Augustinian Sisters of Our Lady of Consolation

Office of the General Councilor on Community Life & Spirituality

La Consolacion Convent, 273 Santolan Road
San Juan City, Metro Manila, Philippines
RECOLLECTION GUIDE
For the month of AUGUST 2018

THEME: CHARACTERISTICS OF AUGUSTINIAN

SPIRITUALITY

GRACE: __________________________

COMMUNITY’S AGREED - UPON SCHEDULE:

or

SUGGESTED SCHEDULE:

8:30 – 9:30 Adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament

9:30 – 10:30 Communal reading of the texts given
10:30 – 11:00 Health Break
11:00 – 11:45 Personal Prayer and Reflection
11:45 – 12:00 Midday Prayer
12:00 – 3:00 Lunch Break/Siesta/Journal Writing
3:00 – 4:00 Spiritual Reading/Personal Prayer
4:00 – 4:30 Health Break
4:30 – 6:30 Faith – Life Sharing and Creative Vespers
7:00 – 9:00 Dinner & Community Recreation

SUGGESTED MATERIALS FOR PRAYER,

PERSONAL READINGS & REFLECTION:

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 TEN CHARACTERISTICS OF AUGUSTINIAN SPIRITUALITY

1. The search for God

A longing, or desire, for a deeper meaning to life, a kind of homesickness for

God is interwoven with our lives. Only when a person inquires about God,
seeks him, desires him, and goes towards him, does he find meaning and
fulfillment for his life. If Augustine were alive today he might say ' A
religious is a person who has determined to seek God and God's kingdom
in everything.' Augustine prayed once : "Let me not grow tired of seeking
you ". (De Trinitate. XV 28, 51)

2. Love as the center of Christian life

Augustine's spirituality is characterized by the fact that the light, in which he

views the whole Gospel, is love, the New Song of the New Testament.
Everything can be reduced to love. All forms of wrongdoing are to be reduced
to false self-love. The opposite to this self-love is 'agape', the love that
justifiably enjoys what is really enjoyable, both human and Divine. Every
virtue can be reduced to love - if we are happy, is it not because we love
someone? Love provides us with an orientation in life. For Augustine, true
virtue consists in ordering love properly.

3. Love of God as love of each other

A change of vision for Augustine from a sharp distinction between love of God
and of people, to, 'authentic love for a human being is at the same time love of
God'. 'Honor God in each other' is the worship of God. God is love; and love is
the same as our human love. Our love for a human being is far more concrete
than our love of God. It is harder to delude ourselves here, we become more
conscious of our failures.

4. The parable of the Last Judgment (Matthew 25)

For Augustine the Christian Adventure consists in experiencing love of God as

love for each other. Love of neighbor is the sole norm. We meet God in
people. Building up community among people becomes the most important
motif in Augustine's spirituality.

5. Christian community and friendship

Poverty means a 'community of goods' or 'sober living' for Augustine - to share

with the other person, both material goods and spiritual goods. Sober life helps the
community to contribute to helping the needy outside the community. Chastity is
seen as being totally available for the Other. Obedience, or willingness to listen,
are acts of love, listening is an act of compassion, authority is the serving of a
group. The communitarian ideal culminates in friendship which after love of

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neighbor (does not ask for a response) is the highest form of human relationship
(mutual love, loving and being loved.)

6. The love of Scripture

One of the great services Augustine renders to the spiritual life of his followers is
to bring them to Scripture and to help them develop a thirst for the Word of God.
Paul and John are the focus of much of Augustine's challenge from Scripture. The
words of Paul, "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ," burned within him.

7. Interiority

Augustine saw himself as a facilitator from without. The real teacher was within.
"To me your ears, to Him your heart, that both may be filled." [ John 1.7 ]
Augustine's conviction that a person must return to his heart if he hopes to find
God. Returning to your heart has different shades of meaning. First, it is a return
to your senses and stop wayward behavior. Secondly, it has to do with the image
of God within. Generally it deals with not being able to find God if one does not
find oneself. The God who dwells within is an active God.

8. The Total Christ

Augustine never stopped searching for the Christ he found a first time in so
dramatic a way as the moment of conversion when he "put on the Lord Jesus
Christ." Augustine continued to find Him, to be possessed by Him more fully. If
Augustine can speak of Christians as other Christ, it is because he looks beyond the
birth of the Child Jesus for the full meaning of the Incarnation of Jesus into the
human race. Every Christian shares in the Incarnation. They are carriers of
Christ in every aspect of their lives.

9. Faith-Hope-Love

To know of Augustine's sense of wonder and awe at the "Whole Christ" is to be

ready to understand that his great drive in his life was to know man and to know
God. To know man was to know God.

Augustine's theology of the theological virtues of faith, hope and love is really the
key to his entire spirituality. He sees these three virtues as both gifts and actions
of God, the Almighty acting in creatures in ways they are incapable of acting on
their own.
Through faith, God makes Himself present to human beings. This faith is bound
up with hope and love. These three virtues or powers are divine actions that have
their origin in eternity and their effect in time. They allow mere humans to be
transformed and achieve an initial union with God while continuing to live in and
be limited by the world.

10.Grace and Freedom

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Perfect love gives perfect freedom and both are the result of grace. Augustine
taught that every aspect of the spiritual life, every step of the way, is a gift of God.
This is the first meaning of grace for him. The second is that grace is a person:
Christ given to us that we may live.

Freedom comes to the faithful through grace. Christ makes people free. He is
God's love made present to humankind. The more He is allowed to take hold in the
lives of Christians, the freer they become. For Augustine, this freedom supersedes
freedom of choice. For him, the greatest freedom is to have no choice at all.

GUIDE QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

1. Do I have time to seek God in my daily life?

2. How am I living my vows as an Augustinian religious?
3. In what way have I lived out my being a “carrier of Christ”?
4. What is freedom for me?