Photos and Story by Georgene Quilaton-Tambiga
Three decades of fraternity!
March 23, 2022—The Secular Augustinian Recollect Fraternity (SARF) de San Carlos City commemorated 30 years of fraternal and Augustinian journey with a solemn Thanksgiving Mass at the Sto. Tomas de Villanueva-Recoletos Chapel.
SARF members, including the elderly who limited religious participation to televised Masses due to the pandemic, also attended the Holy Mass and joined the fellowship breakfast.
The celebration may have been austere in the light of losing a few members during the stretch of the pandemic, but reunited members were filled with joy to again gather after two years of lockdowns and restrictive health protocols.
Rev. Fr. Renier Alviola, OAR, was the main celebrant and homilist and Rev. Fr. Vicente Ramon, Jr., OAR, SARF de San Carlos spiritual director, and Rev. Fr. Joe Alve, OAR were con-celebrants.
Fr. Alviola focused his homily on love and he reminded SARF de San Carlos that interpretation of religious practices may come differently for different groups but “The core meaning of the Law and the prophets is love.”
The campus minister at Colegio de Sto. Tomas-Recoletos admonished the members of the Third Order to continue their ministry as Augustinian Recollects in the spirit of caritas or love.
SARF de San Carlos began in 1992 with mostly Thomasian teachers and staff as pioneering members.
SARF is an organization that is part of the Roman Catholic Church and the Order of Augustinian Recollects. Its members are lay faithful who promised to follow the Rule of their father St. Augustine and the particular Statutes of the SARF.
