The Augustinian Friars in Britain
Our Hearts are Restless until they Rest in You, Lord
‘Together for a Better World’ Augustinian Laity together in Rome ‘humbled but inspired’
Eight lay representatives and Bernard Rolls OSA from our Province took part in the 2nd International Congress of Augustinian Laity in Rome, 12-17 July, along with Paul Graham OSA, who was on the organising committee. The title of the Congress was Together for a Better World. There were two from each of Clare, Broomhouse, Carlisle and Harborne.
The brief our province representatives were given, was to return with ideas for development in the future. The group met overnight in Clare priory to their departure for Rome via Stansted, in order to get to know each other, tell where they had come from and generally be orientated towards the congress. On the morning of 11th, the members of the group were commissioned by the Provincial after Mass and given the Augustinian lapel-cross.
The first two days consisted of a talk, reflections on today’s world in the light of the City of God, given by James Hanvey SJ and by Bob Dodaro OSA. The talk was followed by group discussion, the challenge being to understand the relevance of the talks to the situation back home. Groups were deliberately mixed, with members from Holland, Australia, Ireland, Africa, US and our own province. On the third day, the Australians, Latin Americans, United States gave presentations. One of our representatives remarked, ‘Britain gave no
presentation. We have a lot of catching up to do.’ There were visits to Augustinian places, St Monica’s tomb, and to Ostia where they enjoyed Brian Lowery’s now famous presentation. The Sunday Eucharist was celebrated in the Church of S Maria del Popolo, following a multi-lingual cultural interpretation of the church and its art work.
Before the conclusion, 12 people were elected to represent all the Augustinian lay groups at the forthcoming General Chapter in 2007. During the congress, groups handed out small mementoes of their countries. Our group presented copies of Ben O’Rourke’s booklet of Augustinian quotations Return to Your Heart.
Kay & Geoff Snookes were the Harborne representatives. In addition to the factual information, incorporated above, they made some comments:
On reflection, it was a steep learning curve. We came away humbled but inspired by other nations’ experiences, and determined that by the next congress the England / Scotland Augustinian laity will have taken huge strides forward, to come together seeking God in unity of mind and heart under the guidance and inspiration of St Augustine. Paul Bethell, with Irene Lally representing Clare, writes:
Rome was beautiful and St Peter’s magnificent, but the unity, friendship and common purpose of the 180 lay people and 20 friars from all over the world was more beautiful than the buildings.
The final day was an historic invitation by the friars to all lay people connected in whatever way with them, to participate in a much more concrete way as partners in their mission. … A committee was elected to find out views at local level and feed this back to the General Chapter of 2007. Libby Conway, along with Sandra Archer went from Broomhouse. Libby was particularly impressed by the experience of a Maltese Augustinian, Fr Hillary:
The Augustinians have a Millennium Chapel in the Hilton Tower area, with the Blessed Sacrament exposed behind a wooden frame, lit by a beautiful blue light with gentle music, birdsongs and running brook sounds. Nearby is a centre WOW (Wishing Others Well) open from 9 am to 2 am, where they distribute bags of food to immigrants and the poor, provide counselling - a centre of peace and quiet.
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