Provincial Letter – Fr. Ken Forster, OMI

St. Teresita Benedict of the Cross  –Edith Stein

Hello, my brother Oblates and Associates;

Tomorrow, Jim Bleackley and I will be driving out to St. Albert for the installation of Ken Thorson and his council. We will pass through Potter’s House in Saskatoon to drop off a few more things of mine at my upcoming residence. I am grateful that Richard Beaudette was driving out west for his holidays and with a borrowed van from Springhurst, he was able to take my belongings to Saskatoon on his way home and to the installation.

Shoes of Auschwitz. A “must” place to visit. Even today our first call is to “teach them to be human”, in every situation where human dignity is threatened.

I returned from the Inter-Chapter meeting in Poland only on July 21st. I stayed a week after the meeting to tour some of Poland with a full van of OMI, mostly from the General Council, and Antoni Bochm OMI as our guide. We stayed a day with Antoni’s family which allowed us to experience great Polish hospitality.

I was pleased to be able to visit some of the very important sites in Poland: Czestochowa, Wieliezka Salt Mines, Swiety Krzyz Oblate Novitiate in the ancient Monastery, as well as the cities of Warsaw and Krakow.

I also had a visit to Auschwitz / Birkenau. Today we remember St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein a Jewish convert who joined the  Carmelites. She with her sister and 985 other Jews were deported to Auschwitz and died in the gas chambers on this day)

Since I returned, I have been busy trying to pack, weed through my files in the office and take a short trip to Upper-state New York to visit with my sister and her family before I head west.

Yesterday, the staff gathered for a nice farewell lunch in our board room to honor Jim and I. Linda Alexander and Len Rego joined us for the occasion. A few creative members put together some travel packages to assist us on our future travels. Included in my treasures were a rubber hammer and duct tape to nurse the Honda Civic to its destination out west. As well I received the “Magic Money Printer” to assist with MAMI Fundraising. Diane Lepage is already jumping for joy!

You can see that my mind is now turned to the future. It is a time of letting go and being grateful for what has been. On Wednesday, when I arrived at the gate of 96 Empress early in the morning, I met Larry, one of the men working for the Dominicans. I asked him if he was waiting for a ride. He said “No. I’m waiting for the police. There is a dead man in the dumpster.” The police were there immediately, so we accompanied them to the dumpster. Larry had not touched the body, not wanting to disturb a crime scene. The body was head-first into the dumpster surrounded by garbage. One could see only about twelve inches of leg and his shoes. The Policeman moved his foot to discover that he was still alive. I’m surprised he never suffocated. It appears that he was searching for food and fell all the way in, head -first, packed in by refuse, unable to extricate himself. I didn’t wait until they managed to get him out. There were three police cars there by that time. I returned to the gate to pick up my briefcase and enter the building. In those few minutes as I approached the gate, I had to give way to the garbage truck that was coming to empty the dumpsters. If this poor fellow was not noticed, within minutes he would have been lifted into the back of a truck and crushed. Fr. Emil Yungbluth OMI often said as he came to the end of his ministry, they’re putting me on the scrap heap! I hope that was not a symbol for me at the end of my mandate.

Jim Bleackley reminded me that after I take of few months to relax, visit friends and family, I am expected to arrive in Saskatoon to begin a new chapter.

As I write this last letter to all of you as Provincial of OMI Lacombe Canada, I reflect on these past six years and the part I played in leadership of the Province. I remember my reluctance to say yes to the call. Maybe more reluctance to leave the ministry that I had committed myself to in the Down-town East Side of Vancouver, than a fear of the role of provincial. But it has been good! It has been good to work and live together with fine Oblates on the Core Team and Council. I don’t believe that at that time that any of us understood how daunting it was, to have a leadership team where not one of us was on a previous Lacombe Council, but thanks be to God, we were blessed to work with a competent and committed lay staff in Lacombe Office. They had the nuts and bolts tightened by that time.

