Brother Joe Ruiz always felt a certain restlessness in life.
After graduating from a Catholic college in Austin, Texas, he has worked as an electronics technician for a computer company, a folklore dancer and as an extra for the opera Carmen.
Brother Joe Ruiz, OSA, right, professes his first vows as an Augustinian in August 2013, officiated by Rev Robert Prevost, left, then the Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine. PICTURE: Courtesy Brother Joe Ruiz.
But he was always drawn to a life of prayer and intimacy with God.
Saint Augustine’s famous words about God especially appealed to him: “You made us for Yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”
Ruiz found some stability, and rest, in the Augustinian order and in 2013 in the person of Rev Robert Prevost, then-prior general of the Augustinian order and now Pope Leo XIV. A “teacher of the professed” in Chicago that year, Father Bob, as he was then known, was Ruiz’s formator, a person who guides and supports individuals in their formation process as they prepare to take their vows and live in community with other men.
“The one thing that I really valued about him is that he’s a very good listener and he encouraged me,” said Ruiz, 51, of his trainer. “He’s that kind of guy – ‘Let’s have a conversation, let’s talk about it: What can we change, what needs to be worked out?’”
From him, Ruiz also learned how to live in community, one of the distinguishing marks of the Augustinian order.
The Augustinian priests and brothers who live at St Rita of Cascia Parish and teach St Rita’s of Cascia High School, on the city’s Southwest side, were overjoyed at the election of the new pope, whom they described as a steady, down-to-earth and thoughtful person.
Leo, the first US pope in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church, has spurred widespread interest in the Order of St. Augustine, a relatively small community in comparison to the Jesuits, which the late Pope Francis belonged to. Both were the first of their order to become pope, according to the Vatican.
The Augustinian Order has some 2,800 members in 60 countries, compared to the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, with about 20,170 members.
While the majority of Augustinians are priests, the order also has many brothers, or friars, who live with the priests as equals. Many of the brothers, like Ruiz, are teachers and administrators in Catholic high schools. Others serve as hospital chaplains or financial administrators.
What distinguishes the order is their life spent living together in a friary.
“Our emphasis is on creating a community among us and allowing the radiance of the community to have an impact on others,” said Rev Allan Fitzgerald, director of special events for the Augustinian Institute at Villanova University.
Br Joe Ruiz, OSA. PICTURE: Courtesy St Rita of Cascia High School.
Brother Ruiz teaches theology to freshmen and sophomores at St Rita’s High School. He lives in the friary with half a dozen other brothers.
“Our primary ministry is community life, where we live together in a friary,” said Ruiz. “We share meals together, we pray together, morning and evenings every day. We’ll have Mass together.”
It was there that he got to know Father Bob more than 12 years ago, and the two would see each other daily when Ruiz was preparing to take his first vows. The prior-general would stop by to check in or talk about how things were going, what his prayer life was like.
In August of 2013, Ruiz knelt before Prevost as he sat in a chair near the church altar, with The Rule of St Augustine and the order’s constitutional rules in his lap. The rule is a short document that serves as an outline for religious life lived in community.
All brothers, like priests, take vows of chastity, poverty and obedience spelled out in the order’s constitution. Ruiz took his final, permanent vows three years later from another priest.
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The Augustinian order traces its roots to Augustine, the renowned theologian and bishop who lived at the turn of the fifth century. He established a monastery beside his church in Hippo, an ancient port on the coast of North Africa, in modern-day Algeria. In that monastery, he lived with laymen he invited to share a community life with him.
From Father Bob, Ruiz learned about the Augustinian order’s presence in dozens of countries throughout the world, many of which the future pope had already traveled to.
Those relationships, formed living side by side, are lifelong.
In 2018, Ruiz traveled to Peru to see his mentor, who was then serving as bishop of Chiclayo, a city in northern Peru.
He saw him once again two years ago, just before Francis made him a cardinal.
“He was here in Chicago and stayed at our house,” Ruiz said. “So I got to talk to him for a bit.”
Brother Joe Ruiz, OSA, left, visits Bishop Robert Prevost in Pucala, Tierra de Martires, Peru, in 2018. PICTURE: Courtesy Brother Joe Ruiz.
For Augustinians, relationships are a point of pride.
“I think the beautiful thing about having a Pope who is from the Augustinian order is that he somehow has a sense of how people relate to one another,” said Fitzgerald.
Ruiz said he and the other teachers and students at St Rita’s cried and hugged when they heard last week that Father Bob was now Pope Leo.
“It amazed me that when you allow God’s will to be done, it will be done,” said Ruiz. “And sometimes there are surprises, and that was a very beautiful surprise for all of us as Augustinians.”
