Oblate Associates Commission

Laurel Lutes, Chair Oblate Associates Commission
I have been an associate member of Brother Anthony District for the past 15 years. During this time I have served on both the District Formation Team and the OMI Lacombe Provincial Formation Team. For 3 years I was an appointed lay advisor on the OMI Lacombe Provincial Team. I am presently a member of Brother Anthony District Council and the chair of our Oblate Associates Commission.

Marie Luttrell, Vancouver, BC.
For the last ten years, I have learned to love St. Eugene with his great zeal, his deep faith, his love for the poor, and his quirks! Being an associate has been my chance to connect with a network of people who model his charism, and who love and challenge me to dig deeper in my faith and love for God and for Mary. I have been serving on the Oblate Associates Commission since October 2011.

Sandra Prather, Provincial Animator, HOMI
I have been involved with Oblate Associates for many years, having been one of the delegates to the foundational ‘Aix Congress’ in 1996. I work nationally and internationally in leading retreats on the Oblate charism and in promoting Association. St Eugene and the Oblate charism shape the way I live my faith. The connection to the Oblate and the Associates is life-giving; it keeps me grounded and inspired. Since February 2014, I’ve been the Provincial Animator for Oblate Associates for OMI Lacombe Canada, a job I love since it puts me into contact with so many great people.

Father Bill Stang, OMI
I am always encouraged to have the associates with us, since I am a person who likes community and when in authority I like to work as a team. And here is where I always appreciate our ASSOCIATES. They are such good support to us as Oblates and I feel that we, the Oblates, would be much poorer if we did not have the associates with us. I find that they give new life where it could have grown old and they do support many of the works that we have and often even can do a better job.

I was so happy when at the Canonization the Holy Father said that the charism of St. Eugene belongs to the Church. I feel that this gives the associates every right to be with us and to minister with us. I can honestly say we, the present Oblates here in Saskatoon would be lost without the help, support and prayers of the associates. May God bless them all and strengthen the charism in each of them.

A few months ago Fr. Paul Fachet, OMI handed the portfolio of Associates to me to work with Christine Taylor as District Animator for Saskatchewan District. I am still learning what this all entails but I am willing to do my best with the help of others who are in the know. I am also on the Commission for the Oblate Associates.

Ken Thorson OMI
I made my first profession as an Oblate over 20 years ago. Since then I’ve had the good fortune to get to know Oblates from all over the world, and in each brother or priest I’ve met, I’ve encountered a unique expression of the charism of St Eugene de Mazenod.

From my first days in the congregation laity – women and men, married and single – were a part of my experience in the Oblate community in Saskatchewan, and through each of these people the charism takes on new colour and depth.

I’ve been pleased to serve on the Commission for Associates because I consider the growth of Oblate Associates in OMI Lacombe Canada the work of the Holy Spirit, and I know my ministry and community life are the richer for it.

J. Roy Boucher OMI
I was born in Nova Scotia to a large Acadian family for whom poverty was no stranger. Attracted to their mission to the poor, I entered the Oblate Congregation after High School. The song in my heart this year, as I celebrate 56 years of vowed life and my Golden Jubilee of priesthood, is one of profound gratitude.

I’m deeply thankful for my rich experiences of community and ministry over these years, always highlighted by mutual collaboration with laity. These relationships have nourished me and given me an ever deeper appreciation of our Oblate charism, a gift to the Church at large since our founder’s canonization.

I’ve been privileged to serve on the Commission for Associates since its inception. I believe the call of the poor, with their many faces, is as great today as it was in St. Eugene’s time. I also believe the Spirit, in our time, is calling men and women to be integrally involved in the renewal of our Oblate life and mission; to be creative in birthing new expressions of our Oblate charism, new models of community living, and new responses to current needs. “Do not cling to events of the past, or dwell on what happened long ago. Watch for the new thing I am going to do. Now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?” (Is. 43:18-19)