Monthly Archives: March 2016

Our reflections will resume on Monday 4 April. A reminder that all the 1447 entries on the writings of Saint Eugene are available for you to consult on the site. In addition, should you wish to research a word or … Continue reading →

Our founding community came together two hundred years ago to do exactly this. Today we express that same vision in slightly different words We are men “set apart for the Gospel” (Rom 1: 1), men ready to leave everything to be … Continue reading →

Two hundred years have passed since Eugene and his first companions expressed their founding vision in writing and in actions. Today that initial vision continues to inspire us and is expressed in a special way in our Rule of Life, … Continue reading →

  Thirty seven years after our foundation, the face of the Oblates had changed. We started as six people in Aix en Provence, and by 1853 we had expanded to Canada, the USA, Ireland and Britain, Ceylon and Natal. The … Continue reading →

In 1816 Eugene sketched a plan of the vision of the new group of missionaries. In 1818 he developed the vision into a practical rule of life. The next step was to present this Rule to the Pope to receive … Continue reading →

The document written on 25 January 1816, that we have been reflecting on in these past weeks (Request to the Capitular Vicars of Aix), is our first Rule of Life, our founding vision. It formed the skeleton onto which the … Continue reading →

Once the missionaries had completed the presentation of their vision statement to the diocesan authorities and elected a superior, they began a ten-day period of prayer and recollection in preparation for their first parish mission, which was to begin in … Continue reading →

Three more prescriptions of a legal nature follow in the first Rule regarding relations with the Bishops, and then the final paragraph states: Vicars General and Gentlemen: Such is a comprehensive outline of the regulations that the undersigned priests present … Continue reading →

In this important document of 25 January 1816 that we have been reflecting on, we see the seeds of all the major areas of growth that Eugene was to nurture till his last day of life, and which still continue … Continue reading →

Michael Dan Doyle, an Associate from Saltspring Island Canada, was inspired to compose this in response to Eugene’s founding vision: O Saint Eugene, you touched the poor, and opened wide the mission door. To gather in through their own voice, … Continue reading →