OMI superior general to all OMIs worldwide on Oblates Day celeb

Happy feast day! On this February 17th,
we celebrate the 190th anniversary of the approbation of our
Constitutions and Rules by Pope Leo XII in the context of our 200th
anniversary of foundation.The Oblate Triennium this year focuseson the themes
of mission and the vow of obedience. The Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis, EvangeliiGaudium , is guiding us as we
listen anew to the awesome call to participate in the mission of the Holy
Trinity.

In this special jubilee year I would
like to invite us to ponder the Oblate charism which is a great gift and to be
deeply grateful for the grace of our vocation as Missionary Oblates of Mary
Immaculate. The Oblate charism, a gift of the Spirit for the entire Church,
handed on to us by Eugene de Mazenod, is of vital importance for the Church and
for the poor. I am convinced of the significance of our charism today and as we
look to the future. On this feast day I would like to share some of my many reasons
for gratitude to God for the charism we live. These are also the motives of myimmense
hope for the future of the Congregation.

I am immensely proud ofOblate priests
and Brothers who are very close to the poor all around the world. Oblates are simple,
humble, available,and accessible and speak the language of the people. This is
something special, entirely unique to us and binds us in a special way to the
poor. We have inherited this from Eugene himself and from our first missionaries.

Because we are so close to the poor and
most abandoned, we live on the peripheries and this can be dangerous. We live in areas where
the poor are abandoned and their fundamental rights often neglected or
violated. We are present in places of great tension and conflict and where
human lives are constantly in danger. I wish to express our gratitude to all our
brother Oblates who persevere in mission in spite of the threat of violence and
death. The entire Congregation lives in union of prayer with you and your
faithful people who carry out Christ’s mission with fortitude and perseverance.

I give thanks for the vitality of our
charism expressed in the way Oblates decry injustice, discrimination, violation
of human rights, racism, tribalism, sexism and prejudice against the poor,
tribal peoples, indigenous peoples, etc. Our Congregation is well known within
the Church and outside it for our commitment to the priority of justice, peace
and the integrity of creation.

I invite us to contemplate anew our
holy Oblates and to give thanks to God for these men who show us the path to
holiness of life. Faithful to our charism, our Founder and Blessed Joseph Gerard
show us the power of grace transforming them over a lifetime into saints who
were strikingly human in their holiness. How grateful we are for our Oblate
martyrs, Joseph Cebula, and the Oblate Martyrs of Pozuelo and of Laos who
witness to radical oblation. It is marvelous to see how young people connect
with our holy Oblates!

I am grateful to various Oblate Units and
their Major Superiors who have heard the challenge of the Immense Hope Project
and the call to a deep personal and community conversion to Jesus Christ” as
called for by the 2010 General Chapter. With great courage, these Units are
renewing apostolic community life, mission to the poor and defining clear
priorities in light of personnel, finances and the call of the Spirit!

A sign of our new life for which I am
very grateful and is happening all over the world is in the new vocational outreach
and awareness of our collective responsibility to invite young members to join us. This
is a striking turn around over the last twenty years!Provinces that no longer
had a conviction about our future and had stopped inviting young men to join us
have questioned this decision and with renewed faith and hope are now working
to promote vocation ministry with vision and prophetic courage.

Many young Oblates, deeply convinced of
the relevance of the Oblate charism, have pushed to reinvigorate vocations
ministry and I am grateful to them for their stamina! We can express our
gratitude for the grace of our vocation by supporting the efforts to invite new
members to join us. We can stop the trend of diminishment we have experienced over
the past years and begin to stabilize our numbers and even grow.This would
enable us to respondmore adequately to the missionary needsof the Church.

We must recognize and be grateful for
the Spirit leading us to embrace the new development, Mission with Youth,” which
has a specifically Oblate approach. The Oblate Youth Encounters in connection
with World Youth Days have promoted and deepened this dynamic connection
between young people and the Oblate charism. It is the Spirit’s work!

We also give thanks for the strong attachment
to the Oblate charism by many lay people around the globe in a variety of
unique and creative ways. This is a vibrant sign of the vitality of the Oblate
charism and its ability to attract others. There is a mutually enriching relationship
between lay people who live the Oblate charism and vowed Oblates in terms of
mission, spirituality and various forms of community relationships.

I give thanks for our older Oblates who
continue to live the missionary spirit. Wherever I go, Oblates who have reached
a certain age or who endure an illness continue to be interested in the
Congregation, concerned with its mission and still involved as much as they can
in outreach to the poor and to the Church in need. The fraternal spirit, the
charity, the faithand joy with which our elders continue to live their oblation
is outstanding. You continue to be Oblate missionaries and you are a real source
of grace for the Congregation.Thank you for persevering in your witness of
self-giving!I ask our superiors to continue to ensure loving care for our older
men, and may all of us frequently visit them and pray for them.

I am proud of so many Oblates whose
live are of service, and who humbly and silently give themselves to God’s poor,
doing unimaginably good deeds for God’s people. These are men of prayer,
dedicated to apostolic community and living witnesses of the vows. These are the
Oblates who make our Congregation such a wonderful family and who sanctify all
of us by their holiness. Their names are not in the headlines or outstanding
journals, but they are the faithful witnesses on the front lines of the
mission.

In some Congregations there is a great
difficulty to find members willing to accept the office of Major Superior. We
are blessed with generous and willing men who rise up in complete availability
to accept the call to leadership. What a wonderful family spirit we have!

I am grateful for the international Oblate
community of Centre Eugene de Mazenod in Aix en Provence which has committed
itself to a life of apostolic community and the ministry of charism animation. The
Congregation is blessed with the General Service of Oblate Studies and a number
of Oblates who work to animate the charism among us in other creative ways. As I
recognize with gratitude their labors, I also am deeply grateful for each
Oblate who serves the life and mission of the Congregation by their ministry in
the General Administration in so many different ways, quietly and faithfully
serving here at the General House and around the world. Thank you!

The renewed awareness of the importance
to prepare Oblates for formation ministry and the willingness of Major
Superiors to free men to be prepared is a great sign of the importance we are
giving to formation. I am very grateful to all of our formators who accompany
the young men who come to us.

A final thanksgiving I would like to
mention is for our relationship to Mary Immaculate, Mother of Marcy. Her
protection and guidance makes us the formidable missionaries we are. Her smile
of blessing, given to Eugene de Mazenod on August 15, 1822, continues to favor
us.We are blessed indeed!

There are many other reasons for
rejoicing in the grace of our vocation. In our community celebrations for February
17th I would ask that we continue to name the blessings we have
received as a Congregation and to express our thanks to God for our Oblate
vocation. Whether this is at the dinner table, in the community room, or during
prayer in the chapel, please create a favorable brotherly atmosphere in which
everyone can express his gratitude for the grace of belonging to the Missionary
Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

Happy feast day!

Your brother Oblate in Jesus Christ and
Mary Immaculate,

Father Louis Lougen, OMI

Superior General

Rome, January 25, 2016