“Will you come and follow Me if I but call your name? Will you go where you don’t know and never be the same?”

So goes the first two lines of The Summons, the famous Scottish hymn performed in Catholic parishes and Christian houses of worship all over the world.

It is fair to surmise that anyone who has sung or listened to this anthem has meditated upon how they would respond in word and deed to these intimate questions posed by Christ Jesus, and the required sacrifices of answering these summons.

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The good news is that followers of Christ have a model to emulate: the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI), the worldwide religious congregation known for serving the poor and marginalized. The Oblates are also heralded as “specialists in difficult missions” and have lived up to that mantra by serving in the remotest locations in approximately 70 countries.

This year marks the bicentennial of the Oblates’ Constitution and Rules receiving pontifical approval from Pope Leo XII on Feb. 17, 1826.

Formalized recognition within the Universal Catholic Church arrived within a decade of Eugène de Mazenod, a French bishop of aristocratic background, founding the congregation on Jan. 25, 1816. Mazenod said he was “impelled by a strong impulse from outside of himself” to live a life in oblation (a total offering or sacrifice) to God. He extended an invitation to other priests to also follow this pathway of poverty, chastity, obedience and charity.

Fr. Ken Forster, OMI, who served two terms as provincial superior of OMI Lacombe Canada, from 2013 to 2019, has reflected on the history and “go anywhere” spirit of the Oblates in the lead-up to a 200th anniversary celebration dinner at the Italian Cultural Centre in Edmonton. He is set to deliver the keynote speech at this May 21 gathering.

“We came in 1841 to (Saint-Hilaire on the Richelieu) in what is now Quebec, and within 15 years, the Oblates were across the country, either by canoe, walking or horseback or whatever, but all through Canada and also coming up into British Columbia from Oregon,” said Forster. “There was tremendous zeal and a willingness for these Europeans to undergo very harsh conditions and live very close to the people.”

Six Oblate missionaries were commissioned by de Mazenod to voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to establish a presence in a land that would ultimately come to be known as Canada. Fr. Jean-Baptiste Honorat, named superior of the first Canadian Oblate community, was accompanied by Frs. Adrien Telmon, Jean Baudrand, Lucien Lagier and Brothers Basile Fastray and Louis Roux.

Archbishop Emeritus Sylvain Lavoie, who shepherded the Keewatin-Le Pas archdiocese from 2005 to 2012, also marvelled at the Oblates embracing their charism to go where they are called to serve. That motto led to the order ultimately planting nearly every current diocese in Canada's west and north. The Oblates’ apostolic commitment was present in each of the nations in which they proclaim and live out the Gospel.

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“We’ve gone to Kenya to start up a mission down there, and we’ve evangelized Western Canada and to work with the Indigenous people to learn the language and to write Bibles in Cree, Dene and different languages and grammars,” said Lavoie. “I wore out a keyboard trying to translate the grammar from French to English on my computer.”

Serving as missionaries to the abandoned is indeed core to the Oblates’ philosophy. Also, paramount is helping people become fully human through holistic growth, integrating spiritual, emotional and physical wellbeing.

“St. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:18 that we're looking in a mirror, not out a window at God,” said Lavoie. “So, what do you see when you look in a mirror? You see yourself. The message is saying, ‘look, if you want to experience God, make that inner journey, get to know who you are first.' ”

Lavoie continues to aid people in attaining holistic growth as spiritual director of the Star of the North Retreat Centre in St. Albert, Alta. This place of prayer, rest and renewal is largely operated by lay leaders.

The Starlight Fundraising Dinner to honour the Oblates’ bicentennial as a papally approved congregation will support both Star of the North and the Kenyan mission. A certain amount of the proceeds will go towards a new retreat centre in Kenya.

Along with the busy schedule at the Star of the North Centre, another active component of the Oblates’ present work is educating contemporary audiences about the order's historical relationship with Indigenous peoples. Since the still yet to be proven 2021 announcement of mass graves on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, much scrutiny has been devoted to the Oblates’ management of residential schools.  

OMI Lacombe is aiding the ongoing reconciliation efforts by providing archival residential school documents to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR).

Forster, noting how the average age of current OMI Lacombe missionaries is quite high, said the congregation takes a worldwide view of its work. While there are approximately 1,000 Oblates in Africa today, the time when there were more than 2,000 Oblates in Canada is a past chapter to be celebrated.

“The extensive ministry that we did in the past, we just have to celebrate that and recognize we can't, and there's no expectation that we're going to, continue that,” said Forster.

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The former OMI Lacombe provincial superior is cherishing the past history by writing historical articles that chronicle Oblate linguists like Fr. Jean-Marie-Raphaël Le Jeune, OMI, the evangelization of the Cree and Blackfoot by Fr. Albert Lacombe and the efforts of eight Oblate bishops to grow the Church in Western Canada.

Forster will share some of the great stories in Oblate history at the gala event. He approaches the event with a mindset to “treasure the past because of the great example that we've had with such dedicated men who have come as missionaries, but also to bring creative fidelity to the future.”