Missionaries of La Salette
The Missionaries are dedicated to making known the message of Our Lady of La Salette, a call to healing of inner brokenness and personal reconciliation with God, especially as found in the first three commandments.
Statues from the site of the apparition in the tiny mountain village of La Salette, in the commune of Corps France depict Our Lady addressing two children.
In Latin America, Africa, Australia and Asia, the community does missionary work in a number of countries, including Angola, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, India, Madagascar, Myanmar and the Philippines.
"[1] The Missionaries of La Salette were founded in 1852 by Philibert de Bruillard (1765 - 1860),[2] the Bishop of Grenoble, in southeastern France, as a testimony to Our Lady's appeal to "make (her message) known to all her people."
After profession of their first simple vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, they enter the scholasticate in Rome, to complete their philosophical and theological studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University.
In 1909 the missionaries deemed their institute sufficiently developed, owing to additional foundations in Belgium, Madagascar, Poland, and Brazil, and the superior general petitioned the Holy See to approve their constitutions.
[3] Restrictions against religious institutes in France were lifted in 1914, and a number of the congregations's members served in World War I, with fifteen losing their lives.
Chastity means more than abstaining from sexual activity and its purpose is to make the religious totally available for service; it is also a sign that only God can completely fill the human heart.
For a member of a religious congregation, obedience is not slavishly doing what one is told by the superior but being attentive to God’s will by prayerfully listening to the voice of the person in charge.
Those who are inquiring about entering the congregation are strongly encouraged to attend Mass as often as possible, to read the Bible especially the Gospel accounts and to regularly spend time in prayer in order to better discern their vocation.
If the candidate wishes to pursue his vocation to join the La Salettes he may enter the novitiate which is the time for preparing to take the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
The novitiate year is crucial, for it is then “...that the novices better understand their divine vocation, and indeed one which is proper to the institute, experience the manner of living of the institute, and form their mind and heart in its spirit, and so that their intention and suitability are tested.”[5] Thus, the novices are given the opportunity for longer periods of prayer and spiritual reading as well as silence in order to reflect on the vocation God is offering and nature of their response.
