Ad Honorem Immaculatae Conceptionis Mariae Oblatio

189 English, and who, on September 8, 2016, exactly a year after my arrival in Saigon, took up residence together with me in a rented house, thus giving rise to the Marian Formation House in Vietnam. Currently, this house has nine candidates and three seminarians in first vows. Out of the first four candidates who had entered the path of discerning a Marian vocation, only one, Nguy ễ n Văn Ha, persevered until the novitiate. In the meantime, oth- er people came, some of whom left after a shorter or longer time, while others remained. In addition to Hà, two other postulants: Nguy ễ n Văn Biên and Nguy ễ m Ti ế n Dũng entered our first novitiate, established in the second house purchased by the Congregation. They, too, made their first religious vows on August 15, 2020, and began their studies of philosophy and theology at local religious institutes, which prepare candidates for the priesthood according to the norms generally accepted in the Church. As to the Marian character of our Congregation, it is nothing exception- al in the context of the Church in Vietnam, especially if understood only in a devotional dimension. Devotion to the Mother of God is very popular here and it is already established on the basis of the Marian apparitions in La Vang in 1798. Since the Church in Vietnam owes its origin and de- velopment mainly to the efforts of French missionaries, devotion to Mary Immaculate is also related to the Miraculous Medal of Catherine Labouré and the apparitions at Lourdes, and it has taken deep root in the hearts of Vietnamese Catholics. It finds its expression in beautiful Marian songs of deep theological content. It seems, however, that our Congregation has an important role to play here, in Vietnam, in the service of the Mystery of the Immaculate Concep- tion of the Mother of God, not perhaps on the worship level or even that of theological reflection, but more in the existential dimension, through a total dedication to Christ and the Church. This is the character of Father Stanislaus Papczyński, who showed us the way of spreading devotion to the Immaculate Conception of Mary through the Oblatio of December 11, 1670. What was later expressed in the renewed Congregation in the motto “Pro Christo et Ecclesia,” is already present at its beginnings in the act of offering oneself to God, made by Father Papczyński, as well as in his per- son, because the Oblatio is the proof of Father Founder’s identity and that of his entire life. The mystery of Mary’s Immaculate Conception is, in fact, the total gift of oneself given to Mary by God the Father and Creator in the Holy Spirit for the sake of Christ and the Church. It is also the response of the Handmaid of the Lord to this Gift by giving herself completely to