OUR FOUNDING VISION: THE DESIRE TO CO-OPERATE WITH HIM CONTINUES TO CALL US TO BE SET APART FOR THE GOSPEL

Our founding community came together two hundred years ago to do exactly this. Today we express that same vision in slightly different words

We are men “set apart for the Gospel” (Rom 1: 1), men ready to leave everything to be disciples of Jesus. The desire to co-operate with him draws us to know him more deeply, to identify with him, to let him live in us.
We strive to reproduce in ourselves the pattern of his life. Thus, we give ourselves to the Father in obedience even unto death and dedicate ourselves to God’s people in unselfish love.
Our apostolic zeal is sustained by the unreserved gift we make of ourselves in our oblation, an offering constantly renewed by the challenges of our mission

CC&RR Constitution 2

FOUNDING VISION

“Disciple making is not a call for others to come to us to hear the gospel but a command for us to go to others to share the gospel.”   David Platt

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4 Responses to OUR FOUNDING VISION: THE DESIRE TO CO-OPERATE WITH HIM CONTINUES TO CALL US TO BE SET APART FOR THE GOSPEL

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:

    “The desire to co-operate with Him continues to call us to be set apart for the Gospel.” From the moment I heard your voice God, when you spoke my name, my heart was forever changed. I it as if it were yesterday – life altering, never to be the same again. I remember thinking that it was only in loving you that I would be able to love any and all others – no ‘if, ands or buts’ – it simply was that way. Were you calling me to be set apart my Beloved for it seemed that you branded me. What did I know of the Gospel?. I met you on the cross and again all of time stopped as I felt myself falling deeply in love, deeper than before. I was drawn to community, but you Lord were not so easily satisfied, not just any community would suffice. So I learned and grew and become connected with others. I loved my Church but still it was not intimately personal to me. I loved my parish community, but still held back a piece of myself. It was only with the passing of time that you introduced to me the Oblates. You gave the Oblates to me to live in my heart and gave me to them to hold in their hearts. I still did not ‘know’ the Gospel – but I began to learn. Your Word – it is your words and so it becomes mine.

    Constitution 2 still touches me, thrills my heart into wakefulness. I try to live it in little ways – I dare not measure it for I would come up so short that my heart would not be able to bear it. Still it grows in the small ways that only you can see. Isn’t it awesome what you have done; “…an offering constantly renewed by and with the Oblates, with the challenges of life that present themselves for they are a part of he mission.”

    Back to the words of Frank and St. Paul – set apart. Is this how you have set me apart Lord? To preach your word simply in the living of it? I am greedy Lord, I don’t want just a taste, just a sample, I want it all.

    How do I share the Gospel? Most imperfectly for my own humanness seems to get in the way. I hurt others and that hurts me more than I can believe. Perhaps it is in the trying to live it that there is grace.

    • Fr. Ray Kirtz OMI says:

      Eleanor, It is inspiring to me that you are so inspired by St. Eugene. Thank you for your reflections. Thank you to all our Oblate Associates.

  2. sello mokoka says:

    The Oblates of Mary Immaculate have taught the life of Jesus and of our mother, Mary the god-mother.
    We are so thankful for their sacrfice for bringing the word of God to us. We will forever love you fathers of OMI for the selfness you have given yourselves in service us.
    We pray that God may protect you all times and to give wisdom to make us love Jesus.

  3. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:

    Again I find myself on edge as I read the first line tell myself it is because of the word ‘men’ but there is something else there and so I move on. “The desire to co-operate with him draw us to know him more deeply, to identify with him, to let him live in us.”
    The image is one of a downward spiral – going deeper as if drilling to the very core of our beings. One would think that we would come to a point where we can go no further – a finite physical end but that does not, cannot happen and so I look back to the start of the spiral and it seems as if it is forever widening even as the other end is forever growing infinitesimally smaller. Without beginning or end.

    Jesus as my model. Do I dare? To concretize it, put it down in writing. To dedicate myself to God, to God’s people – in love. What does that look like?

    The “desire to identify with him and let him live in us” – that will lead me I am sure to total oblation and “dedication to God’s people in unselfish love”. One thing fills and leads to the other in an endless circle.

    I return to the first line. Am I a person ‘set apart for the Gospel’? Do I dare? As it often is with many other things I know that once I say yes and start I will not be able to stop. I think of Peter’s words “Lord where would we go?”

    Every single word of this Constitution seems to lead naturally to the next and then at the end right back to the beginning. It is dynamic and never ending. I need to stop analyzing and simply ‘be’ with it. A little big leap of faith perhaps. I will take this with me as I allow myself to simply ‘be’ in the presence of God – it is always easier when being held in the tenderness of his embrace.

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