PROVINCIAL CHAPTER CHRONICLE NUMBER FOUR
 One thing is what the horse thinks and another who saddles it. And the one to saddle it is none other than the Community. That is why on this day, Monday, 26 (August), the previous plan) to elect the Provincial at the first hour in the morning was modified. It seemed better to discuss on the priorities of the Province and on the personal qualities of him who shall occupy the service of leading the Province. The Jesuits called this time as the murmuratio.
 Conclusions:
1. It is clear that the priority is in Asia, the vocations, the preparation of being … so that they may be good friars and missionaries: the young student brothers. The priority is to maintainn the unity within the variety of places, ages and cultures.
2. Person of the Prior Provincial: The God of Genesis must come to Avila and to configure a new “Adamâ€. It had been demanded so many and such qualities that not even a lamp of infrared rays could find a person like that. In the end 5 or 7 names were presented, who could assume this responsibility, if the Holy Spirit would grant him fourteen gifts.
The time planned came and the election for the new Provincial took place. In a very short time Fr. JAVIER GONZALEZ IZQUIERDO obtained a vast majority of votes. It is a re-election. Fr. Javier is conscious that it is God who acts through man. As he is not an orator of long discourses, he expressed his feelings in brief words:
a) Thanks. The votes indicate that you have confidence in me. It is nice and positive.
 b) Everything that is coming upon me, the responsibilities, the works, the unhappiness are not pleasurable. I accept before God and promise with my best desire to serve the Province and each of her members.
The Holy Spirit had realized His first task: to give us clairvoyance to choose the candidate. We ask him not to forget the fourteen gifts which Fr. Javier needs.
Complementary Notes. The provincial chapter has visible actors: those who figure in the official list: 35 friars. There are two or three friars who without being officials are indispensable. Mario Jabares, the translator. In the last session, he came out with difficulty with the word “corajudoâ€: full of corage. To the Hispanic (speakers) another word with the same meaning would have been more familiar. Brother Andrés (Garcia), the chief of the secretariat, who transcribes my chronicles and the documents of the archive with admirable efficacy. Without these underground work the institutions do not function.
There are other “absences†with specific weight. I allude to two: The active friars of the Real Monastery who together with the service personnel are all in their toes, from food to the requirements of the liturgy. And the friars of the infirmary. We remember them in all our celebrations, though we only visit them when we are free. The eight are: Donato (Gonzalez), (Roman) Carter, Jesús Santos, Ezequiel (Garcia del Pino)Noblejas, MartÃn Arroyo Pino, Teodoro DÃez, (Pedro) Escudero and José Delgado, who recently arrived from the mission of Japan. Those who are lucid were very interested for the Chapter. Carter left his coffee to thank (me for) the chronicles which reach him in the computer.
A few moments ago I commented with my co-novice Fonso (Gonzalez Cobreces) saying: “the Chapter lacks humor!â€. There are no historical phrases, no equivocations that may provoke hilarity. There is a friar … who “talks by the elbowsâ€, that is, he does not stop talking…. (perhaps ) in Taiwan, the Chinese had him silenced (that is why!) After using so much English, the tongue of Mario (Jabares) seem to have lost its “purityâ€. The Asians are limited in their own languages. In the end, there is an absence of a comic note to alleviate the tedium of the long sessions.
I leave for another day to speak of the Egyptian girls who are with us in the Residence because the friars are not alone. I leave to the reflection of the readers this thought of a French philosopher: “the future is not what is to come, but what we are going to do†(Henri Bergson).
 BenjamÃn GarcÃa Fernández, O.P. (chronicler and nothing else)
PROVINCIAL CHAPTERÂ CHRONICLE NUMBER FIVE
After the election of the Prior Provincial, which took place on the 26, Monday, the result of the election was sent to the Curia in Rome. It was necessary that the Master of the Order confirm the election. Meanwhile, secret was demanded. It was five in the afternoon, it was late and by night the confirmation had not arrived, and this happened even though in Rome were informed of the Chapter. The Provincial-elect gave us the first gift: “Let us pray the rosary together before Vespersâ€. And this we did.
These were the best Vespers. Fr. Agripino recited the final antiphon dedicated to a Maracucho friar: “Do not be Juan Palomo, I cook it myself and I will eat it myselfâ€. Things of liturgy! It is because this maracucho brother had the only breviary, and intoned the Salve and the O Spem miram in Gregorian and recited by heart all the Latin prayers that exists. ( But was he Juan Palomo or Ãngel Gabriel?)
 In the afternoon the Commissions met. The work was tedious aggravated by the conviction that the Acts of the Chapters were not even read by the friars. In my commission of Dominican Apostolate we were guided by the Acts of the Provincial Chapter celebrated four years ago. In the past the Spanish missionaries were asked to have an open mind to other cultures. With the presence and action of the Asian friars, there is now a need to insist on mental openness of the Asians themselves to the different cultures of their neighbouring countries. The Chinese, the Koreans, the Burmese are all sons of the Province of the Rosary, which is beyond and above national frontiers. The Spanish missionaries in the past carried the Gospel to all these peoples. They did not speak of multiculturalism but they lived it.
 I commented in my previous entry that we are not alone in this cage in Avila. Beside ourselves we have a group of young Egyptian girls, some crazy, some liberated, whether they are veiled or not veiled. But none had the “shorts†as all Spanish girls wear during these hot days. The Egyptian girls attend a School of Languages. Some of them seem to be Coptic Christians and had greeted us in Spanish. We do not know if they are scholars or fled from the boiling situation which consumes their country in these moments.
 There are many people in the Residence, our old seminary. Remember that it has four floors with rooms almost luxurious. The building has almost a hundred meters long. There are students who are preparing for examinations for working positions. Other young people seek a propitious refuge for reflection, silence, the search for meaning for their lives. The residence continues to be useful.
 That same afternoon the election of Fr. Javier González Izquierdo as Prior Provincial has been confirmed by the Master of the Order. Our greetings and desires for success in his new period of service to the Province.
 BenjamÃn GarcÃa Fernández, O.P. (chronicler and nothing else)
 (translated by J. S.)