarity, austerity, service to the Church wherever and whenever she asks for it.
The RAY is an international movement of youth who aspire to follow Jesus through the Augustinian Recollect charism. Established in 1995 within the Province of Saint Thomas of Villanova, the RAY became the focus of the Order’s youth work at the beginning of the 21st century.
On March 11, 2008, the General Council approved its statutes as a private association without juridical personality, applicable on a general scale: independent in its civil nature in each country, the RAY movement is integrated within the structure of the Order as an organization dependent on the general curia.
The RAY encompasses a wide age range: children undergoing catechesis of Christian initiation, adolescents grappling with self-knowledge, self-acceptance, personal growth, and service to others in the spirit of Saint Augustine, and young adults seeking communion with Christ and the Church and a vocation of service.
The movement’s five distinctive characteristics, rooted in the Augustinian Recollect charism, are:
- Spiritual: Engaged in continuous conversion and introspection to encounter God.
- Communitarian: Reviving the experience of the early community of Jerusalem through the Word, Eucharist, solidarity, and fraternity.
- Missionary: Committed to serving the Church by collaborating with the missions and ministries of the Augustinian Recollect Family.
- Marian: Entrusting its activities and life to Our Lady of Consolation.
- Augustinian: Emulating the lifestyle advocated by Saint Augustine.
The RAY offers young people a path to mature in faith, providing means and activities such as classes, spiritual retreats, gatherings, serving the community, camping, and sports.
On the occasion of its 25th anniversary in May 2021, the prior general of the Augustinian Recollects named Saints Alypius and Possidius, companions of Saint Augustine, as patron saints of the RAY. Their exemplary lives, fraternity, friendship, and fidelity to the Augustinian charism serve as “a benchmark for the young people of our time.”
As of 2021, the RAY had a total of 4,323 members across fifteen countries.
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TABLE OF CONTENT
Province that Makes a Family
- 1. Province that Makes a Family
- 2. Augustinian Recollect Contemplative Nuns
- 3. Augustinian Recollect Sisters
- 4. Augustinian Recollect Missionaries [Misioneras Agustinas Recoletas]
- 5. Secular Augustinian Recollect Fraternity (SARF)
- 6. Augustinian Recollect Youth (ARY)
- 7. Christian Mothers of Saint Monica
