THEME: A DAY WITH MARY (6^th DECEMBER, 2014)

As usual the day started with a morning prayer organised by the facilitators and led by Brother Frans Wills. The reflection was entirely on Mary with special references to our Constitution. It was in all the three languages representing the various provinces. At 9:00am a film in title “The Nativity of Mary” was premiered. Sister Claudia before the film introduced the characters in the film, their roles and the excess of the film to participants. The film basically depicts critical moments of sufferings of Mary and Joseph; of Mary, her overall life journey to becoming the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ and how her faith overcame all the trials. The film ended with a coffee break. A group of three were formed to share their thoughts on the film. The afternoon session ended with lunch at 12:00pm.

After a very short rest participants returned at 14:30pm, Sister Claudia reflecting with Brothers recalled the difficulties Mary had to go through as an ordinary human being. She urged Brothers to embrace Mary’s values of ordinariness and her steadfast faith in the Lord. Again a film describing the in-depth love for a son just like Mary’s love for Jesus was shown. The film depicts how a love for one can make one brave and ready to die for the other. An African film, describing the oppression of a people by soldiers resulted in the death of a son and how the mother defied the threat by the soldiers to showing love to her murdered son. The woman love and bravery at the end gave hope to the villagers and even the soldiers admired her.

After a break, Brothers were asked to write a letter to Mary beginning with the sentence “Mary, what surprises me is……….”,the second part of the letter demands that participants write their own magnificant beginning with the sentence  ï heard your magnificant and now, inspired by that I write my own magnificant”. They met in their own provinces and discussed how they venerate mother Mary in their locality and later on presented that by demonstrating how Mary is venerated in their local communities or provinces. This was very interesting and inspiring as Brothers dynamically carried Mary on their hands and heads in procession admits singing and drumming. The Chilean started it all, while the Netherlands concluded the presentation.

After supper, Marian songs, both local and English were sung instead of the normal evening prayer service.

THE FEAST OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION (8^TH DECEMBER, 2014)

The Immaculate Conception day is celebrated on the 8^th of December. This is one of the most important feast for all Catholics especially organisations and religious Congregations that have Mother Mary as their patroness saint. For the FIC, it becomes a double joy because it is the birthday of the founder; Mrg Louis Rutten and also the feast day of the Congregation since we are “Brothers of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary” (FIC). As such this day is highly remembered in all communities of all the five provinces.

This year is uniquely unique for the participants of the Oasis because the day was internationally celebrated. At the Arnold Jackson Klooster at Wahwiller in the Netherlands where the Oasis is being held, the sisters on this very day were also celebrating a jubilee, the Brothers were therefore privileged to have joined them in their chapel to celebrate the Eucharist together. The Eucharistic celebration was also international and well inculturated and acculturated in a fashionable style. The Brothers from Malawi sang a Chichewa song while presenting the Gospel in a local basket at the altar, the Brothers from Ghana also in a procession sang a beautiful Marian song as they present the  gifts to the altar; for the Indonesians the magnificant wouldn’t have been better sang in any language either than the Bahasa. The Chileans on their part concluded the mass with yet another soul inspiring Marian Spanish tune. Being a feast day, the Brothers retreated to their rooms for personal reflection after a befitting breakfast to start the feast day.

After a very delicious lunch to mark a memorable feast, the Brothers rested for a while and continued the celebration walking on a pilgrimage to a popular Marian grotto on a hill in Wittem. They walked admits reciting the rosary in turns and in each local language till they got to the hill. On the mountain they sang the Congregational song over and over and also sang local Marian songs. This lasted for about an honour. It took the unfriendly weather to scare the zealous Marian devotees away; the cold weather forced the Brothers to charge their bodies with extremely hot tea and coffee some without sugar for the first time. The Brothers, poised to give Mary a befitting celebration visited the Redemptory’s Monastery to witness varieties of Christmas cribs exhibition in a magnificently huge library. As if the weather was determined to scare us further from honouring Mary or may be Mary was refreshing us with showers of blessings; it was raining and the Brothers had to go through the rains. This was time for some to learn how to increase their steps, one has to walk like a typical Dutch man or woman” (very fast). Others adopted athletics by running from Witin to Wahwiller but were still drenched severely. It took yet another delicious supper to console some Brothers and bring their good memories back. The day ended with a power point presentation of some pictures of the Oasis from the beginning to the day in question.

Recorded and edited by Brother Fidelis Gyiireh