Four topics to deepen in four years

The Prior General has announced the mottos on which the Order will work, in ministries and formation, in the next four years.

The Prior General, Friar Miguel Angel Hernandez, has made official the themes on which the Order will work in communities, parishes, educational centers and social projects during the next four years. In a letter sent to the religious, he has made known the themes around which the reflections of the six-year period will revolve.

Miguel Angel Hernandez and his Council consider it “interesting” to continue “with the dynamics of the previous General Council” and “to assign to each year of the sexennium a theme on which we can deepen through our monthly retreat days, the themes of ongoing formation, the Augustinian spiritual exercises, the pedagogical and pastoral objectives in the educational centers and other activities that can be organized at the level of the Order, Province, geographical area, local communities or concrete ministries”.

Each year work will be done on a specific theme that is a priority for the Order or that is considered necessary. In the case of educational centers that begin the school year in September, it has been specified that work will begin on the motto for the following year.

2024: “Do you aspire to great things? Begin with the smallest things”

The year 2024 will be dedicated to reflecting on “the little things, the day-to-day things that affect us directly, the things we do at home. The Prior General specifies that “we have the feeling that we take many things for granted or for granted, and we think it would be good to go back to them. “We want to keep in mind,” he says, “the so-called domestic virtues, which are those that we should exercise during the day to day in our communities and in our apostolates: tolerance, acceptance of others, respect, cordiality, good humor, generosity, responsibility, honesty, sincerity, patience, etc., in short, virtues that help us to be better and to grow as persons.

The motto for the year 2024 is taken from a phrase of St. Augustine, from Sermon 69: “Do you aspire to great things? Begin with the smallest things”. A smaller version is also proposed: “Dream big, Start small”.

Friar Miguel Angel Hernandez recalls the words of Pope Francis: “We must change the world with the little things of every day, with generosity, with sharing, with listening to others”.

2025: “Pilgrims of Hope”

In the year 2025, the Church will celebrate the Jubilee, which takes place every 25 years. For this reason, it has proposed to join in the celebration of the Holy Year, following the indications of Pope Francis: “The next Jubilee can greatly help to restore a climate of hope and trust, as a sign of a new renaissance that we all perceive as urgent. For this reason I chose the motto Pilgrims of Hope. All this will be possible if we are able to recover the sense of universal fraternity, if we do not close our eyes to the tragedy of rampant poverty that prevents millions of men, women, youth and children from living in a humanly dignified way”.

The motto and logo for the year 2025 will be the same as the one chosen by Pope Francis for the Jubilee: “Pilgrims of Hope”.

2026: “Proclaim Christ wherever you can!”

In the year 2026, the Order of Augustinian Recollects will celebrate a Missionary Year. The Prior General recalls that “we have had in the Order the AMAR (Augustinian Recollect Marian Year), the AVAR (Augustinian Recollect Vocation Year), the Year of Holiness and some missionary Congresses, but never a missionary year”. For this reason, following the need, externalized in the General Chapter and the Provincial Chapters, to strengthen the mission, a year around the mission will be celebrated.

Some of the objectives sought are to become aware of the situation of loss of missionary fervor and impetus in our family; to revitalize the missionary spirit in the Order, recovering the testimony of missionary religious who gave their lives; to reflect on the missionary dimension in the Augustinian Recollect charism or to become aware of the call that the Church makes to us to go out and evangelize, among others.

The motto chosen for this year 2026, missionary year, is also a phrase of St. Augustine in Sermon 260: “Proclaim Christ wherever you can!”

2027: “To accompany: is helping to walk in truth”

Although during the whole sexennium there will be activities, initiatives and reflections on accompaniment, the Prior General and his Council have thought it opportune to dedicate a whole year to it, given the importance that the Order wants to give to it.

“I believe that it is necessary that the topic be addressed head on, that we speak about accompaniment as a proposal for the growth of the person and the renewal of our personal and community religious life. It is good that, for a year, we feel questioned, challenged, enlightened by this topic to see if at the end of the year, at least we are left with the feeling and conviction that we all need to be accompanied in our lives,” says Friar Miguel Angel Hernandez.

In this sense, he recalls the accompaniment proposed by St. Augustine: that it be close and attentive to the journey, that it orients to the enlightening encounter with the interior Master, that it motivates to overcoming and transcendence, and that it refers to examples of following beyond what is established.

The motto chosen for the year 2027 is not a literal phrase of St. Augustine but it has Augustinian reminiscences is: “To accompany: is helping to walk in truth”.

The General Chapter will be held in the year 2028. For this reason, the Prior General has not wanted to propose a theme yet, but to decide together with the General Council closer to the date.

Source: Four topics to deepen in four years – Agustinos Recoletos