Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Bucarest (Agenzia Fides) – The missionary month has been underway for two weeks already and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) are half-way through their animation tour. This year, they are celebrating it with the “Servants and Apostles of Christ Jesus,” recalling the theme of the Pope’s Message for World Mission Day. According to a report sent from the missionaries to Agenzia Fides, the Oblates have been giving spiritual exercises in the Roman Catholic Parish of Saint Francis, in Târgoviste, October 2-5. Taking into account the missionary experience of the saint from Assisi, they reflected on the readings from the liturgy and the Pope’s Message for the 82nd World Mission Day, drawing out concrete points to work on in their life of faith. With the Catholic youth of Târgoviste, they held a “Missionary Workshop” in which they painted scenes from the life of Saint Francis and the story of the Roman Catholic community there in Târgoviste.
The following week, on October 12, the Oblates presented the wooden panels made in Târgoviste in the Greek-Catholic Parish of Saint Peter, in Braşov, and on the 14th, in an ecumenical event in Pitesti, the same proposal was made to the Orthodox of Saint Anthony of Padua. They were able to read a page from the Bible, to encounter the Word, who calls us all Christians to be united and to work in evangelization.
In the days that followed, the community of apostles and servants will be enriched by Saint Eugene de Mazenod and Saint Peter and Saint Paul. The first of these was the founder of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate and patron of the community where October 17-19 there will be a workshop held with some fifteen youth from Roman Catholic Parishes of Câmpulung Muscel, Târgu Jiu, and Pitesti.
The noteworthy Saints Peter and Paul, however, are the patrons of the Roman Catholic Church in Pitesti, where on October 19, 82nd World Mission Day, all the wooden panels designed by the youth will be on display. The main theme is always the same, the story of the saints and their own parish communities, but above all, there is the question of who are the people today that Christians must offer “care, tenderness, compassion, hospitality, availability and interest in people's problems be drawn, as well as the other virtues necessary for the messengers of the Gospel to leave everything and dedicate themselves completely and unconditionally to spreading the perfume of Christ's charity around the world” (Message of Benedict XVI for World Mission Day 2008).
In the video made by the Oblates for missionary animation, the virtues of the “servants and Apostles of Jesus” are attested to by people who have been “up close,” like Archbishop Ioan Robu of Bucharest, Fr. Petru Paulet, pastor of the Roman Catholic Parish of Saint James in Câmpulung Muşcel, Sister Madeleine Kenda of the Institute of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady of Lourdes, and the Meleg family of Pitesti. The missionary tour and workshop will end on October 26, in the Roman Catholic Parish of the Assumption, in Bucharest. It is fitting that it concludes with Mary, the first servant of the Lord and the Star of Evangelization. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 16/10/2008)
