Juan José Guzmán: “To be better people, to live our vocation intensely, and to serve the People of God with quality”
On August 10, in Bogotá, Colombia, 19 Recollect religious between the ages of 40 and 55 began 22 days of theological and spiritual formation, with activities to facilitate our human development and opportunities to share our pastoral experience.
It was an intense, profound, and transformative journey marked by encounters with God in the liturgy, with fellowship, and with oneself. The theme was “Make Me Remember You,” with the main objective of returning to the heart and, from there, encountering God and others.
The workshops took us within ourselves to discover the desire and strength to turn toward God and choose what we truly love. We were also challenged to review our lives as servants of God’s People, growing as individuals and, thus, acting from within. They also helped us discover our gifts and put them at the service of all as God’s response to the wounds of humanity.
I was particularly struck by the challenge of reexamining how I serve God, the People, and my community. I felt challenged to lead a change in my behavior and in my way of accompanying the faithful. I also felt challenged to discover a continuing spiritual awakening in my life as an Augustinian Recollect.
I think this ongoing formation has made us aware of the importance of better valuing people and the world around us. I feel better prepared to face my personal, community, and apostolic challenges. It has helped me perceive what gives me life, what increases the value of each stage and event in my life; and it has also led me to welcome, respect, and be more grateful for God and others.
Many thanks to those who accompanied us and made the meeting possible. I am very grateful because in the Augustinian Recollect Family, we want to further and better educate each of its members so that we may all become better people and live our vocation and our service to others with joy and intensity.
Rafael Castillo: “A grateful past, a more realistic present, a hopeful future.”
The participants in this meeting came from three Provinces of the Order, were of seven nationalities, and served in ten countries: different places, unique families, and unparalleled stories, but we all experienced that the Recollection is a charism in which the Holy Spirit himself has united us, even though we hadn’t even met before. We immediately felt the brotherhood.
The four presenters of the workshops and reflections, with their provocative material, encouraged us to take the hand of Christ, the inner Master, to review and give thanks for the past as part of our salvation history; to view the present from a perhaps more realistic perspective, subjecting ourselves to a mild crisis to acquire a new way of understanding things; and we ended by looking with greater hope at the responsibilities and challenges of the future as Augustinian Recollect religious.
As a result of these weeks of ongoing formation, I have been able to strengthen my identity as an Augustinian Recollect and renew my commitment to contribute my entire being as a person to the shared mission of the Church, the Augustinian Recollect Family, and my community.
