Our Oblate Constitutions and Rules are clear as to who the preferential recipients of our mission must be:
Wherever we work, our mission is especially to those people whose condition cries out for salvation and for the hope which only Jesus Christ can fully bring. These are the poor with their many faces; we give them our preference.
Constitution 5
We find the roots of this commitment to the “poor with their many faces” throughout the ministry of Eugene and of the missionaries. In the Marignane mission, for example we read:
After the blessing, the men were let go. The girls and some ladies congregated in the confession chapel.
Diary of the Marignane Mission, 24 November 1816, O.W. XVI
Special sessions or retreat days were organised for specific groups like the children, young girls, women, men and others. All were an attempt to bring each person more directly to an encounter with Christ the Saviour according to the specific needs of their age and condition of life. Separate sermons and retreat days were organised for the men and for the women in preparation for their receiving Communion. The general communion Mass was also organised on one Sunday only for the women, and on another only for the men – but also with a time or good preparation before. In this way the specific needs of each were catered to:
the women and young ladies were brought together at two o’clock in the afternoon, on the sounding of the big bell, and we spoke with them about what they were preparing for and how to do it well.
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Diary of the Marignane Mission, 6 December 1816, O.W. XVI |