Ordo Servorum Mariae

SERVICE

 MISSION  

 JUSTICE AND PEACE 

95. Responding to the command of the Lord to proclaim the gospel to all, Servants of Mary should feel an obligation to go where the Church is not yet established or where it is not yet self-sufficient. With their life, which is so eminently community centered, the friars constitute the first presence of the Church, which will develop and grow through evangelization and the sacraments into full maturity as a local church.

96. Like Christ himself, the friar should become one with the people he joins, adopting their language, understanding their ways of thought and belief and sharing their problems. In this way, through the proclamation of the gospel and the witness of his faith, the friar can assist the people in their growth, based on their own most genuine spiritual and cultural values, and lead them to the full stature of Christ.

97. The missionary community, while attentive to local needs, must be careful to keep itself up-to-date and sensitive to developments within the universal Church. In planning its activities it should aim at the formation of Christian communities from which may come lay leaders, catechists, religious, deacons, priests and bishops to whom ecclesial responsibility can be gradually entrusted. 

98. The missionary community should keep all the friars of the Order informed about the development and needs of its work in order to keep alive that interest which will lead to the forma-tion and special preparation of new missionaries. (Constitutions OSM)