Life
Nom : Henri-Louis Parent
Name of First Profession : Louis-Marie Parent
Date and Place of Birth : July, 12 1910, inte the Québec City Region (Canada)
Entry in religious life: 1931
Religious Community: Oblates of Mary Immaculate
First profession: 21 juillet 1932
Ordination: May 12, 1937 in the Mont Laurier, Québec Diocese
Death: May 17, 2009 at Richelieu (Quebec, Canada)
Ministry
Missionary in northern Alberta (Canada) – 1938
Missionary-colonist at Rivière-de-la-Paix (Alberta) – 1945
Principal Ministry from the beginning
• parish missions
• to religious communities
• retreat work
Fundations
A contemplative religious
congregation for women
Founded in 1943
For lay women
Founded July 2, 1952
L’Institut Voluntas Dei
A secular institute for Clerics, single
laymen, married couples and
persons spiritually affiliated
Founded July 2, 1958
Writings
For 20 years, publication (in French) of Collection Volontaire de Dieu, a monthly brochure.
Author distinguished for his concrete and practical writings in a simple, direct and picgturesque style. He published several volumes on spirituality and human relations:
Sur les pas de Jésus (in the footsteps of jesus)
Le moment présent (The present moment)
En intimité avec Jésus (intimacy with jesus)
C’est possible de s’entendre avec les autres (it is possible to get along with others)
Je t’accueilles
Tu es à moi
The man
- An amazing capacity for listening; he was inhabited with presence.
- A man of the positive, he finds and highlights the good that he finds in the person he sees.
He is a master in the art of welcoming those who seek the help of his ministry. He has a surprising capacity for listening.
- An amazing sense of availability to others.
- His prayer life is composed of long hours devoted to mental prayer and spiritual reading, early in the morning.
- His zeal for the salvation of souls is seen in his preaching, his ministry of confession, and his spiritual direction.
- His is a missionary’s heart.
- His marian heart is an expression of a filial, real, and faithful love for the Virgin Mary.
- His humility is real, practical, and simple.
- Inhabited with an invincible hope, he never surrenders to defeatism or sadness.
- A man of peace, he continually searches for what is creative of unity and fraternity within persons and groups.
- His being is rooted in a deep and mature faith.