BLESSING, REV. FR. DENNIS LOOMIS, MS -- SUPERIOR GENERAL

Today, a blessing from the Superior General of the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette

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My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

As you gather for the first ever worldwide meeting of La Salette Associates, I wish you all a very warm welcome, all be it from a long distance. I regret that I am unable to join you in person, but I will be with you in prayer and in spirit. 

These past fifty years in Church history have presented us with a model of Church that goes back to the earliest times of our faith, and recaptured once again in the Second Vatican Council. Many observers of the Council have held that the most important outcome of the Council was to restore the proper place of the laity in the Mission of the Church. There were certain principals enunciated that clearly capture the role of the laity in a new light. When I was a young man, alas many years ago, the place of the laity was simply stated. Their place was to pray, pay and obey. That model of Church, fortunately, was completely discredited when by the grace of the Holy Spirit; John XXIII called for an Ecumenical Council, despite the objections from many in the hierarchy of the Church.

Thanks to this courageous act, a new age has dawned. Today a new principle has been enunciated to describe the Church, one that is all-inclusive rather than the former description that was heavily based on the principle that the most important part of the Church consisted of the clergy and the religious.

 In short, we the Council gave us a new vision.

First, we are all Disciples of Christ.

 Second, all of us share the responsibility for carrying out the mission of Christ.

 Third, the Church’s mission is the extension of Jesus’ proclamation of the Good News in service of the Kingdom.

In the Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity, we find the following:

            The principal duty of both men and women is to bear witness to Christ, and this they are obliged to do by their life and their words, in the family, in their social group, and in the sphere of their profession. (no.21)

We, the La Salette family, laity and religious, go forth together in our mission because of the two commands we have received.

“Go therefore, make disciples of all nations…”  (Mat. 28: 19)

“Well my children you will make this know to all my people.” O.L. of La Salette

We should not be afraid of the mission confided to us. We must always keep before us the promise of Jesus to those first disciples:

“And know that I will be with you always; yes, to the end of time.” (Mat. 28: 19)

With every best wish, and with all my prayers,

Yours truly,

Dennis Loomis, MS

Superior General of the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette.