OMI Zambia Delegation

31/05/2026

WE ARE OBLATES✝️

May 31

The Blessed Virgin should be our friend, a true companion in our missionary life. Within ourselves we continually live in the presence of someone. People whom we know, whom we love have their dwelling within us and become the habitual companions of our interior life. For us who are Oblates, two persons should habitually be present within us: Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin. And it is in their company and with their sentiments that we should be attentive to people’s misery and want to respond thereto.

29/05/2026

WE ARE OBLATES ✝️

When the time is right, I, the Lord, will make it happen.” — Isaiah 60:22

With hearts full of gratitude to God, we congratulate Br. Alfred Mutale Maango, OMI, and Br. Comfort Mwanza, OMI, who today professed their First Vows as Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Belleville, IL.

May the Lord, who has begun this good work in them, bring it to fulfillment through His grace, love, and faithfulness. May Our Lady Immaculate continue to guide and protect them as they dedicate their lives to the service of God and His people.

Congratulations and abundant blessings on this beautiful vocation journey.

29/05/2026

WE ARE OBLATES ✝️

CONGRATULATIONS 🎉

We thank God as we joyfully celebrate the graduation of the eight pre-novices today at St. Bonaventure University.

From right to left, we have Brian M., Aaron M., Joseph M., Brown D., Timothy M., Constantine K., Bowas M., and Victor.

May the Lord continue to guide, strengthen, and bless them as they begin this new chapter in their journey of faith and service. We wish them God’s abundant blessings and success in all their future endeavours.

29/05/2026

WE ARE OBLATES ✝️

Today we celebrate Blessed Joseph Gérard OMI and his story is one of the most extraordinary in Oblate history. He arrived in southern Africa in 1852 as a young French missionary. He spent the next 52 years with the Basotho people through drought, war, displacement, and hardship never leaving, never giving up. He didn’t build an empire. He built trust, one relationship at a time.

And when he died at 88, thousands came to mourn him. Sometimes faithfulness looks less like a grand gesture and more like just… staying.

Bl. Joseph Gérard, pray for us.

28/05/2026

28/05/2026

Happy Episcopal anniversary

Today, we joyfully celebrate the 15th Episcopal Anniversary of our beloved Bishop. 🙏✨

We thank God for His faithful service, spiritual leadership, and dedication to shepherding the people of God with wisdom, humility, and love.

May the Lord continue to bless him with good health, strength, and abundant grace as he continues serving the Church and guiding the faithful.

Happy 15th Episcopal Anniversary, Our Bishop!
Ad Multos Annos! 🎉✝️

28/05/2026

WE ARE OBLATES ✝️

DAY EIGHT
THE PRIESTLY CHARACTER
Opening Prayer
Eternal and almighty God, it is from the midst of the world that you have
called us to make a memorial of your body and blood; help us to set to work for the rebuilding of the bridge between us and God for the good of
humanity. Through Jesus Christ our Lord and our God, who lives and reigns for ever. Amen.

Texts for meditation
Hebrews 5:1-4
"Every high priest is taken from among men and made their representative before God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal patiently with the ignorant and erring, for he himself is beset by weakness and so, for this reason, must make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people.”

REFLECTION
The priestly character proper to the Oblate charism can in no way
reduce or silence the fundamental equality that unites Brothers and priests as members of the same apostolic community. In fact, the Oblate identity is the same for everyone, whether they are Oblate Brothers or priests. United by baptism and religious consecration, all share in the one mission of the Church: to evangelize the poor.From its very first lines, Constitution 33 introduces us to the very heart of Oblate life by reminding us that "at the heart of their life and their action, the Oblates place the Eucharist, the source and summit of the life of the Church." We are thus faced with a fundamental relational reality, strongly emphasized by Saint John Paul II in his encyclical The Church Lives by the Eucharist. In the same way, the Oblate — Brother or priest — lives from the Eucharist, which nourishes his spiritual life and sustains his missionary commitment.

CONCLUDING PRAYER
God of goodness and mercy, you never cease to care for the welfare of
humankind; that is why you invite us to come to know you better through
the sound teaching of your shepherds, for the salvation of all. Amen

28/05/2026

WE ARE OBLATES ✝️

Oblate missionary formation is a lifelong process, of Initial and Ongoing formation.

Since its foundation, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate have been convinced that the future of the mission can only be assured by well-formed Oblates, who gradually become imbued with the spirit of the charism of the congregation. This is why formation, whether initial or ongoing, holds a central place in the life and mission of the Oblates. It is an integral formation in accordance with the Oblate charism, which takes into account the human, spiritual, intellectual and missionary / pastoral aspects.

We continue praying for vocations.

27/05/2026

WE ARE OBLATES ✝️

DAY SEVEN
MARY, THE GOOD MOTHER
- Opening Prayer
Lord our God, on this seventh day of the novena of prayer for Oblate
vocations, we ask you to grant us the grace to be renewed in Marian
devotion and to have a deep love and respect for Mary, our Mother and
patroness of our congregation, so that we can live our consecration like her;
and that through her intercession we might have many workers in our
charismatic family. Through Christ our Lord. Amen!
In the hands of the Good Mother

Texts for meditation
- John 19:25-27
Standing by the cross of Jesus was his mother … When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved there, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

It is precisely there, at Calvary, that Jesus entrusts Mary to the
beloved disciple and gives her to him as his Mother. The disciple welcomes
her "home". The Greek expression, translated into English as "at home",
can also mean "in the depth of his being". Commenting on this passage,
Pope Benedict XVI says: "John welcomed her into his own reality and into
his being, so that she is part of his life and the two lives interpenetrate."
Saint Eugene de Mazenod, for his part, did not remain insensitive to
this gift and this call of Jesus. Following the example of the Apostle John, he recognized Mary as his Mother and placed his Congregation under her protection. He entrusted the Oblates in distress to the Virgin Mary in these terms: "You will first come to Notre-Dame du Laus to place yourselves, until further notice, under the mantle of our Good Mother. This is the last resource I use to save you."11 According to Father Fernand Jetté, Mary is the one who watches over us and protects us; she intercedes for us before her Son. To look at Mary as our Good Mother also implies sharing with her the sufferings and joys of the mission.