We the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate welcome you with open arms and hearts. We are grateful for making this your home, a place where we share our missionary work and efforts with you to bring a message of hope to the poor and the most abandoned. This is the mission of the Missionary Oblates, and of thousands of people like you who join us with much needed prayers and financial support in our quest to the most remote places in the world.
The beginnings of this organization reach 1879, and this is what the Archbishop Dontenwill wrote in 1929 in a circular letter to the Congregation entitled The Association of Mary Immaculate.47 It states that: “The Association is like an extension of the Congregation among the faithful. It brings together the friends and benefactors around the missionaries. Its members offer to work, according to their ability, to support the missionary work. Under the protection of Mary Immaculate, they become the “auxiliary apostles” of the Oblate missionaries. In a certain sense, they form part of this religious family, sharing its joys, its successes and its failures. They work to make the Congregation better known, to diffuse its publications, promote vocations and support its apostolate with their alms. The Oblates offer them, in exchange, a sharing in the prayers, sacrifices, good works and merits of the missionaries.48
Archbishop Dontenwill called attention to the increase in vocations and the development of the structures for formation in the various provinces. The search for material means always created problems for the young Congregation. It was particularly difficult to find funds for the students who depended directly on the provinces, but the assistance of the M.A.M.I. made it possible to overcome this difficulty. It was now necessary to find assistance for the missionaries “who work in the vineyard of the Lord.”49 Besides providing assistance through material contributions, offerings and works of Christian charity, the members of the Association would now support by continuous prayer the Oblate missionary activities, that is, the work of the propagation of the faith itself.
The other goal of the Association is the spread of Oblate publications. The majority of the provinces of the Congregation created their own reviews or periodicals. Thanks to the help of the members of the M.A.M.I., the missionary spirit could enter the homes and develop a missionary awareness.”50
The Missionary Association of Mary Immaculate – MAMI is an orginazation of special people like you who extend themselves into foreign countries as helpers of the poor. As Associates, by prayer and material offerings, they help the Oblate Fathers and Brothers who are sharing God’s gifts in different areas of the world. Missionary Oblates, in a special spiritual union with the Missionary Associates, work in their name among the poor of the world. As a Missionary Associate, you assist us in these areas, at times thousands of miles beyond the borders of Canada.
What are the Benefits for those who become members of MAMI?
Each day of the year at least one Eucharist is celebrated somewhere in the world for the members of the Missionary Association of Mary Immaculate alive and deceased. The Superior General and his Council, resident in Rome, assign the various Provinces and Delegations of the Congregation the days for which they are responsible to fulfill this joyful obligation. Additionally the deceased members of MAMI, are enrolled in “St. Eugene De Mazenod Perpetual Remembrance golden book”. The members of the Missionary Association are encouraged to grow in their relationship to God through sharing in the ‘charism’ of St. Eugene de Mazenod, our Founder. This charism led St. Eugene, in openness to the Holy Spirit, to seek out and minister to those of God’s People most needy, those marginalized, rejected and poor.
Here, you will also find information about our ministry in places like Canadian North missions, Madagascar, Cameroon, Ukraine, Russia, Byelorussia, Turkmenistan, Paraguay, Bolivia and other South American, African and Asian missions where the Missionary Oblates from Assumption Province of Canada in collaboration with the Polish Province have ministered since 1956.
We will also keep you informed of the efforts to respond to the most urgent needs coming from our missions. Also how you can continue to give hope through your generosity and prayers.
With great pleasure, we will share with you the religious and educational activities that take place in Brampton Ontario where our spiritual and missionary centre is located. This unique setting of Oblate Madonna missionary chapel is where we place our missionary efforts and you who share in our mission, in the hands of our Blessed Mother under her loving advocation. And from here, we remember in prayer the intentions and needs of you, our benefactors, in our daily Masses, and in the fourteen novenas that we celebrate in the chapel throughout the year. On top of that each and every community of oblates belonging to the Assumption Provence of Canada plus about 4,000 oblates in the world, offers communal and individual prayers and sacrifices daily for all the members of MAMI.
As a valid and very much appreciated member of our extended missionary family, you will receive on a solemn celebration a gold plated MAMI pin with a cross incorporated above, which will make you a visible witness of your new mission and part of a new family.
As oblateworldmissions.org becomes your home, we hope that you find this site a pastoral resource for you, your family and your faith community. Our intention is to help you grow stronger in your faith and bring you hope to better respond to life’s everyday challenges.
Welcome and feel at home!
Fr. Adam J. FILAS, OMI
MAMI Director