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Letter of the Superior General: World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation August 21st, 2023
Let Us Walk Together Listening to the Call to Care for the Common Home
September 1st is the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. It is an initiative of Pope Francis who has also written the Encyclical Laudato Si’ (LS) on care for the common home. The 37th General Chapter told us that care for the Earth “is of special concern to us in our missionary work.
Fr. Luis Ignacio Rois Alonso, OMI Superior General
We have become aware of our insufficient efforts to care for the environment. We are challenged, therefore, to commit ourselves to the fullest extent possible to make ecological conversion a priority as a fundamental part of our lives and as an integral part of our evangelization”. (Pilgrims of Hope in Communion PEC n. 11,1).
I am aware that some, perhaps even many, question whether care for the common home is really important to us. There is even a certain resistance, if not opposition, to accept some of the proposals of Pope Francis in his Encyclical Laudato Si.
I would not like to enter here into scientific, political or sociological considerations that certainly need to be debated. My intention is to invite everyone to read, pray and seek ways to put into practice what the Holy Spirit can inspire in us as we confront the texts of Laudato Si and the Document of our 37th General Chapter (PEC).
I have asked our General Service for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation to prepare tools to help us do that prayerful reading in community to “study Laudato Si‘ affirming its value and urgency in all our communities. Sustain and promote our programs and activities in this area, linking with other groups through the Laudato Si’ Church Platform for Action.
Be aware of the simple things we can do in our communities, e.g., recycling.” (PEC 15.1) In this letter I would like to emphasize three dimensions in which we can grow as a charismatic family responding to the call of ecological conversion.
Letter of the Superior General for the Feast of St. Eugene de Mazenod – May 21 2019 May 16th, 2019
Dear Brother Oblates and all our Brothers and Sisters living the Oblate Charism,
The feast of St. Eugene de Mazenod always brings us the renewed desire to live more faithfully as he insisted: with charity among us and zeal for the salvation of souls. May this day be a special day of prayer, communion and joyful celebration!
Very shortly, in July, the Major Superiors of the Congregation will be meeting for the Interchapter in Obra, Poland. We will be evaluating how the decisions taken in the 2016 General Chapter have been carried out and how to further implement them; the remote preparation for the next Chapter will also begin at the Interchapter. Please pray to the Holy Spirit so that we may achieve greater effectiveness in responding to the Chapter directions.
In January of this year, the members of the Central Government spent several days in Palermo, Sicily, following the footsteps of Eugene de Mazenod. It was in Palermo that he spent the last stage of his exile, from 1799 to 1802, before finally returning to France. He would have been there from the age of 17 to 20 years. We were guided on this pilgrimage by a member of MAMI, Enzo David, and by the president of the secular Institute, Oblate Missionary Cooperators of the Immaculate ((COMI), Ileana Chinnici.
We spent hours in the streets of Palermo, seeing the places where Eugene lived, the palazzi of important families whose circles he frequented and the churches he attended. We accompanied his life as a young noble, stopping at various sites to read excerpts from his letters and memoirs. We came in touch with different aspects of Eugene’s personality and we recognized experiences from his sojourn in Palermo that surely left marks on his personality, his future and the Oblate charism.
CLICK HERE to read the full letter.
Letter of the Superior General at the closure of the “Year of Oblate Vocations” January 25th, 2019
Dear Brother Oblates, and all our Brothers and Sisters who live the Oblate Charism, We celebrate, on this feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, the 203rd anniversary of the foundation of our Congregation. We are concluding the Congregation-wide “Year of Oblate Vocations,” an initiative requested by the Congress of Mission with Youth and the Congress on Oblate Vocations, and endorsed by the members of the 2016 General Chapter. This Year of Oblate Vocations has raised the consciousness of the entire Congregation to our responsibility to believe in the future of the Congregation as an instrument of missionary evangelization in the Church. We are all called to pray and work for vocations of vowed Oblates who will live the charism of Saint Eugene de Mazenod.
Superior General Louis Lougen, OMI Re-Elected September 30th, 2016
Republished from OMIWORLD.org
Rev Fr. Louis Lougen OMI was officially reelected as the Superior General of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate for another term of 6 years.
Congratulations and God bless you Fr. Louis.
