We shall support lay people in the discernment and development of their own talents and charisms, encouraging them to undertake ministries and apostolic commitments and thus to shoulder the responsibilities which are properly theirs in the Christian community.
Rule 7 f
From the beginning the recipients of our ministry obviously were lay people. As our communities became permanently established, so too did our bonds with the people grow. From being recipients of our ministry people developed into cooperators in our ministry doing so in a variety of ways.
Over the years the cooperation became more clearly defined. Someone described this process as a graduation from receiving the crumbs of our spirituality and mission at table, to sitting at the table to share the fullness our charism, spirituality and mission.
Today we speak of the Oblate Charismatic Family, and just as a human family has many expressions and roles, so too does the expression and life of the Oblate charism in the laity change.
In 1842 Eugene acknowledged this cooperation by incorporating a married couple as “Honorary Oblates” who received the “merits of the sacrifices, prayers, fasts and generally in all good works” of the Congregation as a sign of gratitude for the help they had given to the Oblates (Letter to M. and Mme. Olivier Berthelet at Montreal,” September 25, 1842, EO 1 n 13).
Today we understand that everyone who lives by the Oblate charism is incorporated into the Oblate Charismatic Family according to their state of life.
