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Oasis Movement
Father Virginio Rotondi
The specific spirituality of the Oasis Movement is
to view one's own life as a service of love. This service is summarized under
five points or commitments that help young people in particular to grow humanly
and to mature spiritually:
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"knowing how to
serve";
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"being interested in
the world";
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"taking on the
attitude of a servant";
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"delivering oneself
to Christ";
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"delivering oneself
to our brothers and sisters."
Over 50 years it has helped to form hundreds of
thousands of people in the spirituality of "serving for love," actively
committed in many different movements, associations or organizations. The Oasis
movement is now present in eight countries, in Asia, Europe, North America and
South America.
Works for instance: Villaggio Nuova Speranza at Sao
Matesu in the state of Espirito Santo in Brazil: This is a social work which
looks after about 500 children every day from the nearby "favelas" in the
kindergarten and five elementary school classes.
The school syllabuses, which are also designed for
the human development of the children, integrate farming activities, and notions
of handicraft and hygiene. The children are given food every day. The aim is to
influence families through the children.
History
The Oasis Movement was founded in Rome on Nov. 1,
1950 by a group of students who took up the proposal made by Jesuit Father
Virginio Rotondi to commit their youth to the pursuit of the ideal of holiness.
Subjected to discernment by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (in
those days the Holy Office) it was officially recognized in 1952. That same
year, Pope Pius XII received its members in a special audience at Castel
Gandolfo, and delivered a policy address to them which still remains to this day
the Magna Carta of the movement.
Since Pius XII, subsequent Popes have also expressed
their gratitude and given encouragement to the pastoral work of the movement.
The movement is incorporated into the life of the
Church at the universal, national, diocesan and parish levels. In June 1992, it
was also welcomed into the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Its specific charism is vocational in the modern and
ecclesial sense of that term: to lead people to see themselves as an affirmative
response to the universal vocation to holiness; to any call of God, the Church
and our brothers and sisters; to the quest for God's will, to be done at all
times in one's own social, professional, political or ecclesial state of life.
The movement emphasizes the pastoral ministry of
vocations for young people and families, and sets out to bear witness to a
spirit of total devotion, generosity and total fidelity to the Pope, the Church
and its magisterium.
The formation pathway of the members, which is
performed through a series of courses -- the outline of which is based on the
words of Father Rotondi that "our life is perfected to the extent that it is
geared to and harmonized with the will of God" -- has four levels, each of which
has a particular form of commitment: service, promise, consecration, animation.
Publications: Crescere, published monthly.
Web site:
www.movimento-oasi.it
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