Our presence
We offer our apostolate for those who are in need in these countries. Today our apostolate is carried out through our presence in hospitals, nursing homes for sick and aged people, parishes, helping children for education through adoption and help for homeless people etc…
Missionary service
The Congregation joyfully responded to the appeal of the second Vatican Council for the missions by dedicating part of its membership for the spreading of the Kingdom of God among the nations. Today the Congregation participates in the missionary activity of the Church by prayer, suffering and by working in missionary countries.
The value of the missionary witness depends upon the solidarity with the people among whom the oblates work and on the fidelity to their charism. The Congregation on its part shall provide a promote spiritual and juridical unity with the house of the mission according to the norms of the Constitutions.
Formation
"The formation through the fusion of the various elements should be given in such a way that it will help to integrate the lives of the religious". (Pc 18)
Pedagogical orientation
The purpose of formation is to lead the members of the Institute to an ever grater, responsible comprehension of their vocation and their mission in the Church. Formation, through the fusion of the various human, Christian and religious elements, should take place in such a way as to contribute to the unity of life of the Oblate Hospital Franciscan Sisters.
Our Charism
The Congregation's aim is to devote oneself completely and wholly to the care of the ill.
The service of the sick
The Congregation, actuating in the Church the charism of the Foundress, Monna Tessa, directs its apostolate to the evangelization of the brethren by means of assistential service in hospitals, among the aged, and according to the needs of the times through other forms of charitable activity.
Our relations with the sick are not limited to corporal works of mercy. Indeed, the principal purpose we pursue is their eternal salvation.
For that reason it is our mission to help the sick accept and evaluate their suffering by offering it to the Lord in intimate union with the suffering of Christ.
Taking into consideration the particular demands of the area in which we work, we realize we are missionaries of the evangelical message not only for the sick but also for their relatives.
Fraternal life
"now the company of those who believed were of one heart and one soul". (Act. 4,32)
Common Life
"By this will all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (Jn 13, 35) "Now the company of those who believed were of one heart and one soul". (Acts 4, 32)
United in Christ
Realizing that the true fraternity is that which we live in Jesus Christ, only Son of God, brother and Saviour of men, we will make this fraternity the source of our strength in our common apostolic commitment.
With love
We should remember that we will never be sisters to each other if each one of us does not live the "gift" that God has given the others, which remains such even it at times the sisters appears to us to be at fault.
Conscious of the presence of the Lord among us, we must mutually love and esteem each other "bearing one another's burdens".
Spiritual life
The communal prayer is the source and the essential expression of our personal and fraternal life.
The Eucharist Celebration is the focal point of our Liturgical Prayer.
The life of Prayer
"All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer… together with Mary, the mother of Jesus".
(Act,1,14)
Our spiritual life shall be built on the example of Christ, poor, chaste, obedient, meditated and deepened individually and in common; celebrated in the liturgy; actually realized in fraternal life and in the apostolate.
Liturgical Prayer
Community prayer is the source and fundamental expression of our life of fraternity and of our apostolate. First of all, united in liturgical prayer we participate in the living reality of the Church and obtain the gift of the Spirit.
Meditation
Every day we shall take in hand the Sacred Scripture to learn "the surpassing worth of knowing Christ".
The Universality and the Model of our Prayer
The universality of our prayer is indicative of our insertion in Christ. In our prayer we keep in mind the needs of the world, of the Church, of our religious family, of the sick, of each sister living or deceased.
The model of our spiritual life shall be the Blessed Vergine Mary, who was faithful in receiving the word and in cooperating with his work.
Confident of her maternal assistance, we honour her and with filial piety implore her help by reciting daily the Rosary, celebrating devoutly her feasts, by loving her as Mother and invoking her as "Mother of Mercy".
Apostolic Life
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me… He has sent me to preach good news to the poor". (Is 61, 1-2; Lk 4, 18)
Foundation and character of our apostolate
Like all the baptized, we are engaged in the apostolate and prophetic witness and furthermore by prayer, penance and the joyful renunciation of earthly things licit in themselves we are "a sign which can and should effectively inspire all the members of the Church to fulfill unflaggingly the duties of their Christian calling" and by a singular gift of the Holy Spirit we are called "to testify openly to mankind's yearning for its heavenly home and keep the awareness of it vividly before men's minds.
We should acquire the apostolic sensitivity of Francis "who did not consider himself a friend of Christ if he did not love the souls he loved".
Since apostolic and charitable action is part of the very nature of our Congregation, our entire life should be imbued with the apostolic spirit and our entire apostolic action should be pervaded by the religious spirit.
We do not forget that our apostolate consists in the first place in the witness of our consecrated life, that we are bound to nourish with prayer and penance.
Each of us should feel responsible for her own conduct in her work. Bearing in mind that our activity, precisely because it is an apostolate, should be carried out in evangelical simplicity, without seeking personal prestige.