BEATIFICATION
11 DECEMBER 2016
http://omipostulationen.weebly.com/martyrs-of-laos.html
https://www.eugenedemazenod.net/?p=2803
https://www.eugenedemazenod.net/?p=2808
https://www.eugenedemazenod.net/?p=3098
http://www.omiworld.org/upload/biblioteca/martyrs-of-laos.pdf
What a time to be living in!
My heart is set on fire this morning – not reading all that Frank has cited in this posting but focussing on Fr Mario Borzaga OMI who I have been noting in the past week or so. My friend Fr. Vlastimil Kadlec OMI has moved, has been sent from his Czech Republic to Fulda Germany, to be a part of a new Oblate Mission with youth and pastoral care and the name of this new international community is “Mario Borzaga Community. I do not know the others in this new community, but if their zeal and love of life and willingness to see through the eyes of the Crucified Saviour is like Vlastimil’s then they are well named.
Last night at our Feast Day celebrations I saw the presentation given by our North American Region at the 36th General Chapter. I was filled with joy and a wonderful pride as I watched and listened and prayed with the members of our local Mazenodian Community. The history of peoples giving themselves to God and so the world. How blessed I am to be in their midst.
The joy – that is one of the hallmarks for me of Oblates – there is struggle and death but always there is this deep joy. I think of Fr. Mario Borzaga’s words “I have understood my vocation: to be a happy man, even in the effort to identify myself with the Crucified Christ” and “I want to tell you, first of all, of my joy for having achieved the priesthood in the bosom of the Congregation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate; a joy so alive at this moment being ordained few days ago. With regards to my future religious life, I am at your complete disposition.” And finally: “We missionaries are made to be this: to leave is a normality, to go is a necessity! Tomorrow the roads will be our homes; and if we shall be compelled to anchor ourselves into a home, we will transform it into a road that leads to God.”
A founding vision, part of our founding vision. Blessed Oblate martyrs of Laos pray for us. Fr. Mario Borzaga pray for us. Members of the new Mario Borzaga Community pray with us and we pray with you.