2024 Extraordinary International Congress for the Flame of Love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Ireland was blessed to have been able to help send National Coordinator, Kielty Oberlin, to the attend and represent Ireland at the Extraordinary International Congress of the Flame of Love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Movement in Singapore from the 1st to the 7th of March 2024.
Kielty reflected on the Congress saying, “There were so many fruits that have, are and will come from so many countries and people sacrificing and offering their talents to propagate Our Mother’s Flame throughout the world.”
This particular Congress was made up of many ‘firsts’ for the Flame of Love Movement. The Movement’s Congress was held in Asia – Singapore represents the first time an international congress was held in Asia. This demonstrates how far our Mother’s Flame has been spreading. Singapore is a relatively new country to embrace the Flame of Love, yet she has received the endorsement of His Eminence William Cardinal Goh who also presided at the Congress’ opening mass.
Another first was that This Congress had more countries represented than has been seen in previous Flame of Love Congresses. A fruit of this is that the leaders who met in person will be better able to help each other to propagate Our Mother’s Flame in each others’ home country.
Perhaps the most significant of the firsts and a fruit of the Congress was the nomination and election of John Sullivan III as the new International Coordinator and Fr Jorge Reyes as the new International Assistant Coordinator.
John Sullivan III was elected by the 18 Appointed National Coordinators in attendance as the new official International Coordinator. The National Coordinators also nominated and voted for the new Assistant International Coordinator, Fr Jorge Reyes. In Ireland, we are familiar with John because of his instrumental role in helping to organise and launch the Flame of Love of our Mother’s Immaculate Heart in Ireland. However, few of us have had an opportunity to get to know Fr Jorge Ryeys. Fr Jorge has been providing Spiritual guidance for the Flame of Love Movement in the Americas for decades and has held positions as National Coordinator of the USA and most recently as the Continental Coordinator of the Americas. He brings history and continuity to Our Lady’s Movement Internationally at a time when many new countries around the world can benefit from His Love and experience. We are blessed to have both John and Fr Jorge helping to guide our Mother’s Movement. We pray for both John and Fr Jorge as they embark in these new roles.
We would like to thank the Singaporean Movement’s leadership team led by National Coordinator, Adeline Quek, and Secretary, John Seah, for the many sacrifices they endured organising and hosting this important event. We can witness Our Mother’s hand in the organisation as they only had a several months to prepare for this massive event! We thank the many volunteers including – the hospitality teams, the translators, the literature and media coordinators (in particular Malu & Maria from the Philippians and USA), the priests who attended and spiritually guided the discussions. We also thank the many Flame of Love Apostolate Members worldwide who helped send their representatives…
We will be witnessing the fruits of the many prayers and sacrifices that were offered for this Extraordinary Congress to happen. We thank Our Mother and her Son for the gift of the Flame of Love of her Immaculate Heart and pray that we respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit to guide our actions as we embark on our mission to to spread this Love to all.