CELEBRATING  THE  WEEK  OF  PRAYER  FOR  OBLATE  VOCATIONS

 

                                      

On this Bad and slippery Road a truck has overturned, lives lost. The Oblate Land Cruiser is meters away behind; is it going to have the same fate?

The month of May is a colorful month in the Church by the events that run throughout the month. It is a month dedicated to Mary, Mother of God. The Feast of St Joseph, the Holy Spouse of Mary is also celebrated in May. The work of human hands all over the earth is also appreciated during the same month; and the social teaching of the Church gets a high emphasis during the celebration of labor day.

To these wonderful May-events, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate add a number of spiritual events within the week of prayer for Oblate vocations, the week between the 21st May to 29th May. During this period of time the OMI commemorate the Feast of two of our spiritual heroes: St Eugene de Mazenod, the Founder of the Congregation, on 21st May and the memorial of Blessed Joseph Gerard, a Missionary full of zeal, on 29th May.

These two French citizens heard the call of God to go all over the world to preach the Good News of Salvation.

Their way of life was to emulate Jesus Christ to love and do good to all peoples wherever they went. They honored the Virgin Mary every day of their existence. Thus the appeal from St Eugene de Mazenod that  every Oblate should have a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Each year the OMI, worldwide take this week as a week of prayer and thanksgiving for the many gifts of vocations the Congregation has received and continues to receive. It is also a way of looking back and taking account of what has been in the Congregation; on the other hand it is a moment  of prayer for current  and future vocations in the Congregation.

How did we celebrate these events in the Delegation? In our communities and Missions, we prayed the Novena dedicated to St Eugene de Mazenod; we renewed our filial and loving devotion to Mary; we motivated our parishioners to do the same.

The Oblate Week was opened and closed with a solemn Mass   in each Mission, organized by the Omi and the youth who received special pastoral attention as we explained to them  our way of life as OMI and we prayed with them for vocations. We encouraged them to listen to God speaking to them in many different ways.

In our Missions different competitions were organized. They included choir competition, acting, writing poems, sports and many more activities. In this way, we help the youth to explore the many talents hidden in them, and most of all, we bring them close to Jesus.

For this year’s Oblate week, the Pre Novitiate in Lusaka had a series of spiritual exercises lined up to reflect as a community on the life-history of some of our Oblate Ancestors who have shown us that daring gives life to the Congregation and to the Church.

Their program included a reflection on the life of Bastiampillai, Thomas, Omi; a meditation on the Oblate Way of the Cross; the Taize prayer service with Parishioners at Mary Immaculate Parish.

Also in their program  was a Vocation Day for some of the Aspirants from Lusaka and nearby places.  A film entitled “ The other Side of the struggle” was shown and followed by  Group Discussions.

During the opening Mass at Mary Immaculate Parish, a group of  young children  performed satisfactorily a sketch portraying the call and vocation of St Eugene de Mazenod. They recited the names of all the books in the Old Testament, as it is from the Bible that St Eugene found inspiration to go all over the world to spread the word of God. They promised to recite at another occasion the names of the books in the New Testament.. Their performance drew enthusiastic  applause. The 29th marked the end of the activities with a Solemn Memorial Mass of Blessed Joseph Gerard.  The theme of the Homily was “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.”.

( By Fr Cyril)  

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