Augustine intended his community in Hippo Regius to be a concrete representation of the “Whole Christ.” He began the Rule for his community with these words:“ In the first place, live in harmony and be of one mind and heart intent on God; for this is the purpose of your coming together.” His community was to be, within the Church, an example of what the Church is in the first place, the “Body of Christ” intent on ascending to God the Father.

If the Gospel is to be really Good News for real men and women, he insisted that it must to be concrete: it has to be a promise that can be realized in the present. Living “in community” was not a matter of lifestyle; it was matter of “reality.” The only good worth possessing, the only real “common good” is God. In a community where each possesses God, all other possessions lose their significance and can be held in common. Where God can be one’s lover, exclusive relationships lose their significance and their power. Where God is the Sovereign Good, one’s own will for a happiness infinitely less than God loses its hold on one’s life. An Augustinian community is to be where God is pursued exclusively as the only Good that is really humanly satisfying.

To be “of one heart and one soul intent on God” is for the community to have Christ at the center of their lives and to be that center themselves. This requires the courage that Father D’Alzon demands: to be Christ for one another. A community where the brothers or sisters dare to be Christ for one another becomes itself the promise of possibility for the Church. If you want to be saved, be Jesus Christ yourself in your world. If you need an example to encourage you to be Jesus Christ for others, you should be able to see it in a community that has set out to live in the spirit of Saint Augustine.

by Father Roger Corriveau, A.A.

Dear brothers, sisters, lay Assumptionists,

Father Emmanuel d'Alzon

Saint Augustine puts it paradoxically: before being Jesus’ mother, Mary was his disciple (Sermon 25). The Gospel (Matthew 12:50) inspired Augustine’s reflection: “Whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my…mother.” Mary’s greatness is less due to the fact that she conceived Jesus in her womb, than to her complete acceptance of the Father’s will.

Saint Augustine goes one step further: if we are disciples like Mary, we can become “mothers” like her and bear fruit for the Kingdom, bringing others to birth in Christ by drawing them to the font of baptism.

Mary’s consecration as a disciple manifested itself when her parents presented her in the Temple. As we celebrate her discipleship, we remember Father Emmanuel d’Alzon on the 125^th anniversary of his death. He too was entirely given over to the Father’s will, and he too bore much fruit for the Kingdom.

New statue at shrine carries on a tradition

HUMAN CONDITION

At about 5:10 p.m. on June 9, 1953, the whirlwind that came to be known as the “Worcester Tornado” crashed into Assumption College in Worcester , shrouding it with menacing, black-ink clouds and furiously pummeling it with fist-sized hail, driving rain and train-roaring winds.

When the skies abruptly cleared, the Greendale campus lay in ruin.

A priest and two nuns were killed.

Given the damage from the storm and the cost to rebuild, it looked like the decades-old presence of the Augustinians of the Assumption Order in Worcester was over.

On Saturday, August 28, the feast of St. Augustine, our father, in the outdoor pavilion of St. Anne's Shrine in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, thousands of miles away from their homeland, but surrounded by hundreds of their fellow countrymen, parishioners, friends, and members of the Assumption family, male and female, Brothers Clemente Boleche, Jr., Alex Castro, and Carlos Melocoton made their first vows, committing their lives freely and fully to God in the Augustinians of the Assumption. Their profession marks another important step in the dream of an Assumptionist foundation in the Philippines, scheduled for the summer of 2006. The ceremony was capped off by a delightful and delicious meal of Filipino dishes, including lechon (roast pig). Filipino song and dance followed, of course. Together with their brother, Ricky Montañez, who made his first vows in January in Chile, Clem, Alex, and Carlos will begin seminary studies at St. John's Seminary in Boston in September.

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