To all of the Oblates of St. Joseph around the world

My dear confreres,

It is Christmas time. Jesus’ birth was practically ignored by the people of his day even though the Jews were awaiting the Messiah. But that Baby was too simple, too poor, and he cried and was hungry...he was too much like all other babies, so he could not be the Messiah. The people were “blind” before the Emmanuel.

Even today we are faced with a humanity which is blind. We have so much, discover and invent marvelous things, but we do not put our “modernity” at the use of life and solidarity, for a more just and fraternal world. This blindness today affects political and social plans and relationships between peoples and cultures. The beauty of life and creation is lost in the midst of calamities caused by the evil use of the goods of the earth. There is hunger which afflicts an immense number of people; violence and exploitation, which reap so many victims; wars which are always unjust and poison relationships between peoples. There is a blindness which affects everyone, young and old...and which can also affect our religious communities, making community unbearable. The Prophets of the Old Testament fought against the blindness of the People of Israel in God’s name. Jesus of Nazareth and his disciples fought against the blindness and hardness of heart of the people of their time. Today as well it is essential to fight with Christ’s light against the blindness of modern man because he lives badly in the world and uses his reason and freedom in a selfish way. But we know, a blind person is not able to lead another blind person. We religious have “to see” since it is our vocation to show Christ’s way to those who are blind.

The humble and simple coming of the Baby Jesus today ought to call into question our attitudes, presenting us with new signs and a more open and generous heart. The Emmanuel presents us with a sober and essential life, flight from consumerism which blinds our hearts, open to true love made up of the details of everyday which transform our life and the life of those who are around us.

The celebration of Christmas lead us to think right away of family, of domestic affection. Our religious community is our family. We need to rediscover the “pleasure” of living well together. We ought to do all we can to create an atmosphere of human warmth which melts certain cold attitudes toward some confreres. In the Christmas spirit we can rebuild the family relationships in our houses so that they become welcoming and fraternal places, cribs for new vocations. Let us ask the Baby Jesus for the gift to be able to live in peace and hope, in our community-family, a true sense of belonging and a sincere spirit of welcoming toward all, especially toward people who are searching for authentic values in this lonely world which is a times superficial and indifferent. A world as cold, lonely and blind as ours needs warm and welcoming places full of life and love. Yes, dear confreres, we have been “chosen and anointed” on a personal level, but even more so on a community level, to be light for the blind today.

The year dedicated to Youth Ministry, a priority in our Congregation, is coming to a close. In the Christmas spirituality of us Oblates there is the strong presence of the “Choir Master”, he who is for us the best example of a teacher. Joseph of Nazareth was a “true” father to Jesus, because he gave him his name, he taught him the Jewish laws, teaching him about the Jewish religion, in the culture of that time, in the history of those traditions, in hard and honest work, in daily life made up of work, difficulties and hopes. For this reason in the DNA of the Oblates there is the teacher of youth, like St. Joseph, who was Jesus’ formator, both as a child and a young man. Every Oblate is a teacher by vocation. That is why I will never tire of reminding all that: “The Congregation walks along the way of God and according to the directives of the Founder if it succeeds in forming members capable of inspiring and educating youth” (Const. 65).

During the entire year of 2008 we have been invited to see the face of the thousand of young people for whom St. Marello and the first Oblate generation, from the beginning, made a clear option and which we today can propose again. Youth Ministry is a choice of evangelization for us. Among the goals for this year, there was that of evaluating our mission in relation to the youth and adolescents who surround us. In various Provinces and Delegations there have been reflections, meetings, retreats, and activities about Youth Ministry and in particular on the “Step by Step”, in others little or nothing. There was hope for new, prophetic and courageous acts which could transform our approach to and our presence among the youth. I want to remind you again, dear confreres, that which this important document asks of us.

- The first part is entitled: “With an eye toward the youth of our day”- In it number 17 of the working document for the XV General Chapter is cited: “The starting point for a path of youth ministry is the concrete living experience of the young person: his joys and his pains, his criteria for making judgments, the values that define him, his interests, his line of thought, his sources of inspiration, and his role models for living”. So to evangelize youth we have to be creative among them. But I ask myself: has this year helped us Oblates to put more emphasis on our commitment to youth? Has it served to shake us up, move us, lead us to forget our tiredness, apathy and discouragement when faced with the challenges from the youth who are around us. Let us remember: in the Church we have this specific and priority duty, the education of youth.

