The mission of ALCP/OSS Africa Province

The nature of ministerial priesthood is strictly missionary.  The Community/Society responds to the call of Christ and the mission   of the Apostles. The call has no fixed time and place but is for all the times and all places.   ‘Go therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptize them   in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Mt.28:19-20). The Holy Spirit empowered the apostles to be Christ’s witness to the end of the earth. The Community/Society   bears witness to this, in its missionary life and activities that is to be model and stimulus before mankind. The spiritual gifts which Priests have received   in ordination do not prepare them merely for a limited and circumscribed mission, but for the universal mission of salvation to the end of the earth. Christ entrusted   to his apostles and their immediate co-workers   in the Church a world-wide missionary responsibility, the care of the universal Church.

The Church’s missionary nature derives from the fact that she is the universal sacrament   of Salvation. The missionary activities flow immediately from the very nature   of the Church. This reality applies to every Community/Society   or local Church and for all its members since it is the image and concrete expression   of the universal Church.  The missionary availability   is a visible reality   in the apostolic programs of the society. The Community/Society strives in its life and in the life of its members   in the presence   of the glorified Lord and His Spirit. In the power of the Risen Lord the members are sent to the secularized world   of the Christian countries, the persecuted Churches, and non-Christian peoples as well. From the very fact of life, a priest is consecrated to the service and to the mission of the Universal Church. This implies a good missionary formation from the time of the seminary and the novitiate.

Since the Holy Spirit is love and its mission in the Church continues, deepens broadens and perfects   the mission of Christ, it has to be a constant concern   of the ALCP to form its members in such a way that all perfume external work   in charity and in our glorified Lord.  The society of ALCP emphasise   in particular   the Easter Pentecost Spirituality. Consequently, it is an Easter- Pentecost Community/Society   in that it is sustained by living in the presence of the Risen Lord and the Holy Spirit who was sent to launch the Church   into the world.

The spirit of the ALCP/OSS Society

The spirit of ALCP/OSS is one of Easter- Pentecost Spirit.

  • It is an Easter – Pentecost Community/Society  sustained, awakened, penetrated by living in the presence of the Risen Lord and the Holy Spirit, believing in the continuous action of the Holy Spirit, carrying on the work of Jesus Christ in the Church and in the world until God will be all in all.
  • Special call and obligation to the Holy Spirit and his work through the dedication basing ourselves on Acts 2:17,  the Pentecost event.
  • Experiencing the prayer event in the Pentecost room.
  • Missionary trust (power)

The Character of the ALCP/OSS Society

  1. It is a Community/Society of priests, a society of Apostolic Life, with a proper canonical autonomy and independence in all matters regarding administration of temporal goods, formation of their member’s governance and specific activities.
  2. Essential characteristics
    • Without separation from the world, continuing the mission and work of Jesus in the World and bringing this work to perfection through the power of the Holy Spirit and the use of the charisms of each member so that God will be all in all (1Cor. 15:28).
    • Dedication, contract and life according to the evangelical counsels (chastity, poverty and obedience).
    • A fraternal community life.
  3. United but distinct with the other Community/Society   of the OSS.
    • United: Having one spirituality, sharing the same document of the spirituality, i.e. General Constitution, “Directorium Spirituale”. Common Foundation of Formation Program and Basic Spiritual Exercise.
    • Distinct: A juridical person (with rights and duties in the Church), a clerical society which assumes the three evangelical counsels and a missionary society.

A society of a diocesan right: it is under the special care of the Bishop of the Principal House of the Society, who can come in, some matters of the Community/Society   according the prescriptions of the law.