In response to the request of the Provincial Superior, Fr. Antonio MARIANGELI, the JOMI (Young Oblates of Mary Immaculate) group in Argentina has sent us a long report on their various missionary activities. Here we publish the first part of this report. In a future issue of OMI Information, we will publish the rest of the report.
At first, the group began with two or three young people who began to walk the path of learning the charism, living it in their daily life and thus becoming more Catholic and happier in today’s troubled world. Now we are a group of 14 young people with a “hunger” for this way of life that offers us the charism. We are all in different ministry areas of the same parish (catechesis for confirmation, family catechesis, a missionary group and special catechesis, among others). We meet twice a month to share aspects of our work in the respective groups to which we belong and aspects of our daily life. We are always trying to deepen our knowledge of the Oblate charism and its great richness for the youth around us and through which we feel truly missionary. Many times our meetings are based on documents that our priests bring to us, such as documents from the last General Chapter held in Rome. Sometimes we also have one of the priests to share with us: (Fr. Luis SABARRE, Fr. Basilio MALU, and at the last meeting we were visited by Fr. José María ORUÉ).
Among the most significant activities we have experienced as a group is our total participation in the novena and subsequent feast of our patroness, the Virgen de la Carrodilla, preparing posters, organizing the logistics of the feast together with the deacon, collaborating in the daily celebrations, supporting and accompanying the newcomer from the Republic of Congo, Father Basilio Malu, OMI, in his first experience here.
Also noteworthy is that, as a group, we participated in two missions so far this year. One was held in a village on the outskirts of the province of San Juan, Argentina, in January. Following the style of the Oblate mission of Fr. Oscar CARRICABURU, we were able to practice the charism that invites us to be close to the poor and bring them the Word, boldly and creatively. There were 10 days with celebrations of the Word, praying the rosary and processions together with the townspeople. We recently experienced a baptismal mission proposed by Fr. José María RIEGA in the farthest neighborhoods of our parish, sharing with the poorest people the way we all live our lives as baptized children of God, how we live our faith in our daily life and fostering a personal encounter with Christ within us as a source of peace and happiness in a world as difficult as the present one.
Later on, for the feast day of our Founder, St. Eugene, we organized a vigil in the parish and invited all the young people who wanted to know about the charism. We prepared ourselves for the Founder’s day by first talking about the most important aspects of the Congregation and of the charism, bearing in mind that the majority of those who attended did not know about it. Then we shared videos and testimonies of missionaries who have exemplified how to be missionaries of Jesus in the Oblate style; we finished by sharing with the missionaries who are at our parish today. Once again we were able to enjoy the missionary witness of Fr. Luis Sabarre. The next day, as a group we attended the celebration of its patron saint in the Saint Eugene Chapel. We participated in the procession and mass, together with the laity of all ages.
(To be continued)
