What have so many years accompanying the ARY meant to you?
Accompanying the Augustinian Recollect Youth (ARY) for so many years has been a gift, a true blessing from God. I am currently an advisor and liaison for the International ARY Team, but I have never viewed my role in the Recollect youth movement as a position or a mere responsibility, but rather as an opportunity to share what I have seen and heard —my experience of God that leads me to seek Him in community.
Over the years I have learned to listen more, to respect the timing of each process, and to trust that God acts even when I don’t see immediate results; also that leadership is not about imposing ideas, but about caring for people and processes, sustaining hope, and helping others discover their own calling.
Personally, the ARY has given me a family, friends, community, a sense of belonging, and a very concrete way of living my faith in everyday life.
I believe that ARY Mexico is characterized today by its members’ willingness to not settle for a superficial faith. They are young people sensitive to friendship, service, and consistency of life, and therefore very demanding of themselves in what they give and receive. Despite the frailties and limitations that reality imposes, they have a deep desire to build community and to live their faith with joy and commitment.
The ARY International Team just met in the Dominican Republic. What was the purpose of the meeting?
I experienced this gathering with gratitude and a sense of responsibility. From my perspective, it was my role to contribute Mexico’s experience and to listen to and learn from other realities, always with a view to unity. These annual meetings are essential for moving in the same direction, sharing best practices, and discerning together the steps ahead; and they allow us to accelerate projects that, due to daily obligations, tend to get stuck.
These gatherings reconnect us with the founding vision of the ARY, an international movement with a shared identity and mission, but lived out in different contexts. The dynamics are diverse and very enriching. This diversity demands dialogue, stepping outside our comfort zones and seeking what is essential. It is one of the ARY’s greatest strengths.
3. The ARY International Team has offered common training materials. What consequences have these had?
They have been well received, but their application has been uneven. Where there was a solid foundation of training, they have been valued and used effectively, but we have not managed to make them reach everyone with such clarity, nor have we achieved widespread awareness and use.
The challenge lies not only in the materials themselves, but also in understanding the logic and purpose of the educational journey. The ARY (Job Training Areas) are not simply a collection of activities and texts, but a pedagogical and spiritual process with stages, rhythms, and objectives. If this holistic vision is not embraced, the materials will not be used to their full potential.
However, when the itinerary is understood, the materials are not only used more effectively, but are also enriched, adapted, and embodied in the needs of each place. This has been one of the team’s key lessons: it is not enough to simply produce materials; it is essential to support their understanding, appropriation, and adaptation. There is still a long way to go in this area.
What challenges, tasks, and objectives is the ARY International Team now focused on?
Our priority is to nurture and strengthen the ARY identity, ensuring that the ARY journey is not only known but also understood as a holistic process and experienced as such. We need a more genuine and sustained commitment from both religious and lay advisors.
When the profound meaning of the journey is unknown, groups stagnate or end up “gravitating” around a leader, without consolidating the processes of human, Christian and community growth; the focus is reduced to “doing things”, without a formative dimension and continuity.
There are groups that identify as ARY but lack a real connection with the movement, adequate support, or a direction that links them to our experience of the Church and the Augustinian Recollect Family. We seek to strengthen shared responsibility in accompaniment, clarify roles, and help those providing support understand their service as a key element for authentic and sustainable processes.
Until the next General Chapter, which will take place in two years, we are reviewing the materials, structures, and dynamics so that goodwill can truly become clearer and more shared processes, strengthening identity and becoming a true school of faith, community, and mission.
How is the next World Youth Day of the ARY being planned?
One of the projects we are preparing with the most care and joy is the next JMJAR in Asia, in the context of the World Youth Day in Seoul (2027), a very significant opportunity for meeting, opening up to other cultures and strengthening the sense of belonging.
Distances and logistics present a significant challenge, which is why we are planning this carefully and responsibly. It should be viewed as part of a personal journey, not as just another exotic trip. Details will be provided in the official announcement, but local ARY communities can already begin organizing, dreaming together, and finding ways to participate. We hope many will have this powerful experience of faith, community, and mission, leaving a lasting mark on their lives and local communities.
How is support provided to ARYs who are going through crises and difficulties?
Any crisis demands, above all, listening, closeness, and respect. There are no ready-made solutions; we must understand each specific story, the wounds, the weariness, and the unmet expectations. When young people search, ask questions, or complain, it is a positive sign that speaks of their genuine interest and their desire to live the charism. This discontent stems from the intuition that this charism has enormous value; it demands depth and radical commitment.
One of the keys to revitalizing a youth movement is returning to the essentials: community, friendship, prayer, and personal and communal accompaniment. It is also crucial to care for those who provide accompaniment, because many crises arise from burnout, loneliness, or a lack of support and guidance.
When a crisis is understood as a call to conversion and discernment, it opens the possibility of starting anew with greater clarity and truth. Close, patient, and hopeful accompaniment allows us to recover meaning, depth, and perspective.
What future do you see and want for the ARYs?
I dream of a vibrant ARY community, a true home where one can find oneself, others, and God, where faith, life, and commitment are integrated in a coherent and profound way. I dream of solid formation processes, with well-prepared and committed mentors.
I dream of a ARY as a privileged space for discernment, where one can freely and courageously listen to God’s call, where one learns to make important decisions based on faith, without fear and with close support. A ARY as a fertile seedbed of vocations, both consecrated and lay, with a responsible and dedicated life in parishes, missions, education, or anywhere there is a brother or sister in need.
I dream of an Augustinian-Recollect Family that is increasingly aware of its identity, united in diversity and open to mission, with a ARY that cherishes its Augustinian and Recollect roots, and that has the audacity to respond to the challenges of young people with creativity, depth, and hope.
And all this not as a forced objective, but as the natural fruit of well-guided processes and an authentic experience of the Augustinian Recollect charism.
