It will be held in Marcilla, Navarra, from November 12 to 14, with the aim of discussing the Augustinian-Recollect identity and evangelizing service, with community moments of prayer, coexistence and sessions of reflection and dialogue.
The hundred religious who live in the ten communities of the Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine of the Order of Augustinian Recollects in Spain have been summoned to attend their 2024 Assembly next week, from November 12 to 14.
The communities will be organized to attend their ministerial obligations while being represented at the Assembly. Each community must be represented by at least one religious, none of the participants will do so out of obligation and, in principle, it will be facilitated that all those who wish to do so attend.
The Assembly was convened on October 14th and since then the communities have been reflecting on the proposed themes with a questionnaire. The main themes will be the co-responsibility between religious and lay people and the training process. There will be a total of seven one-hour sessions of assembly work.
The Assemblies by nations have a consultative character and their conclusions, debates and proposals are passed on to the provincial prior and his Council, who thus have a much more complete vision not only of the objective reality of the Province in each country, but also of the perceived reality and the subjectivity and opinion of the religious.
It is, therefore, a good thermometer to take the pulse of the communities and ministries they serve (parishes, educational centers, training houses, assisted living homes) as well as to know the individual perception and the degree of motivation of the religious.
Co-responsibility between religious and lay people
There are hundreds of lay people who accompany religious people in evangelization, education, social works, care of sick friars, social communication or resource management.
The presence of lay people leads religious people to live their vocation and apostolate better; they learn and grow with them. The Chapters have asked to create and strengthen teams with lay people in vocational animation, parish evangelization, education, in service bodies… And also in the experience of charismatic values with the lay people of the Family: Secular Fraternity and Augustinian Recollect Youth.
Other national Assemblies have reiterated the need for synodality and co-responsibility with lay people, training, meetings and reinforcement of mutual knowledge, their real role and co-participation even in the Chapters, a decision-making space that until now has always been limited to religious people.
Formation houses and the formation process
In addition to the situation of the formation houses in the Province, one of the main focuses of this point is the Formation Plan Return to the Heart of the Augustinian Recollects, whose horizon is ongoing formation and within it includes vocational pastoral and initial formation.
The Provincial Council believes it is important for the religious to know this Plan and its real implications, given that most of them were formed with other perspectives and methodologies. The new proposal is in the experimental phase and is still pending definition of what is related to ongoing formation.
Among the questions proposed to encourage dialogue on this point are whether the religious know the current formation process in detail, know the trainees themselves (novices and professed, in the case of Spain) and if they want to offer possible suggestions to improve this Plan after knowing it.
