A manual at the service of spiritual accompaniment
The Province of Saint Thomas of Villanova and the Order of Augustinian Recollects have presented the Manual for the Accompanier of the Augustinian Spiritual Exercises, a material designed for preachers, spiritual directors, and coordinating teams who wish to prepare for and experience the Spiritual Exercises from a deep experience of prayer, discernment, and communion.
This manual was created as a tool at the service of the Order’s evangelizing mission, with the desire to care for the inner process of those who participate in the Exercises and those who accompany them, fostering a spiritual climate that allows them to be led by the Holy Spirit.
A formative proposal in audiovisual format
As a complement to the printed material, a series of training videos, presented by Bruno DāAndrea, has been made available, forming a playlist on YouTube. In these audiovisual encounters, the contents of the manual, its spiritual meaning, and the necessary keys for adequate prior preparation, both personal and community-based, are explained in a pedagogical and accessible way.
The videos help to understand that the Spiritual Exercises are not only a set of meditations, but a spiritual process that requires inner availability, silence, listening, and attentive accompaniment. In this sense, the manual offers practical and spiritual guidance so that the accompanier can sustain the exercitant’s path with respect, discernment, and fidelity to the Augustinian charism.
Spiritual Exercises: a path of encounter and discernment
The objective of this material is clear: that the Spiritual Exercises may truly be a space, time, and place of encounter with the Lord. An encounter that is not imposed, but welcomed; that is not directed from the outside, but discerned from within, in the silent action of the Spirit.
From the spirituality of Saint Augustine, the Exercises are understood as an inner pilgrimage path, in which each person is invited to return to the heart, where God dwells and speaks. The accompaniment, then, does not seek to lead the exercitant towards prefabricated answers, but to help him recognize the voice of God that acts in his own history.
A resource to walk together towards the definitive homeland
The Manual for the Accompanier of the Augustinian Spiritual Exercises is presented, thus, as a resource at the service of spiritual growth, community discernment, and the mission of the Church. A material that reminds us that the Christian lifeāand particularly the consecrated lifeāis a shared journey, a pilgrimage in which, as Saint Augustine said, we advance together towards the definitive homeland, which is the Lord who loves us.
