Month of May, Month of Mary, Month of Oblates

For the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI), May is an incredibly significant month because it weaves together traditional Marian devotion with the celebration of our holy founder. We must not forget Blessed Joseph Gerard and the other Oblates who are on the path toward sainthood. In the General House, there is a room across from the chapel where several of these missionaries are remembered and where one can read the inscription “the most beautiful fruits.”

This month is experienced as a season of gratitude and a renewal of our missionary charism. We usually begin on May 1st, the Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker, with the perpetual profession of several of our formandi who are in the post-novitiate at the International Roman Scholasticate (IRS) of the General House. It is always a joyful celebration that brings together the three communities of Via Aurelia.

As we know, the General House is a place of intercultural exchange that welcomes Oblates from the five regions of the congregation who come to Rome to perform various services for the congregation and the Church. It also welcomes Oblates who come to pursue higher studies. Finally, it hosts Oblate formators and formandi from different continents to foster the intercultural missionary spirit of the congregation.

It is also a time of great movement, as Oblates from various parts of the congregation arrive in Rome to study. The new post-novices arrive to join the Scholasticate community and begin preparing by learning the language and culture, and adapting to a new environment to start the academic year later on.

For the residents of the General House, it is a time of farewells for those returning to their home units and welcomes for new community members. It is a time for learning names, hearing stories, and starting over in a continuous beginning. This is the largest Oblate community I have ever lived in and, at the same time, it is a community that is always changing and must always be built.

This bicentenary year of the congregation encourages us to have a grateful heart for all that Oblates do in their various missions. The heart of a missionary knows no borders. As a Jesuit father used to say, mission is simply a heart speaking to another heart.

May this month of May, this Oblate month, be a time where we not only remember the most beautiful fruits of the congregation, but also where our communities also become schools of holiness in everyday life. Daily life with brothers of different cultures and temperaments is where patience, forgiveness, and self-gift are truly put to the test. That shared life is the first battlefield of the missionary.

By Jorge Albegarti, OMI – General Councillor for Latin-America

Published on the OMI World website