Chronicle: 2 September 2025

General Chapter 2025
Chronicle, 2nd of September 2025 (Tuesday)

The activities of the 2nd of September began with a Eucharistic celebration which was presided over by the Prior General, Fr. Alejandro Moral Anton OSA who, in his homily, centred his reflection on the gospel passage of Luke 4,31-37. In this text Jesus liberates a possessed man. Those who witnessed the scene were amazed because of his actions and asked themselves where such power and authority came from. In contrast to the power of evil which disintegrates and divides, characteristic of the logic of the world, the power of Jesus, with a new authority, gathers together, unites and frees. It is in this spirit of authority that it serves and produces unity, in the logic of the Kingdom of God, which should guide the General Chapter, which has just begun.

In the morning session in the Augustinianum, bishop Luis Marin de San Martin OSA, sub-secretary of the Synod of Bishops, offered a reflection on the synodal and Augustinian meaning of the General Chapter, based on the theme: “Look, I am making all things new” (Rev 21,5). In his introduction he emphasized two terms that are relevant in the contemporary ecclesial context: Krisis and Kairos.

Religious life must make itself manifest as prophecy, responding to the crisis with three demands: Coherence, Credibility and Visibility. As Augustinians, we are invited to welcome the lived and existential experience of Augustine in the world today, guided not by a fuga mundi (escape from the world), but by going out to the world to evangelise it. The Kairos of God offers us two gifts which we need to take advantage of as opportunities: Synodality and the Augustinian Pope. The meditation continued on the following path: Light, Colour, Taste and Reformatio. On the synodal pathway of the church, having proclamation of his identity by Pope Leo XIV: “I am an Augustinian”, we, in our turn, must proclaim with enthusiasm: “We are Augustinians with you”. Following Vatican II it is necessary to reaffirm that the common baptismal vocation we share, from which flow all the ministries and charisms: all of us, all of us form part of the People of God. On the other hand, the synodal process does not negate the hierarchical reality of the church, the harmony created by the Holy Spirit is not uniformity but communion, which generates variety and diversity. Augustinians spirituality brings a particular flavor to the syodal pathway with its own network of communion, participation and mission, flowing from its mendicant and itinerant roots. Finally, the Reformatio gives us certain challenges at the Christological, ecclesiological, evangelizing, and structural levels, always being careful to bear in mind what the church asks of us today. We are at a time of courage and enthusiasm and also simplicity, challenged to abandon our comfort zones, all that enslaves us, to overcome the temptation of the trenches, living an authentic catholicity which is inclusive.

After the break we gathered in the community chapel for a time of Eucharistic adoration, meditating on texts of the scriptures, of St Augustine, and other texts of the Magisterium, insterspersed with Eucharistic hymns. We concluded with the recitation of mid-day prayer and the blessing with the Blessed Sacrament.
In the afternoon, as pilgrims of hope, we made a small pilgrimage to St. Peter’s Basilica where we had the opportunity to pray, visit the basilica and to receive the sacrament of reconciliation followed by free time.