THE 150TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ICON OF OMPH

Posted on Oct 1, 2014

Jubilee phases

As you know, the General Government declared 2016 year as a Year of Jubilee in honour of Our Mother of Perpetual Help. The theme of this Jubilee is: Mother of Perpetual Help: Icon of Love. Fr. General has appointed a Central Commission for this Jubilee, with the General Consultor Fr. Juventius Andrade, as the President of Commission and the other members from every Conference. The representative of Europe is Fr. Marek Kotyński (Warsaw Province). The Commission has proposed a three year process of this Jubilee:

 Phase I:  Jan 2015 – Dec 2015

          “Strengthening and nurturing our love for the Mother of God”

Phase I is the preparation year for a renewal of our devotion to Mary. The Redemptorist Centre for Spirituality will provide modules for the worldwide Congregation which would enable us to reflect on our call as consecrated persons and at the same time the Center will provide some material that would enable deeper reflection on the role of Mary in our life.

 Phase II:  2016

          Our Mother of Perpetual Help – “Icon of Love” – Celebration

Phase II would be the celebration stage in the worldwide Congregation together with those who have a special devotion to Mary as Mother of Perpetual Help. There will be various events which will reflect the great love for Mary as Perpetual Help. A central moment of this Jubilee will be a celebration at our Shrine in Rome and we hope that Pope Francis will be with us. It is expected that each Unit and Conference would organize main activities for the anniversary. It is highly recommended that the culminating/major celebrations will be held around the Feast Day – June 27.

 Phase III:  2016-2017

          A renewal of “Make her known” Missionary dimension

Following the culminating events of the exact anniversary date, we want to renew our commitment to the original mandate done by Pius IX to “make her known.” It will be the challenge to stimulate our ministry of evangelization, especially through the Icon as a tool of evangelization. Responsibility for this phase will be done to the Units of the Congregation and the Conferences.

Fr. Kotyński has started to collaborate with every Unit with the help of a “Contact Person” designated by the Major Superiors in every (V) Province, Region and Mission in CRE. At the moment there are 10 Contact Persons in CRE:

  1. Bratislava Province – Fr. Robert Rezny
  2. St. Clement’s Province – Fr. Henk Erinkveld
  3. Dublin Province – Fr. Adrian Egan
  4. Lisbon Province – Fr. Manuel Peixoto
  5. London Province – Fr. Jim McManus
  6. Lyon-Paris Province – Fr Georges Darlix
  7. Madrid Province – Fr. Laurentino Pineda
  8. Michalovce Vice-Province – Fr. Marian Andrej Pacák
  9. Munich-Vienna Province – Fr. Peter Koch
  10. Warsaw Province – Fr. Marek Kotyński

 The Central Commission prepared some suggestions-projects-plans (below) for every Unit of CRE. Fr. Kotyński has presented these suggestions during the 7th Assembly of the CRE in Lviv (23-25.09.2014). The Contact Persons (together with the Commission OMPH for the Celebration of the Jubilee in every Unit) are responsible for their implementations.

 NDPS 4

Projects – Plans for the 150th anniversary OMPH

Conference Level

  1. To indicate/propose some important meetings / events / initiatives in the Conference. We would like to inform all the Redemptorists in Europe. We want to promote the Jubilee and the devotion to OMPH in an organized manner.
  2. To establish in the (V) Provinces / Regions a “Commission for the Celebration of the Jubilee”. To nominate the Contact Person from the Units as a responsible for the promotion and the celebration of the Jubilee in the (V) Provinces / Regions. This Commission should plan and organize the meetings and activities for the Jubilee.
  3. Every (V) Province / Region should prepare 5-7 pages of the history of the development of the devotion to OMPH in the Unit. (In the future we would like to publish the history of the devotion in the Congregation).
  4. To propose to the (V) Provinces / Region to compose a Hymn of the Jubilee and a Logo and Video announcement, and also a Video about the shrine/shrines OMPH in the (V) Province/ Region.
  5. To prepare (or if it is already prepared, to collect) the history of the shrines of OMPH in the Conference.
  6. Together with the Communication Center of the Conference, we want to upload the plans projects and information about events and celebrations in the Units and shrines – on the Website of the 150th Jubilee of the Icon. On this Website the General Commission want to publish also a materials (important articles, booklets, music, prayers) about the history, devotions, shrines OMPH in the Units – so, please could you send to me this texts! Website of the 150th Jubilee of the Icon (beta version)  http://iconoflove.businesscatalyst.com
  7. To propose to the (V) Provinces / Regions of Europe to organize one main celebration of the Jubilee in our shrine in Rome.
  8. To organize a meeting for the Rectors of the Shrines OMPH in Europe.
  9. To invite for the pilgrimages to OMPH Shrine in Rome.

 (V) Province/Region Level

  1. To collect information from the (V) Provinces / Regions where typical Redemptorist devotions and activities are done in our shrines of OMPH.
  2. To organize the special meeting for the youth about OMPH.
  3. To contact to all parishes of OMPH in the (V) Provinces / Regions to inform them of the events of Jubilee and to encourage the pilgrimages.
  4. To contact the parishes where the OMPH Confraternities are working and to inform them about the Jubilee.
  5. To have a contact with other Congregations linked with OMPH in the (V) Provinces / Regions through the special letter to inform them about the Jubilee – to encourage them for the pilgrimages to Rome.
  6. To invite our students (seminarists) to prepare a the catechesis – for the young people, about the history of the icon OMPH, about the development of the devotion to OMPH, and about the meaning of the Icon OMPH – e.g. in Power Point, and to show the presentation to various groups of young people.

 Fr. Marek Kotynski

Commission for the Jubilee

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