The Preparation Course for Solemn Profession is over… And now, what’s the next?
Ten simply professed Augustinian Recollect religious (three from the Province of San Nicholas of Tolentine, five from Saint Thomas of Vilanova, and two from Saint Ezekiel Moreno) have had the enormous grace of living in Colombia our immediate preparation course for solemn profession. In one of the last experiences of our initial formation, we prepare to ratify, for life, our consecration to God and to the Church in the Augustinian Recollect Family.
These weeks have served to make a brief, but challenging, review of the essential pillars of our Augustinian and Recollect charism, the same ones that we have been getting to know, deepening and loving during all these years of initial formation, namely: the Wisdoms of interiority, ecclesiality and the apostolate.
Charisma, spirituality, and the way of living in community are essential traits that we have come to know and practice since we began this adventure of consecrated life. Each of us who went to Colombia had been there for a different amount of time since beginning our vocational journey: some eight years, one even fourteen; in my case, a little over nine.
This preparation for solemn profession had a special emotional tone. Of the eight of us who completed the novitiate and professed together, one decided to wait another year before taking the step to solemn profession; so of the ten of us who were in Colombia, seven of us were fellow novices, with a long, truly close fraternal relationship.
Since our formation houses are in Spain (each Province of the Order has its own, and the novitiate was common and shared), we have had the opportunity to meet annually during formation weeks, the Spiritual Exercises, or on days off at Christmas.
But these annual meetings ended when the seven of us, having completed our theological studies, began the so-called period of community and pastoral integration, assigned to a mission in a specific community. By now, we are scattered throughout many parts of the world, engaged in very different tasks.
Immediately, each of us felt the excitement of meeting again, and of course, sharing a training together, aroused in us all—now with the nostalgia of knowing that it won’t be easy to be together again for a long time.
Beyond how beneficial the topics covered during the training are for our lives, it’s the fellowship I’m most grateful for during these weeks: among the fellow novices, but also with the other three religious who were taking the course and were not in our novitiate, with the organizing team, with the facilitators, with those who welcomed us into their communities so fraternally, like true brothers.
Psalm 132, which meant so much to St. Augustine ‘s experience of community, returned to my mind and heart again and again: “How sweet and delightful it is for brothers to live together in unity.” Centuries later, St. Francis translated it into his own experience, saying, “God has given me brothers.”
And this is how I have experienced it throughout these years of vocational discernment and initial formation. Since my first experience in the Aspirancy in Costa Rica, “God has given me brothers”; and, as the years go by, He continues to give them to me.
Through them, God has allowed me to experience His love in my life. And what’s next? Well, to continue listening daily to the Lord’s voice, to continue discerning His will in my life, and to be willing to follow Him with joy.
The Lord has done great things for us, and we are glad! (Ps 125:3)
