The Prior General, Fray Miguel Ángel Hernández Domínguez, and the Provincial Prior of the Province of Saint Thomas of Villanueva, Fray Simón Puertas, shared an intense dialogue with the participants of the Immediate Preparation Course for Solemn Profession, inviting them to live a vocation marked by prayer, fraternity, humility, and service.
On Tuesday, July 28, the participants in the Immediate Preparation Course for Solemn Profession experienced one of the most significant moments of their formation journey with a meeting held with the Prior General of the Order of Augustinian Recollects, Fray Miguel Ángel Hernández Domínguez, and the Provincial Prior of the Province of Saint Thomas of Villanueva, Fray Simón Puertas. During the dialogue, both religious offered them a profound reflection on the meaning of vocation, fraternal life, and the responsibility of those called to assume the definitive commitment of consecrated life.
The conversation was marked by a constant invitation to build the future of the Order through personal conversion. Far from proposing unattainable ideals, both insisted on the need to live a realistic, humble, and deeply rooted vocation in Christ.
“The Order changes if our hearts change”
One of the central moments of the meeting came when the Prior General invited the future professed members to stop being spectators and become protagonists in the life of the Order. “Be fire that ignites other fires,” he told them, encouraging them to embrace with hope the mission they would soon receive.
Fray Miguel Ángel urged them to look at reality without idealizations. “Do not love an imaginary Order,” he affirmed, reminding them that every community is made up of people with virtues and fragilities, but it is precisely there that God continues to act. Authentic renewal—he explained—does not begin by demanding changes from others, but by allowing oneself to be personally transformed.
“What can I give to the Order?” was the question he posed to the participants. From this, he developed one of the ideas that structured the entire meeting: “The Order changes if our hearts change.” He also insisted on the importance of listening before speaking, learning from those who have walked the path before, and living humility as an indispensable condition for all true renewal.
Furthermore, he encouraged the religious to allow themselves to be accompanied because “no one matures alone,” avoiding the pursuit of prominence or responsibilities out of personal ambition and always remaining available for the mission wherever the Church and the Order need them.
Fray Simón Puertas: renewing through coherence and communion
In his address, Fray Simón Puertas invited the participants to live responsibility with courage, being capable of promoting renewal processes through personal coherence and avoiding polarization.
His call was clear: to question what needs improvement, but always to do so through dialogue, communion, and a sincere search for truth. Renewing religious life does not mean breaking with the past, but building upon it with fidelity, openness, and a fraternal spirit.
Prayer and the Eucharist, the heart of vocation
The Prior General reminded them that no vocation can be sustained without a deep friendship with Christ. “Do not neglect the secret place where one learns to truly love,” he exhorted, insisting that prayer is the source of self-giving, service, and the authenticity of all consecrated life.
He also encouraged the future professed members to be “men of integrity,” living consistently what they proclaim and moving away from any form of personal protagonism. Before concluding the meeting, he left them with a hopeful invitation: “You do not know what awaits you, but you do know who loves you.”
The day continued with the celebration of the Eucharist, presided over by the Prior General and concelebrated with the formators, the community of Franca (Brazil), the postulants, and the course participants. In the homily, he returned to the image of the wheat and the weeds to remind them that Christ calls fragile, not perfect, people, and that true renewal always begins with oneself.
At the end of the celebration, Fray Simón Puertas emphasized the Eucharist as the center of consecrated life, the place where the logic of service and gift is learned following the example of Christ, “who came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life.” The day thus concluded with a shared call to build a more fraternal, more humble, and more available Order for the mission, always beginning with one’s own conversion.