It has been a blessing to appreciate the marvelous ministry and share the joys and burdens of leadership with CROCUS in the region of North America. Meetings with Oblate leadership of units throughout the Oblate World has led me to honor many, beginning with our Superior General Fr. Louis Lougen OMI.

Through these years I have come to know many of you: those who are strong, energetic and vibrant in your personal ministry and community life; those who have revealed personal struggles and shortcomings yet choose to heal and be more compassionate because of it; elders, some who continue to minister well beyond the years of necessity, and others who are beautiful grateful witnesses to a religious life that has been blessed by deep friendships with others and with the Lord. Thank you all.

But now is a time for “outliving”. My friend Rabindranath Tagore says it well, “There are men whose idea of life is tactic, who long for its continuation after death only because of their wish for permanence and not perfection; they love to imagine that the things to which they are accustomed will persist for ever. They completely identify themselves in their minds with their fixed surroundings and with whatever they have gathered, and to have to leave these is death for them. They forget that the true meaning of living is outliving, it is ever growing out of itself.”

I share with you another of his gems, “Your mission is proving that a love for the earth, and for the things of the earth, is possible without materialism, a love without greed… I entreat you not to be turned by the call of vulgar strength, of stupendous size, by the spirit of storage, by the multiplication of millions, without meaning and without end. Cherish the ideal of perfection, and to that, relate all your work and all your movements. Though you love the material things of earth, they will not hurt you and you will bring heaven to earth and soul into things.”

I was blessed a few years ago on my retreat when I picked up a book that had been gathering dust on a shelf for twenty years, THE GOD WHO WON’T LET GO   PETER van BREEMAN S.J. Peter reminded me of the talk Louis Lougen gave us in Vancouver at our convocation when he called us to live in freedom. Peter says it this way: “All who genuinely live their mission, experience an inner freedom. Mission makes us free. Whoever lacks a sense of mission is easily tempted to carry the burden too much alone. Someone has called this syndrome The God Complex: to rely too little on God while acting as if one were God. In our mission we are carried by God and the ultimate responsibility rests with God.” P. 76

I invite the younger Oblates to generously respond to the call to leadership within Lacombe. One of St. Augustine’s homilies contains this insight: “The Word of God opposes your will only until it becomes the author of your salvation. As long as you are your own enemy, the Word of God is also your enemy. Be your own friend, then the Word of God will agree with you.” Can we love ourselves enough to know that God’s way is our best way?

Leadership will stretch you. It will demand that you make decisions. Decisions will demand you collaborate and consult, but in the end move things forward in the way that you truly believe is the best. I am grateful that God has given me this opportunity to offer the service of leadership. Each of us pours out our life and blood for what we believe is the most significant contribution that we can make to God’s plan and what may assist others to excel.

I am grateful to our Associates who share the charism of Eugene with us. I celebrate the friendship we have with so many who are close to Oblate Priests and Brothers, through their encouragement, their prayers and their financial assistance in the work of our missions, especially our MAMI membership. Our international missions in a special way give us an opportunity to be in solidarity with the materially poor. The generosity of many, especially in their bequests, has astounded me. The enrichment of our JPIC ministry these past years moves us beyond charity to search for right relations, for just encounters with the poor and with the earth our home. Centre Oblate- A Voice for Justice, a collaborative initiative of our three Canadian Oblate Provinces, calls for the involvement of all Oblates, Associates and friends.

I want to thank Ken Thorson for his willingness to accept this call from the province to serve Lacombe as Provincial. He will be able to build on his experience of the past six years and with younger men on his Council move the province in a direction that is visionary and regionally collaborative. My prayers are with the new leadership as they begin their mandate and I promise to continue to give what energy and gifts I may have to serve the pastoral plan of Lacombe.

As of today, to personally contact me please my private e-mail address kmfomi@yahoo.ca . My cell number remains the same 613 857 7059.

By Ken Forster, OMI