Our mission puts us on constant call to respond to the most urgent needs of the Church through various forms of witness and ministry, but especially through proclaiming the Word of God which finds its fulfilment in the celebration of the sacraments and in service to others.
CC&RR, Constitution 7
The reason for our existence is the Word of God. Our vocation is to be permeated with the Word and to proclaim it to others – especially to those who are the furthest away from the love of the Savior and are abandoned.
Eugene founded the Oblates to be mission preachers primarily and to go to the abandoned in the rural villages for periods of some five weeks of intense proclamation of the Word and of catechizing. Everything aimed at inviting the people to listen, with ears and heart, and to be transformed. This transformation was expressed in a deeper relationship with God in the sacraments and in service to one another.
St. John Vianney, the renowned Curé of Ars, lived at exactly the same time and did the same ministry in France, but in a different context and different method. His missionary message and goal was the same as ours: “Open your heart so that the Word of God may enter it, take root in it, and bear fruit there for eternal life.” He preached the Word and then spent countless hours each day in the confessional, accompanying people in their conversion and transformation.
“Open your heart so that the Word of God may enter it, take root in it, and bear fruit there for eternal life.” John Vianney
“Your Word is a lamp for my steps and a light for my path” Psalm 118
This morning a thousand thoughts fill my mind. I am tired, quite unable to think coherently for last night I attended the Installation of our Provincial and his Council. The scripture proclaimed was from Paul’s 1 letter to the Corinthians and from Luke 4: “The Spirit of the Lord has been give to me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring good news to the poor…”. As I heard the words there was joy within me and gratitude. The words being proclaimed were alive.
I look at how I have allowed the word of God to take root and bear fruit in my life, and in the lives of others around me. How do I proclaim that to others? How blessed I am, how blessed we are to be able to share with others this Good News.
Giving a greater understanding of the mission of the OMI’. Thank you. Lovely reading.
Thanks for the affirmation – it adds fuel to my enthusiasm and urges me on.
Peg, thank you for your lifetime of dedicated service to so many of the “most abandoned” – you and St Eugene would have got on every well in Aix and Marseille as you share the same Gospel vision.