Walking with St. Augustin in today's world

(Vatican Radio) A conference focussing on the lay Augustinian spirituality, running from July 11-17, is currently taking place in Rome. The theme of the Congress is “Walking with Saint Augustine: being the Body of Christ in today’s world.” The international congress is organized every six years, and represents various Augustinian apostolates from around the world.

Prior General of the Augustinians Fr Robert Prevost spoke with Vatican Radio about Augustinian spirituality within the context of the lay apostolate.

“I would describe the Augustinian charism,” Fr Prevost said, “as primarily unity, but unity in love, where we are searching together for the truth. The community, coming out of Augustine’s experience of doing his best learning, and coming to God, with the help of others.”

The lay Augustinians, Fr Prevost explained, are “secular fraternities and lay people who join with the Augustinians in less formal ways through the Augustinian families, through the various organizations, schools, parishes, and other ways we gather people together.”

Their role, he continues, is to “help expand the concepts of unity, love, and truth, to take those to people that the Augustinians can’t reach either because of numbers or because of circumstances.”

The significance this event taking place near the 50^th anniversary of the Vatican II Council was one of the topics discussed at the Congress. “It is a time of the Spirit,” Fr Prevost explained. “We didn’t plan it to be fifty years after Vatican II, but that it is helping us to see the broader issues, the broader directions we should be working on, not just something that is small and personal to the Augustinians, but should be taken to the larger world.”

Listen to Prior General of the Augustinians Fr Robert Prevost’s full interview with Vatican Radio here: