Category Archives: Parish Community

Three Levels of Evangelization

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Basing himself on Vatican II, Pope John Paul told us that there are three levels of evangelization.

  • At the first level we continue to work with practicing Catholics in our church structures.
  • At the second level we reach out to the people beyond those structures – to the fallen away, to the abandoned and to those in the shadows – people whom our church structures do not reach.  It means searching them out to witness anew to them, through their fellow-Catholic Christians and through us, the gospel message of God’s unconditional love.
  • The third level is ad Gentes – bearing witness to those who have not heard the Good News.

03 11 06 02 Three Levels of EvangelizationThe first two levels especially – to encourage practicing Catholics and rekindle the fire in the unchurched and in those in the shadows – form the very reason for having Oblate parish missions.  Our missions are meant to be a catalyst helping Christians to grow more aware of their God-given mission and to rekindle the Spirit’s fire in those who have lost it.

From the very beginning of our Congregation, Saint Eugene realized that parish missions were an effective and Spirit-filled way to re-evangelize the French countryside ravaged by the secularity of the French Revolution.  Indeed, those early missions met with outstanding success and lay historians in France today recognize the Founder’s unique contribution to re-evangelization, especially through visiting families in their homes and through the compassion his parish missions brought into a world dominated by stern Jansenism.

03 11 06 03 Three Levels of Evangelization Those unique parish missions, which touched the people as nothing else did, are a special heritage we have received from Saint Eugene.  Today we are not out to imitate the Founder and his little band of missionaries, but we still benefit from that heritage by updating its dynamics.  When we do that, we discover that those dynamics are as effective as in his day.

In Saint Eugene’s era his priests made all the parish visits.  In that respect, there is a marked innovation in our missions today.  It lies in the large number of lay partners who come onto our team to help us make pastoral home visits when we conduct a main mission.  They are persons who have personally experienced the fire of the Spirit in a mission and now seek to share it with others, especially through the contacts they make with people in their homes.

Evangelizare Pauperibus

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03 11 06 07 Evangelizare Pauperibus Since its inception in 1977 to the present, our Oblate Parish Mission Team has conducted a total of 95 missions across Alberta, the Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan and British Columbia.  38 were main missions, lasting from 10 days to three weeks. 

They were conducted among First Nations groups and in urban and rural parishes ranging in size from 150 to over 2000 families (during the mission that encompassed the entire city of Prince George the mission team knocked on over 2,200 doors and visited hundreds of families in their homes.)  In addition, we have returned to most of the places where main missions were already conducted to carry out 57 three-day follow-up missions. 

Of the main mission one participant stated “The spirit of the whole church was lifted.  People got to know one another.”  And Msgr Bob Poulin of Morinville added, “Lord, I pray that priests of this diocese (St. Paul, AB) realize what their parishes can gain by having such a parish mission held in their parish.”  

Father Jacques Johnson, now in Guatemala, founded the Oblate Parish Missions in Grandin Province, based on his experience with the Italian mission teams.  With him was Brother Louis Andreas (now the director of the team) and for a while, Father Camillo Prosdocimo.  Father Al Hubenig came on two years later in 1999, at the same time as Ms Deb Doornbos, a married laywoman. 

In more recent time, two American Oblates, Fathers Jaime Dukowski and Ron Meyer joined on separate occasions to lend their expertise and to learn from our experience as they prepared to set up mission teams in the United States.  And even more recently, since Deb Doornbos has become a full-time theology student, a couple, Natalia and Ed Schrader have joined us.  Now, in a part-time capacity, Father Mark Blom has also become invaluable in recent missions.

In Saint Eugene’s day his unique approach to parish missions among the poor and the abandoned of Provence allowed the Spirit to work wonders. Today, through Oblate Parish Missions, the Spirit continues to work those wonders.

Submitted by Al Hubenig, O.M.I.

Oblates Visit Meadow Lake Saskatchewan

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Our Oblates have been in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan from the very beginning as a mission outpost in 1908. In the beginning this was a Metis settlement, which expanded as the settlers started to take up farming and ranching in the teens of the last century.

We are a community of six thousand people in the town (the reserve of Flying Dust borders the town with the town’s water plant on reserve property).  This is unlike most other Saskatchewan towns in its composition:  filled with many First Nations peoples, Metis, the many new arrivals with the opening up of the pulp mill and fibre board mill. We are a service centre to the Northern communities and the seat of the Meadow Lake Tribal Council (very progressive).

Ministry in Meadow Lake and Green Lake is very diverse. We have the intimacy of the small town (you know everybody and what is going on) but the diversity (the wealthy people and the very poor people) living in close proximity.  There is very little that is happening in this community that you will not know about and many things you wish you never knew!  I can honestly say that there is never a dull day.

The parish of Meadow Lake is very involved. The response to the many ministries and services has been very heart warming.  Inclusiveness is a serious difficulty within this parish.  In the 03 04 06 07 Oblates Visit Meadow Lake Saskatchewanparish of Green Lake (thirty minutes drive on a decent highway) we have a very faithful worshipping community of thirty-five to fifty parishioners each Sunday.  The pastoral work of our Oblate predecessors and the Sisters of the Presentation has left a very strong identifiable mark on the parish community. We are very thankful for their dedication.

I am very thankful for the almost seven years I have ministered here. There have been so many new ways that I have been challenged in trying to evangelize and share the Gospel. If I mention that life is sometimes exposed and raw, it is because life is lived very close to the people, in the joys and their brokenness.

This is the first time that I have keep a record of families visited. Up to this point I have managed to visit 325 homes.  People have been very welcoming and generous in sharing moose and fresh fish from their hunting.  This has been a blessing. (Submitted by Nestor Gregoire, omi)