On the feast of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino, Friar Carlos González Castellanos, Provincial Prior of the Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino, proposes three beacons to illuminate the new triennium 2026-2029: living the commandment of love, paying special attention to the poor, and entering decisively into a process of missionary and vocational conversion.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength… You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mk 12:30-31).
With the joy that the risen Jesus gives me, I wish to send affectionate greetings to all the religious and laity of the Augustinian Recollect Family on the feast of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino, patron of our Province.
As every year, celebrating the feast of our patron is also an opportunity to pause and thank our provident God for all the gifts He has granted us. They have been many and varied, and they have nourished us in following Jesus Christ, our compassionate and merciful God.
We have much to be grateful for: one hundred years of generous and faithful missionary service in Lábrea; this year proclaimed in the Order as missionary year; the religious and laity who spend themselves with passion proclaiming the love of Jesus Christ; the Missionary Synod being prepared in Rio de Janeiro; the Zonal Assemblies as an exercise in dialogue and discernment; and the 129th Provincial Chapter, which has impelled us to consolidate more fraternal and missionary local communities and to prioritize vocational ministry.
We also give thanks for the Jubilee Year in which we were pilgrims of hope; for the Order’s new website; for our brothers who made the great journey to the Father’s House; for the fidelity of those who celebrated their 25 and 50 years of religious life; for the 50 years of educational work at Romareda School; and for the 43 local communities and 268 religious who currently form the Province.
And we especially give thanks for the hope represented by the seven novices gathered in Monteagudo and the young people in our formation houses; the charism we share with the Augustinian Recollect sisters of contemplative and active life; the dreams, creativity, and passion of the secular fraternities and our youth groups; the Christian Mothers of Saint Monica, who pray for their children; and so many other benefits that come from the compassionate heart of God.
As we begin this triennium 2026-2029, I would like to propose three beacons to illuminate our journey: the commandment of love, special attention to the poor, and the process of conversion.
The commandment of love: making visible what God is
Mutual love is part of the essence of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The core of the message of Sacred Scripture is precisely there: God is love and puts into practice His project of unlimited love for the benefit of humanity.
The incarnation of Jesus Christ, His death on the cross, and His resurrection are the great testimony of that love.
Saint Nicholas of Tolentino was an outstanding disciple of the master Jesus Christ in living the commandment of love. He maintained cordial and prolonged contact with God in the Eucharist and in prayer; he was affable, generous, and understanding with his community brothers; and he showed himself charitable, kind, delicate, and good-natured with the people he encountered, especially with those most in need.
The Gospel shows us the style of God’s love and invites us to make it our own. Whoever loves wants to draw everyone to the love of God, because love is contagious, it spreads.
Letting the poor touch our hearts
The poor were a fundamental option of Christ. He gave them a special place in His heart. As the good Samaritan, He established His Kingdom of love by attending to the sick, the disoriented, sinners, seekers of truth, and all kinds of people in need.
Saint Nicholas also learned this way of living from childhood. His parents, Amada and Compagnone, educated him in the practice of giving alms to the poor in solidarity. Charity toward those most in need thus became a fundamental attitude of his life: he attended to the sick, the elderly, the abandoned, and the poor because he wanted to be faithful to the heart of God.
Today we pray and work for those who live on the geographical, existential, and spiritual peripheries.
Love for the poor is not something accessory. It is a proper option for those of us who follow Jesus Christ from any charism. Therefore, let us allow the poor to touch our hearts.
A missionary and vocational conversion
The third beacon is conversion. To carry out a true process of conversion we need the strength of love, but also concrete actions inspired by the values of the Gospel and capable of breaking our selfish attitudes.
Conversion has many paths: it is personal and communal; pastoral, missionary, ecological, and vocational. But I would like us to take special care of two dimensions: missionary conversion and conversion to vocational culture.
Missionary conversion asks us to dispose our hearts to be more sensitive to those who do not know Jesus Christ or know Him poorly. It impels us to share the great values of His Kingdom of love and to become missionaries of God’s love alongside those brothers who remain marginalized from economic, cultural, moral, or spiritual wealth.
Conversion to vocational culture, for its part, demands a courageous option. It means dedicating our time and our talents to accompanying children, adolescents, and young people who are restless about the meaning of their existence, who want to live Christian values, and who seek to discover the state of life to which God calls them.
On this feast, let us ask Saint Nicholas of Tolentino for his intercession so that he may continue to be the star that illuminates the journey of our family.
And let us ask Jesus Christ, master and Lord of Nicholas of Tolentino and also ours, to continue to be for us the source of the love and conversion we need to follow Him.
May He help us to commit decisively to fraternal and missionary local communities, committed to vocational culture, poor and for the poor.
Friar Carlos González Castellanos
Provincial Prior of the Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino
