Spanish Recollect Visits OAR Novitiate House in Antipolo

ANTIPOLO CITY – Fray Francisco Javier Legarra, OAR visits St. Ezekiel Moreno Novitiate – Recoletos in on August 28, 2017, the Solemnity of Our Holy Father St. Augustine.

Fr. Paco, as he likes to be called, gave a conference to the six novices about any lingering questions about the Church, the Order, St. Nicholas Province, etc. One of the topics discussed is about community life wherein he stresses the importance of living in and among the community and not in isolation from it. He mentions that the community is there to help purify each member. He compares this idea to a rough stone slowly being smoothened as it is carried away by the waters of a river where it constantly has contact with other rough stones.

He adds that happiness in the community does not lie in wanting to change others but in changing oneself for the betterment of the community. “Do not wait for the community to make you happy, but commit yourself in making others in the community happy,” Fr. Paco states.

Fr. Paco hails from Pamplona, Navarra, Spain. He is a member of the Province of St. Nicholas of Tolentine and he is currently assigned in Mexico as the in-charge of the OAR contemplative nuns.