There are moments when silence also forms part of a conversation.
This is how many of the sessions of the XXXVIII Provincial Chapter of the Province of Santo Tomás de Villanueva unfold. After each intervention, a few seconds of pause arrive. No one responds immediately. Some take notes. Others turn their gaze toward the documents before them. Some simply listen.
It is not an uncomfortable silence. It is the necessary time for a brother’s word to find space.
Perhaps this is where a Provincial Chapter truly begins.
While the commissions advance in their work and the capitulars continue discerning the paths that will mark the future of the Province, a fruit that does not appear in the votes or documents begins to become visible: a community that learns to listen to itself in order to seek, together, the will of God.
This impression is also perceived in the conversations held with four capitular fathers. Although they come from different countries and belong to different generations, their testimonies converge on the same certainty: the future of the Province is not built from the imposition of ideas, but from communion.
A Fraternity Born from Listening
Those who observe the development of the Chapter might think that the long sessions are occupied solely by reports, analyses, and proposals. However, those who experience them from within describe another reality.
The first thing that appears is not the decisions, but the fraternity.
Fr. Luis González summarizes it with a simple yet profoundly revealing image: “there are hearts open to listening.” It is not only about hearing what each person thinks, but about taking a sincere interest in the reality that the brothers live in the different communities of the Province.
This climate of trust allows religious with very different backgrounds to share concerns, challenges, and hopes freely. It also explains how a Province present in several countries can sit around the same table to look toward the future without ceasing to recognize the richness of its diversity.
It is no coincidence that, of the twenty-nine capitulars, thirteen are under fifty years old. The presence of young religious, alongside those who have decades of consecrated life, makes visible a generational transition that does not break with history, but prolongs it. Experience offers depth; youth contributes new sensibilities. Both are needed to continue writing the future of the Province.
Listening to the Brother to Listen to the Spirit
If there was one idea that ran through all the interviews, it was the conviction that discernment begins long before any vote.
It begins when each brother makes space for the voice of the other.
Fr. Bruno D’Andrea’s phrase clearly summarizes this experience:
“Listening to the brother, I believe, is the best way to listen to what the Spirit tells us.”
It is not an improvised statement. Behind it lies a way of understanding the Chapter. Each religious arrives representing a concrete community, a different pastoral reality, particular challenges, and also hopes. Listening to these experiences means broadening one’s own perspective and discovering that God also speaks through the history of others.
This is why prayer occupies such an important place during these days. Not as a moment separated from the work, but as the foundation that sustains each dialogue and each decision.
The Future Does Not Belong to Our Ideas, but to God’s Project
The answers change when asked what they hope to find when the Chapter ends.
They no longer speak of meetings.
They speak of communities.
They speak of mission.
They speak of hope.
Perhaps the most eloquent answer is that of Fr. Danilo De Souza, who is participating in a Provincial Chapter for the first time.
“I do not want my will to be done; I want God to accomplish His project for our Province.”
In this phrase is concentrated much of the spirit that runs through these days.
The true success of the Chapter will not depend solely on the decisions that are approved, but on the capacity to convert them into life: more fraternal communities, religious more available for mission, and a Province capable of responding, with creativity and fidelity, to the challenges posed by today’s world.
This is why several capitulars share the same desire: that what has been experienced these days may remain long after the Chapter ends.
A Path That Continues with the Entire Province
None of those interviewed understands that the Chapter belongs only to those who participate in it.
On the contrary.
All speak of those who accompany from the communities, the parishes, the schools, the secular fraternities, the JAR, the Mothers Monica, and so many places where the Augustinian Recollect charism continues to give life.
Fr. Hoimer Hinostrosa expresses it by looking beyond these days of work.
“The entire development of this Chapter is the fruit of listening in the reports, the debates, the decisions, and the deliberations. The sole purpose is to respond, from our charism, to the needs that today’s world experiences.”
Perhaps this is the best way to understand what is happening.
While the capitular sessions continue, the future of the Province begins to take shape not only in the documents that will be approved at the end of the gathering, but also in a shared conviction: that experience and youth can walk together, that discernment requires listening before responding, and that mission is only renewed when an entire Province decides to return, once more, to placing Christ at the center.
