OUR FOUNDING VISION TODAY: MISSIONARIES TO THE POOR ACCORDING TO THE EXAMPLE OF MARY, WHO WAS FULLY ATTENTIVE TO THE NEEDS OF THE POOR

Posted on December 12, 2024 by franksantucci

We are members of the prophetic Church. While recognizing our own need for conversion, we bear witness to God’s holiness and justice. We announce the liberating presence of Jesus Christ and the new world born in his resurrection. We will hear and make heard the clamour of the voiceless, which is a cry to God who brings down the mighty from their thrones and exalts the lowly (cf. Lk 1: 52). (OMI Rule, Constitution 9)

The wording of this Constitution startled some when the time came for its ecclesiastical approval. Father Jetté, who was the Superior General, responded in the name of the Oblates:

“The allusion to Mary’s canticle is to be read in the biblical perspective of salvation. As Oblates of Mary Immaculate we love to live our vocation of missionaries to the poor according to the example of her who was fully attentive to the needs of the little ones and the poor among God’s People. On January 30, 1979, in his homily at the shrine of Zapopan (Mexico), Pope John Paul II did not hesitate to quote this same passage when he was speaking of the Christian commitment to serving the poorest of the poor” (Réponse aux Observations de la S.C.R.I.S., April 16, 1982)” F. Jetté, The Apostolic Man, p. 103

Mary Immaculate is patroness of our Congregation. Open to the Spirit, she consecrated herself totally as lowly handmaid to the person and work of the Saviour. She received Christ in order to share him with all the world, whose hope he is. In her, we recognize the model of the Church’s faith and of our own. (OMI Rule, Constitution 10)

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1 Response to OUR FOUNDING VISION TODAY: MISSIONARIES TO THE POOR ACCORDING TO THE EXAMPLE OF MARY, WHO WAS FULLY ATTENTIVE TO THE NEEDS OF THE POOR

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate Associate says:
    December 12, 2024 at 12:02

    This is about “ongoing formation” for me and hopefully others who come here daily to ponder and enter more deeply into Gods’ call within each of us. We who are invited by St. Eugene de Mazenod to join him in becoming missionaries in the light of his Charism: a charism given by the Spirit of God. (Even as I write the words “charism give by the Spirit of God” there is an inclination to ponder those few words about the “Spirit of God” and her place in the Trinity that is God. God is not defined by him or her but as both with the characteristics of them both.)

    And so it is that “while recognizing our own need for conversion, we bear witness to God’s holiness and justice…” I have read this Constitution many times, and indeed read Jetté’s commentary at least once without picking up the allusion to Mary’s canticle which I love, one of my most cherished readings in the Scriptures.

    Mary “received Christ in order to share him with all the world, whose hope he is. In her, we recognize the model of the Church’s faith and of our own.” Another invitation to enter more deeply, to taste and savour and chew the words of this beautiful Rule of Life, allowing them to become a part of our own spirit and charism. This is to stand in the presence of God and allow God’s fullness to touch and become enmeshed with our foundations.

    This is the purpose of ongoing formation! It not a matter of memorizing a few more words, or letters being added to follow our name. It is the ongoing deepening and awareness of God within our lives.

    Reply

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