Zealous Laborers for the Lord
This time of year holds some very special days for the Oblates of the Virgin Mary.
Last weekend Fr. Jorge Sanchez, OMV, and Fr. Jonathon Hank, OMV, were ordained priests at our parish in California. On July 31 we honor St. Ignatius of Loyola, whose Spiritual Exercises form the heart of Oblate spirituality and mission. Venerable Fr. Bruno Lanteri and the early Oblates found in the Spiritual Exercises, “a most efficacious means…to produce holy ministers and most zealous laborers for the Lord.” On August 1,the Church honors St. Alphonsus Liguori, whose practical moral teaching was used by Ven. Lanteri to draw many souls to experience God’s mercy in the confessional and in frequent reception of Holy Communion.
August 5 recalls the death of Lanteri in 1830, and is also the day when Andrew Olson will profess his first vows as an Oblate of the Virgin Mary at our seminary in Boston.
And this weekend San Pedro welcomes Br. Miggo Roque, OMV, (second from the left in the front row of the group photo). Br. Miggo will spend the next year with us as part of his pastoral training. Br. Miggo was born and raised in Paranaque city in the Philippines, and is the youngest of three children. He was a youth leader for Youth for Christ, an outreach of Couples for Christ. He first encountered the Oblates through the OMV parish of St. Peter Chanel in Hawaiian Gardens, where he made the Spiritual Exercises. He graduated from California State University-Long Beach, earning a B.A. in Religious Studies. Br. Miggo enjoys long-distance running and playing basketball. He entered the Oblates in 2019, and professed his first vows in August 2022.
Welcome, Br. Miggo!
-Fr Tom
Prayer for Oblate Vocations
Loving Father, as Jesus taught us to beg the harvest master to send laborers into his vineyard, so we now ask you to bless the Oblates of the Virgin Mary with numerous vocations. May your Spirit draw men of integrity to love you intensely, and to serve you courageously in poverty, chastity, and obedience. Reveal your mercy to them, and remove the distractions and fears that keep them from echoing Mary’s joyful
Yes. Guide them in discerning the mission for which you created them, so that they will become wise and gentle shepherds of souls. We ask this through the intercession of Venerable Lanteri, and in the name of Jesus the Lord. Amen.
