ARE YOU ONLY ON YOUR ISLAND AS PARISH PRIESTS OF OLD CHRISTIANS?

Posted on January 9, 2025 by franksantucci

Having sent his Oblate missionaries so far away, Eugene longed to hear from them and their missionary successes among the most abandoned.

You do not give me enough details on your way of life, where you live, and your ministry. When will you begin to win the unbelievers? Are you only on your island as parish priests of old Christians? I had always thought the idea was to convert the pagans. That is what we are made for rather than anything else. There are enough bad Christians in Europe without our having to go and look for them so far away. Give me plenty of information on this, even if all there is to report so far is hopes.

Goodbye, my dear son; I embrace you and bless you with all my heart.

Letter to Fr Etienne Semeria in Ceylon, 21 February 1849, EO IV n. 10

REFLECTION

Eugene’s spirit continues today in his Oblate Family:

“We are a missionary Congregation. Our principal service in the Church is to proclaim Christ and his Kingdom to the most abandoned. We preach the Gospel among people who have not yet received it and help them see their own values in its light. Where the Church is already established, our commitment is to those groups it touches least.

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.” (OMI Constitutions and Rules, C 5)

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1 Response to ARE YOU ONLY ON YOUR ISLAND AS PARISH PRIESTS OF OLD CHRISTIANS?

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate Associate says:
    January 9, 2025 at 13:19

    There are some edges on the high walls that we have created and strengthened around us in the belief that only we have the true answers and ways of living. And if we go out with those walls we must re-enforce them within ourselves so as to be true to God.

    For some reason, the word enculturation appears in my mind, a word that I have learned from my Oblate brothers and sisters, not only here but around the world. We (in my way of thinking and being) need to tear down those walls around our hearts so as to be able to invite all those around us to enter our hearts, to sometimes trample through them, while others dance within them. There is in Rule 37a the word “reciprocity” which is a key for all of us in this charismatic family.

    As a Lay Oblate Associate woman I have and continue to allow God to enrich my life with those who might appear to be less than human, but who are no different from myself. The light is never centered upon ourselves, but rather pushes back the darkness so that we can realise our hope is in and with each other, in communion with….

    “We will let our lives be enriched by the poor and the marginalized as we work with them, for than can make us hear in new ways the Gospel we proclaim. We must always be sensitive to the mentality of the people, drawing on the riches of their culture and religious traditions.” (OMI Constitutions and Rules, R 8a)

    Reply

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