07/08/2026
SARF SPIRITUAL ADVISER:
A SIMPLE SHARING OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
(Contributed by an OAR Friar)
Who is really the SARF Spiritual Adviser? Is it the same as the officer in charge? Is it the local prior of each community or can he be delegated by the prior himself or community itself? What is his role? To what extent are the other members involved with SARF? These were some early lingering questions, and other similar questions asked long ago many times by some acquaintances and brothers who have no clear-cut directives from the authority. Thanks to the publication of the General Statutes Rome, October 2025, and the Rule of Life printed by the Province of St. Ezekiel Moreno these queries find light and direction.
Why of this personal sharing? Because it gave an initial impression that everything related to SARF is left solely to the Spiritual adviser. The rest of the religious members remain passive or indifferent. Only lately the active involvement of the whole community is felt particularly in their formation, spiritual activities, devotion, etc.
Here is the summarized norm of the general statutes and rule of life regarding SA:
“The spiritual adviser is a religious appointed by the major superior…whose roles are to offer spiritual encouragement to the fraternity… promote and inspire the OAR spirit in all its activities…”
What are some personal experiences and lessons observed and learned from being SA? I think some SAs from different chapters share similar experiences, but not all.
Some challenging experiences:
- Hard to recruit or attract candidates
- Many members are elderly
- Consistency and perseverance of members in attending formation and meeting
- Members are passive or inactive if SA is not wholeheartedly committed
- Other religious members of the community still seem indifferent.
- Sometimes curiosity still inquires: is the fraternity considered and remembered only when there are projects to be put up?
Some uplifting experiences being SA:
- My patience is tested and proven in dealing with different personalities and upbringing of its members
- I observed that many, if not all, are serious in deepening their spiritual life
- Chance for me to revisit or review the vocation of SARF in relation to the vocation of the other members of the Church and the Order.
- Opportunity to review the spirituality of the Order and my own vocation
- There is joy in being with the Fraternity members, especially in visiting the sick, caring for the elderly, touring churches and doing pilgrimages, praying for the dead, joining in their charitable and recreational activities etc.
Despite some challenges in accompanying SARF members, being a spiritual adviser is indeed a blessing because it can rejuvenate and awaken my vocation as a religious, reviewing and meditating on the charism, history, and apostolate of the Augustinian Recollect spirituality.
“Do not be wise for yourselves alone… In you there must be a source, never a deposit, from where something can be given, not where it is accumulated” (St. Augustine)