- The second part of the document has the title “On the Way ‘with’ the Church and ‘in’ the Church”. It has a quote from John Paul II speaking to us on 2/17/2000: “Your work puts you in the heart of the Church. The charism of the Oblates of St. Joseph, in fact, requires you to reproduce in your life and apostolate the ideal of service that was lived by the Guardian of the Redeemer”. Just as the Baby Jesus was born in a time which demanded a specific commitment from his parents, so our Congregation was born in a time in which the youth were victims of exploitation of the unbridled machinations and rationalism to which they were subjected. Today our youth are slaves of other things. I know it is not easy to dialogue with them (it never has been) especially because they question our attitudes, our work, and our way of living. But the first step is not to judge them, but to welcome them with all that they carry in their heart. We Oblates today cannot miss the “train” of today’s youth: they are part of our identity.

- The third part of the document “Step by Step” speaks of the “Oblate Mission in the Style of St. Joseph and of Marello” and says: “Even if by means of the commitment to work “with” the Church and “in” the Church, our youth ministry needs to find a specific character, in accord with the charismatic elements that we find in our Rule of Life in the Congregation, the teachings left to us by our Founder, St. Joseph Marello, and those operative suggestions that come from a properly Oblate spirituality”. We must not forget that today we are the new “Josephs of Nazareth” and we need to take care of the new “Jesus’” who are today’s youth and protect them from the new “Herods” which are the problems, challenges, and pseudo-values which bombard them. The Oblate style for teaching youth is based on a few principles:

• on humanization of our relationships with them since they are people who think, are free, and made in the image and likeness of God, and not on the quantity of organized activities for them;

• on respect and acceptance of the person of the young person, with his or her own ideas, enthusiasm and feeling, and not on obedience to that which we want or think;

• on gathering in them the “seeds of the Spirit”, such as generosity, the search for God, the desire for authentic relationships with meaning, the desire to feel they are protagonists of their lives, not slaves of outside decisions, the search for freedom;

• on the awareness of the “family world”; on the personalized rhythm of their way of faith and encounter with Jesus; on their capacity and courage to enter into community; on their sensitivity to society and their education in the world of politics, according to the criteria of honesty and service of the community;

• on the sacrificial commitment of the educator, who needs to enter into this world of youth so as to meet each young person in him or herself; on the maturity of the educator, who ought not to follow theories and political ideologies in the field of education but ought to enter into the idea of “justice” which we rediscover in the Oblate Teacher;

• on the fascinating example of the teacher, as St. Marello remind us very well in his 4th Pastoral Letter in 1890: “Besides instruction, you also have the obligation to give your children the edification of good works and a good example. The way of the precepts is long; that of examples is short and efficacious…the purest examples must start with you…Therefore, may your life always be a book open before them”.

Today the countries in which we are working are undergoing a profound change: they are cosmopolitan, pluricultural, and plurireligious; people feel different and poorer; the phenomena of immigration breaks up the outlines of the past; in many areas life is lived in violence, exploitation, illegal work, imposed slavery by local mafias, drugs, prostitution...But we, perhaps, have remained the same. Our structures (mental ones, yes, but not only) have remained the same and we have been incapable of adapting ourselves and adapting our works to these new demands. Does it not seem to you the case that we need to update our works, our educative system and even our structures.? Is it not a sin against God and against the youth of this time to have lands and works which are not used or are used for ends which are not so charismatic, in this way losing the initial inspiration of our Religious Family? We must not remain static in world which changes so quickly. Today youth demand from those who want to have a teaching role toward them, a change of attitudes, approach, and language. The challenges that we have before us are more binding than those of yesterday.

For Christmas let us stop our daily course and activity. Let us pray a little bit more and think seriously about the depth of our charism as teachers of youth. Like a child who writes a little note to the Baby Jesus, asking for gifts, so I this Christmas want to present my wishes to the Emmanuel, for me and for each one of you, and for our entire dear Congregation.

Dear Baby Jesus,

in this your Birth, I want to ask you to give three gifts to each Oblate:

1st) Help us to know that you have chosen us to be teachers of youth, just like your father, St. Joseph, was for you, who taught you with passion.

Give us the ability to teach by our life and our daily choices.

May we be capable of bringing light to the children who are living in the darkness of error;

to give affection and attention to the children who live in the cold of selfishness and may we be able to continuously update our Marellian charism.

2nd) May our communities have the ability to express attitudes and gestures of a familyand that among us we might feel the warmth and affection that was present in your house in Nazareth. I ask you also that each Oblate might feel the joy of Forgiveness received and given.

3rd) May our ministry in the midst of young people be effective, such that in seeing us they see You, and may our attitudes be attractive and contagious, to the point of cultivating a prayerful, sober, humble, good and creative life.

Thank you, Baby Jesus, for these gifts.

May Mary, our Mother, and St. Joseph, our father, help us to live and to help others live a true Christmas. May our teacher St. Joseph Marello teach us to educate our youth.

May the Oblate missionary amongst those with tuberculosis, the Servant of God Father Joseph Calvi, teach us about sacrifice and the complete gift of self.

I embrace you with affection and Christmas cheer.

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2008 HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009

Fr. Michele Piscopo osj

Father General