Oblates of Notre Dame




The Oblates of Notre Dame is a Roman catholic religious congregation based in Cotabato City, Philippines. The congregation consists of 172 religious sisters as of January 2016.
It was founded November 10, 1956, in Cotabato City by two missionaries of Oblates of Mary Immaculate who came to Manila in 1939: Fathers George Dion and Gerard Mongeau. The First Members were: Sr. Ma. Estrella Adre, OND, and Sr. Rosita Quijano, OND
Their primary apostolate is pastoral catechesis. Many sisters are working as parish sisters and help in diocesan offices in various local churches. They own and administer schools or help in other institutions as administrators, deans of women or campus ministers especially among Notre Dame schools in the Philippines and church-owned institutions.
The OND Sisters are also engaged in a large variety of social ministries, and work in conjunction with the OND Hesed Foundation.

Mission

The Oblates of Notre Dame's spirituality is based on being poor and seeking to evangelize the poor, in the spirit of Jesus alongside Mary.
The OND Sisters are engaged in parish and diocesan ministries in education, formation, retreats, and social services through the One Hesed Foundation – hospital work, pastoral care for women, children, migrants, seafarers, justice and peace, and inter-religious dialogue – and resource building initiatives. They work in agro-ecology, and are involved with Moro communities particularly in Sulu-Tawi-Tawi, advocating alternative education and promotion of rights among indigenous peoples.
Each OND Sister is invited to take upon herself the personal responsibility to grow in self-knowledge, to move away from self-centeredness to selflessness and to recapture that sense of self-sacrifice for the sake of the marginalized and the excluded. This requires an ongoing study and an appropriation of personal prayer and contemplation.
We are called to create, nurture and sustain intentional community mindful of our common search for God and attentive to the spirit in reading the signs of the times.
We unite ourselves in praise and thanksgiving with the Church in the Liturgy of the Hours. The Eucharistic sacrifice is the source and center of our consecrated life.
We gladly join forces with all whom we work with. We cooperate and collaborate with our bishops, priests, brothers and sisters, laity and ministers of other faiths in a spirit of understanding. The love we extend to them gives striking witness to the universality of the Church.

Stages of Formation

Vocation to the religious life is a call from God. It is God who takes the initiative and extends the invitation. He calls whenever He wants, wherever He wants, whomever He wants.
1. COME AND SEE PERIOD: To seek denotes a goal determined dynamism of a person's life. What one seeks reveals one's deepest concerns. This is the time for the candidates to find out whether the Oblates of Notre Dame is the community for which they are best suited. This is the stage for nurturing the call.
2. PRENOVITIATE: to search into one's inner person and respond to the call away from the world. This period lasts for one year. It is spent in the House of Formation. After a period of probation, our postulants will be admitted to the Novitiate through a rite of initiation which is preceded by a retreat of five days.
3. NOVITIATE: For two years the sisters grow in the culture of the Religious Life-OND style-until they are ready for profession of vows. The novices are introduced to the authentic nature, spirit and purpose of the congregation. Our novices receive solid spiritual, theological and apostolic formation according to the charism of the Oblates of Notre Dame to enable them to discern and cherish their call and commit themselves to God through the Oblates of Notre Dame.
4. JUNIORATE
A. JAP : Designed to develop competent and creative theological spiritual discipline needed for dynamic ministering in mission.
B. JIM facilitates an on-going formation of young professed sisters while they are actively involved in the various OND ministries.
C. Juniors in Renewal Program-the last phase of the Juniorate-Renewal Year-lasts for 10 months, is a period to help the Junior Sisters make an essential act of total consecration to God that will engage them to live the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience.
5. ON-GOING FORMATION: Formation is far from finished when perpetual vows are pronounced. The sisters seek to grow daily and develop in the life of Christ and in the likeness of Mary who did all that pleased Him. OGF assists the sisters in their continuing education which extends to all aspects of religious person and in the whole institute itself and her mission.

Locations

The OND Sisters are located in these following Dioceses and Archdioceses
MINDANAO
VISAYAS
LUZON
FOREIGN MISSIONS
Yearly congregational Thrust
Overview of the GRT Leadership Orientation
Year 1: 2017-2018 Theme: Missionary Disciples sharing God’s mission today.
The General Renewal Team has been commissioned by the General Council to help facilitate the general education on the Acts of the General Chapter so that we all shall have a deeper and common grasp of the chapter mandates. The General Renewal Team is composed of Sr. Stella Marie Llerin, OND as coordinator, Sr. Rose Susan, Montejo, OND, Sr. Carmelita Olifernes, OND and Sr. Erlinda Hisug.
In the year one of our communal journey, we were also provided with monthly recollection guide, which were used by most communities. Some even had the monthly recollection theme as source of reflection and communal prayer during the entire month. An innovative feature was making available the Recollection Guide promptly on the FB Rainbow Connection group. In the same apostolate year we all participated in the retreat on the theme Missionary Disciples Sharing God’s mission today with sub-title Configuring to Jesus Paradigm.
Year 2: 2018-2019: Stewardship as A Way of Life is God’s Delight
Acts of the Chapter 2017 on page 74 states that Stewardship is grateful response of a missionary disciple who recognizes and receives God’s gifts and shares these gifts in love of God and neighbour. Furthermore we are reminded that our life of stewardship flows from the very heart of our vocation… The mission of stewardship affects our relationships, influences our approach to issues such peace, ecological justice, simplicity, poverty and common good, to name a few.
Year 3: 2019-2020: Stewardship of Community on Mission: Living as God’s Family in God’s Household
For Year 3, the GRT’s goal is to continue the on-going formation program on stewardship as a way of life with particular focus on the community on mission; to animate the OND community to be faithful stewards of God’s household cultivating a deep relationship with Jesus and appropriating missionary discipleship in our way of life through leadership and governance, mission and ministries, vocations, formation and mission sustainability.