“All those taking the decision to be part of this project are asked to abide by the following rule: ‘Love your weaker fellow man as you would like to be loved yourself, if possible even more. Love them without favoritism. Love all those who knock at your hearts’. All Oasi voluntary workers know that everyone is someone to love and respect. This idea was my guiding principle and the guiding principle of all those who joined me in working towards the goal of establishing a home for the disabled on the island of Sicily.”

This is the simple, straightforward approach that drove all those who joined Father Ferlauto in the determination to develop the splendid “Sanctuary of Goodness” that the Oasi movement represents today in religious and civil communities alike.

More often than not, Oasi does not hit the headlines. Its work is conducted behind the scenes, “like the leaven … hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened” (Luke 13,21) or like the young lad who gave generously everything he had so that Jesus could feed the crowd that followed him “because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased” (John 6,2).

Their readiness to allow the Spirit to act through them gave rise to the association of the faithful called “Pia Associazione Oasi Maria SS”. All members, both lay and clerical, have committed to following this evangelical message, testifying to the love of God amongst men “whatever the demands of that love be, and to do everything in conscience, willingly and freely.

This is the life commitment of these ‘bearers of love’, “people who have understood that the Oasi is a prophetical project, giving freely of themselves to a commitment in communion with God, confident that their poverty will be rewarded by His wealth, that their limits shall be remedied by His Greatness, that what for them is impossible shall be possible thanks to Him and that their hands shall be His hands” (Father Ferlauto).

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