More than three years have passed since our preceding assembly, and this year’s get-together was another memorable one. There were 33 friars of St. Augustine Province in attendance. As usual, the accommodations provided by St. Augustine Priory’s Father Prior Domingos Machado and fellow religious were terrific. The food was fantastic. Yet again, our cherished friends, the Friedrich family, provided several of the meals, beautifully catered and served, complete with brightly-colored autumn table linens and fresh flower baskets. We were also blessed by the hospitality of the priory’s local friends, including the Secular Augustinian Recollects and Knights of Columbus. Their dedication to us was a wonderful testimony of their love for our Order. There is also the beauty of the nearby Pacific Ocean that called plenty of the friars there for a swim, a jog, or a walk on the warm sand. The assembly, however, most significantly, provided another opportunity for us to “start afresh in Christ” by praying together, celebrating Mass together, and just plain being together. We were also able to refresh our minds through the gifted guest speakers who put so much time and preparation into their presentations.
A fellow Recollect, St. Ezekiel’s Father Sammy Silloriquez, general councilor and postulator for the cause of canonization of Bishop Alphonse Gallegos, had the fullest schedule. Fr. Sammy took us through a five-day seminar focusing on our 2006 provincial chapter determination of greater study of our Constitutions. The themes of the conferences were: History and Spirituality of the Constitutions, Communitarian Character of the Order, Praying and Penitent Community, Apostolic Community, and OAR Response to the Challenges in the Present Society. Through his unique style, which utilized knowledge of the Constitutions, personal community experiences, and sharp humor, Fr. Sammy allowed us all to sense the importance of the Constitutions, and the urgency that we understand and apply them better in our service to one another and to those whom we minister.
Our second guest speaker was Sister Barbra Ostheimer, SND, of the Center of Ignatian Spirituality in Orange, California. A gifted orator, Sister Barbra addressed the everyday community living of religious. Her topic included a wide variety of questions to think about, all which she has pondered so often over her several decades of religious life. Our Tuesday discussion tackled the following challenges which were most often shared in small-group dialogue: How do you see community as a gift? How does the capacity to listen affect your community? How does the capacity to handle emotions affect your community? Do you experience community as a sense of belonging? How do you handle conflict in your community? Sister Barbra certainly challenged us to discover that even with conflicts sometimes present, the experience of community life is a true gift from God.
Rounding out our week of friendship and dialogue, we had the pleasure of having OAR Father Juan Luis Calderón, of Saint Nicholas Province, who currently serves at Guadalupe Center in Union City, New Jersey. Fr. Juan Luis provided a terrific PowerPoint presentation that he creatively called the 7 Ups of Religious Life. It wasn’t just a clever title, and as a matter of fact, there were even more than seven ups that Father Juan Luis believes make up good, wholesome community living. He explained that is good for us to look up, to stand up, to wake up, to give up, to build up, to laugh up and to take up, the last meaning, of course, that when we take up our crosses, we join our Savior in a more intimate way. After all, it is the way intended for all of us.
The triennial Province Assembly is not held merely to comply with the determinations of a provincial chapter. It is held in order to provide every religious a new opportunity to gather with those fellow brothers he hasn’t seen for a long time; a new opportunity to learn of another’s recent accomplishments; a new opportunity to seek the concern of another friar to help him deal with a difficulty; and a new opportunity to see how good and pleasant it is when brothers live in unity.
Fr. Michael Rafferty, OAR
OAR participants of October 2008 Province Assembly, Oxnard, California
