On Saturday, February 17, 2018, the Missionary Oblates of Aix-en-Provence invited the members of the Mazenodian Family to celebrate with them the 192nd anniversary of the approval by Pope Leo XII of the Constitutions and Rules of the Congregation.
After reciting Psalm 102, Bonga MAJOLA and Patrick VEY offered the participants a presentation of the essential points contained in the Oblate Rules and the different dimensions of the mission of the Oblates. From the presentation of these two Oblates, certain aspects have been the focus of attention: the Constitutions and Rules were born in prayer and all the spirituality of the Missionary Oblates is in it. This Rules that every Oblate has “in mind and heart” is at the same time:
-a point of reference on which the identity of the family members depends,
-a source of deepening of the Charism,
-a reflection of the Gospel that helps to understand the requirements,
-a concrete way to discern the will of God,
-a means of renewal of individuals and communities.
In reality: “the whole life of an Oblate”!
The Founder’s goal was to unite the Oblates into a society in which they would become holy missionaries and engage in the service of the poor.
Today, the poor have newmultiple faces: broken families, imigration, spiritual struggle …
The two essential dimensions of the mission of the Oblates are the urgent need to evangelize and become saints, true disciples of Jesus Christ.
It is to this same mission that the Mazenodian family is associated.
Together, we are invited to bring these intentions into prayer.
The participants, then gathered in the chapel of the first vows, lived an intense moment of prayer: the Oblates present renewed their vows.
The evening was concluded with a warm time of sharing and friendship in the Mazenod Room.
In this year of prayer for Oblate vocations, the Community proposes a time of silent prayer every first Thursday of the month at 8:30 pm in the Oblates’ chapel, it also proposes the recitation of the rosary at the tomb of Saint Eugene de Mazenod, at the cathedral from Major to Marseille at 15h on the 4th of each month.
The next appointment will be on September 22, 2018 at Saint Laurent du Verdon, where Eugene de Mazenod wrote the Constitutions and Rules, 200 years ago, in September 1818.
Chantal BERNARD-BRET
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