News Archives » Happy Oblate Feast Day
Provincial’s Message for Feast of St. Eugene May 28th, 2024
Greetings on the Feast of Saint Eugene de Mazenod from the Provincial:
To all vowed members of the United States Province, the Delegation of Zambia, the Mission of Baja California, the Mission of Turkmenistan, the Men in Formation, Honorary Oblates, Oblate Associates, members of the Mazenodian Family, Employees, and all people who share in our ministry. I send you greetings and blessings on this joyous occasion of the Feast of Saint Eugene de Mazenod, the founder of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
On this day, we celebrate the life and legacy of Saint Eugene, a man of zeal, compassion, and courage. He dedicated his life to preaching the Gospel to the poor and the most abandoned and forming a community of missionaries sharing his vision and spirit. He was a man of prayer who had a deep love for Jesus Christ and his Church and a tender devotion to Mary, the Mother of God. This legacy continues today in the service we provide to the people of God. I am grateful for the gift of Saint Eugene, who inspires all of us to follow his example and to continue his mission in our own time and place.
I am also grateful for the gift of each of you, as we are united by the same charism and the same call to holiness. We are proud to belong to this Congregation, which has a rich history and promising future, thanks to your dedication and generosity, its members and collaborators.
As we celebrate the Feast of Saint Eugene, I encourage you to renew our commitment to live as his sons and daughters and to serve as his witnesses and co-workers in the vineyard of the Lord. I pray today for you and your intentions. I especially pray for the needs of the poor and the marginalized, who are the preferential recipients of our ministry. May Saint Eugene de Mazenod intercede for us, and may God bless us with his grace and peace.
Sincerely yours in Jesus Christ and Mary,
Rev. Raymond Cook, OMI Provincial United States Province
DOWNLOAD 2024 OBLATE FEAST DAY MESSAGE
Letter of the Superior General on the 197th Anniversary of the Papal Approbation of the Constitutions and Rules February 17th, 2023
Care for our common home so that it becomes a missionary home for the poor
Rome, 17 February 2023
Dear fellow pilgrims, Oblates and members of our charismatic family,
The months of January and February are marked by two important dates for our family: the beginning of the missionary community in Aix on January 25, 1816, and the pontifical approval of our Constitutions and Rules (CCRR) on February 17, ten years later. These days we are holding our first plenary session in which the Central Government and all the directors of the general services have begun to try to put into practice the proposals of our last General Chapter. Listening and reflecting on our origins, I thought about sharing some dreams about our common home, our charismatic family.
In the mind of Saint Eugene, the house in Aix is the place to which we always must return to find our identity. We have all read his memoirs on those first moments of life together in the old Carmel in Aix. For us, Aix is not a museum. If its walls speak to us today, it is because those men knew how to turn that house into a true missionary home. Every time we visit that house, we feel something of our own, something that speaks to us: Aix is our home; Aix lives within us.
Letter of the Superior General, Fr. Louis Lougen OMI – December 8, 2017 December 4th, 2017
YEAR OF OBLATE VOCATIONS
December 8, 2017 – January 25, 2019
The Joy and Generosity of Oblate Life!
Happy Feast Day to all those who live the Oblate charism! We begin the Year of Oblate Vocations on the solemnity of our patroness, Mary Immaculate. The grace of her immaculate conception fills us with great joy, love and gratitude for all that God has done in her. This is a missionary feast. Mary’s immaculate conception prepared her for the call and the mission which God would entrust to her: to be a worthy dwelling place for the Son of the Most High. Mary’s faith-filled response inspires us to live faithfully our oblation as missionaries of the Kingdom of Jesus. We entrust this special year, the Year of Oblate Vocations, to the care of Our Lady, firmly believing that she will intercede so that God’s grace, in God’s own time and in God’s own way, will bless our efforts.
READ the full letter here.
DOWNLOAD Fr. Lougen’s letter.
Happy Oblate Feast Day: February 17! February 15th, 2017
“…. Learn who you are in the eyes of God.”
St. Eugene De Mazenod, OMI
In this world that God loves, with all its richness and beauty, and looking upon it as Saint Eugene did through the eyes of Christ crucified:
- We observe new forms of poverty, especially among young people: fundamentalism, individualism, materialism, consumerism, and addiction to the digital world… But, we also see the suffering of families, youth, the lonely, and the elderly.
- We recognize urgent issues, which strongly speak to us such as: the situation of refugees, the homeless, and migrants who are forced to leave their countries, as well as the devastation of the environment.
- We perceive victims of injustice and violence, especially the indigenous peoples and minorities, the victims of human trafficking, of abuse and exploitation, who cry out loudly for support and a response from us.
Faced with these situations, the Church strongly calls us out of our comfort zone to go to the “peripheries” and work for the fulfillment of the Kingdom.
We are invited to write a new page of the Gospel with Mazenodian creativity and audacity.
Message of the 36th General Chapter 2016
Read the 2017 Oblate Day Message from U.S. Provincial, Very Rev. William Antone, OMI
Video reflection for February 17, 2017 “Oblate Day”
