The Secular Augustinian Recollect Fraternity of Querétaro, Mexico, celebrates its 15 years of existence with a Eucharist and a get-together in which many messages of congratulations and encouragement were received and moments and people were remembered with affection, emotion and commitment to the future.
The Saint Pius X House of the Augustinian Recollects in Querétaro is the main headquarters for meetings, training sessions and prayer of the Secular Augustinian Recollect Fraternity of Saint Magdalene of Nagasaki, made up of fifty members, of whom 27 are fully active, ten have health or travel difficulties that prevent them from participating in the meetings in person and five more participate more occasionally in the activities. Eight more people are in the training period prior to making their baptismal promises in public.
This Fraternity has just celebrated its 15th anniversary, having been canonically erected on October 24, 2009. That day, during a festive Eucharist, the founding document of the Fraternity was read and 32 candidates began their year of formation prior to the issuance of their promises.
The members of the Augustinian-Recollect Secular Fraternity, driven by the Holy Spirit, are committed to living the gospel in the light of the Augustinian Recollect charism, strengthening in their daily lives the same Augustinian and Recollect values of interiority, community, love of wisdom and evangelizing mission, as the rest of the Augustinian-Recollect Family.
At the end of that Eucharist there was a festive gathering in the courtyard of the Preschool of the Fray Luis de León School with a gala dinner. Religious recollect, Augustinian Recollect female missionaries and many other Secular Fraternities from Mexico were present at that time to welcome the new Fraternity of Saint Magdalene of Nagasaki.
To celebrate the 15th anniversary, the vicar of Mexico and Costa Rica of the Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine of the Order of Augustinian Recollects, Martín Luengo, was present in Querétaro. He presided over the commemorative Eucharist and invited everyone to share their memories, strengthen their ties with Augustinian-Recollect spirituality and walk together, “pilgrimage in unity: one heart and one soul until reaching God.”
The day continued with an evening in which, in addition to sharing food, there was time to receive various congratulatory messages, many of them in video form, as well as to watch and comment together on a photo album of these fifteen years. There was an emotional and special memory for the brothers of the Fraternity who are already in the Father’s house.
During these fifteen years, four Augustinian Recollect have had the privilege of accompanying the Fraternity of Saint Magdalene of Nagasaki as assistants. Each of them offered their service from their own way of being: sometimes with freshness and creativity and personal encouragement, others from the reinforcement of the sense of community and the love for the Liturgy and the celebration; others from closeness and collaboration, putting the emphasis on the value of the family or on human and religious formation.
There have been three presidents of the Fraternity during this time, with a service of fraternal accompaniment and management of the agenda, meetings and establishing channels of friendship and communion: Rodrigo Ledesma, Jorge Ramírez and Sylvia Chávez.
The trainers Eva Laura Luna and Beatriz Heredia have accompanied the members in their personal and community formation on topics such as the Rule of life, the implementation of the Statutes of the Fraternity or the initial formation of the new members. The day was one of true celebration, with an atmosphere full of joy, good memories, emotions, nostalgia and, above all, desires for renewal to continue walking together for many more years.
