2 July 1958:
Father Louis-Marie Parent, OMI, founds the
Voluntas Dei Secular
Institute at Trois-Rivieres, Quebec.
A secular institute is a form of life in
which one commits oneself to witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ in one's own milieu.
It
was Pope Pius XII who, in 1947, launched this new form of the consecrated life; to construct a
world of sharing, justice, and solidarity.
Notre-Dame-de-La-Salette in Trois-Rivieres
became the place of residence of a few members who desired to experience this new kind of
consecrated life.
Bishop Henri Routhier, OMI, of Grouard, Alberta, officially recognized the
budding Institute that developed in faith and poverty. To trust in divine providence, to accept the
will of God as it is offered to us in the circumstances of everyday life, to invest much love and
abnegation in one's life... these are a few of the principles which guided the new
Institute.
1959: Plans are already underway to bring the Good News to foreign lands.
The Institute's missionary dimension is already present, and the Institute begins its work in a
number of foreign countries.
The years 1970-1980
are crucial ones and they shed
light on the orientations that members of the Institute desire to take while remaining faithful to
the founder's mind.
We accept to experiment with opening the Institute's doors to
married couples who are interested in living a simple spirituality. The path followed by
these Associate Members helps deepen our own commitment to being peacemakers and
apostles of brotherhood in Jesus Christ in the midst of the world.
12 July 1987. The
Voluntas Dei Institute is recognized as a Secular Institute of Pontifical Right: the Church
recognizes the Institute's charism and officially gives the Institute an important rank in the
upbuilding of the Kingdom.
