The Communication Office of the Order of Augustinian Recollects has presented the Prior General, Friar Miguel Ángel Hernández, OAR, with a gift for his birthday on January 19: the first “missionary glasses.” With this gesture, shared at the beginning of the Missionary Year, a communication campaign is launched that aims to help the entire Augustinian Recollect Family to renew their vision and availability for the mission.
This is not just an object, but a simple and replicable sign, designed to promote an inner attitude: to look at reality with the eyes of Christ. A look that is not enclosed in oneself, but opens to the neighbor, especially to those who walk by our side and who need accompaniment, closeness, and proclamation of the Gospel.
A gift that starts the Missionary Year campaign
The delivery of these glasses to the Prior General marks the visible beginning of the campaign. The gesture originates from institutional communication as an invitation to all: communities, apostolic works, educational presence, young people, fraternities, and laity linked to the Order. The proposal is that, throughout the Missionary Year, this sign can be repeated in different places and contexts, fostering a common language for the mission: learning to look in another way.
“Glasses for the heart”
In his words, Friar Miguel Ángel Hernández emphasizes the spiritual meaning of the initiative. The “missionary glasses” refer to a look that is educated with patience: putting others first, recognizing concrete needs, and being moved by mercy and compassion. In that line, the Prior General invited the entire Augustinian Recollect Family to assume this gesture as learning and habit.
“I would like to invite you all, in this Missionary Year of the Order, to put on these missionary glasses. With these glasses, if one looks at oneself, one does not find oneself: you do not see yourself with them, because they look in only one direction, to the sides—at those who walk with us—and forward—at those who are also in our lives and need us. They are not glasses to look at oneself; they are glasses to look at reality with the eyes of Christ, with his gaze of mercy and compassion. They are glasses that serve the heart more than the eyes. That is why I invite the entire Augustinian Recollect Family—nuns, religious, young people, fraternities, educators, Mónicas—to put on these glasses this year, learn and get used to looking with them, because it is necessary to get used to it: to get used to putting others first and to see the needs of others before contemplating our own. I invite you, then, to have this gesture and to repeat it in many places, contexts, situations, and environments; that we invite each other to put on those glasses of the mission, the glasses of evangelization, capable of detecting the needs of our less favored brothers, and that we remember that God calls us to announce it wherever possible.”
An invitation to look and go out to meet
The campaign begins with a clear message: the Missionary Year is an opportunity to refine the gaze and translate it into closeness, service, and evangelization. Looking with Christ implies seeing others—and their needs—with greater truth and compassion. And, from there, take a step forward: accompany, support, announce.
With this first gesture, received by the Prior General as a starting point, the Augustinian Recollect Family is called to put on the “missionary glasses” and make that look a shared style: to announce God wherever possible.
