We, Augustinian Recollects, live in communities where we share life and help each other grow. We pray together, we seek God, convinced that He lives within each one of us, and we serve the Church where it is needed.
The Augustinian Recollects are a group of friars who form a religious Order, living in accord with the way of life that Saint Augustine devised for his companions in religious community.
You may be surprised that our name is two-fold, that we call ourselves “Recollects” and not just “Augustinians.” This is the result of a development that began back in the 13th century, when the monks who lived in the style of Augustine in numerous separate communities decided to unite and form one religious Order. Three centuries later, in the 16th Century, the Church experienced a growing sense of the need for reform and for religious communities to return to the initial ideal of their founders. Thus arose the “Recollect” movement, with re-invigorated emphasis on recollection, reflection, prayer, contemplation. Within the Augustinian Order, the Augustinian Recollects increase in numbers until in the 20th century, when they became the independent Order of Augustinian Recollects.
Since that initial moment in 1588, we Augustinian Recollects have lived together, in communities of at least three religious, sharing our lives and helping one another grow. We pray together and search for God together, convinced that He lives within each one of us.
We experience together being an active part of the Church. We work in schools, missions, parishes, human development endeavors, striving every day to unite the littleness of each of us into one powerful force to cooperate in the Lord’s work of constructing a world that is ever more habitable, more humane, and more just, endeavoring to live according to St. Augustine’s mandate, “Love, and do what you will.”
The world-wide Augustinian Recollect Family is not exclusive to priests and brothers but embraces all Christians attracted to embellish their lives with the basics of Augustinian Recollect spirituality: community, interiority, and mission.
The Augustinian Recollect Nuns intensify to the fullest’ in their contemplative living, the “recollection” aspect of our life, living selflessly in cloister and in prayer and in work, praying for the world, for the Church, for US.
The Augustinian Recollect Sisters also consecrate themselves by vows to exemplify to the world the inestimable value of lives joined together in dedicated Augustinian Recollect spirituality, to prayerful active apostolate in foreign missions, teaching, and other apostolates, such as the spiritual and medical care of the aged.
Laymen and laywomen of all ages deepen their experience of the Christian life, and at the same time are bolstered by a spiritual support group, in the Secular Augustinian Recollect Fraternity.
Young people bursting with the energy and idealism of their age become members of Augustinian Recollect Youth (ARY) and learn together how Augustinian Recollect spirituality can make their lives healthier and happier, while at the same time they celebrate their unity and mutual support in enlivening youthful activities together.
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