NOTA BENE: OBLATION AS A NEW HEART, A NEW SPIRIT, A NEW MISSION

Having enthused about the lofty ideals of the Missionaries and having drawn up the plan of action to achieve them, Eugene now returns to reality. The Nota Bene was written in response to the havoc being caused in the Church by priests who were not living up to the ideals of their vocation, who were blocking the way to God for others through their bad example. So he returns to that painfully negative theme.

We have to penetrate even more deeply – to the very heart of the sanctuary, to sweep away so much refuse collected at its entryway, its interior to the very steps of the altar where the Sacred Victim is sacrificed, 

The ministry of those who have remained faithful, despite persecution, danger of death and derision and indifference, is compared with a fire struggling to stay lit. The Missionaries must help these priests at all costs:

to rekindle the sacred fire of pure love which is nurtured only by a small number of holy ministers who carefully guard the final sparks which will soon become extinguished with their passing, if we do not hasten to step forward to gather round them

By the quality of their lives and their generous oblation, the Missionaries can make a difference – they can be agents of renewal, conversion and new hope. They do this through their ministry of preaching parish missions and in their various permanent missions from their community – but most of all by the quality of their generous oblation. It is a question of “BE” in order to “DO”:

and there, acting in concert with them, to offer to the living God in reparation for so many crimes, the most thorough and total homage and devotion, the sacrifice of one’s entire being to the glory of the Savior and to the service of his Church.

1818 Rule, Part One, Chapter One, §3. Nota Bene

The vocabulary may have changed, the painful situations may have taken other forms, but today that challenge to generosity still resounds in the Missionary Oblate family’s preparation to celebrate the 200th anniversary of its existence:

“Conversion: A new heart, a new spirit, a new mission”

 

“In conversion you are not attached primarily to an order, nor to an institution, nor a movement, nor a set of beliefs, nor a code of action – you are attached primarily to a Person, and secondarily to these other things.”    E. Stanley Jones

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2 Responses to NOTA BENE: OBLATION AS A NEW HEART, A NEW SPIRIT, A NEW MISSION

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:

    This will be short today – mainly because I find myself trying very hard not to weep and am not sure why. In reading it I feel like Eugene is not just talking about the church, but it seems to be pointing to me, to my heart, to who I am inside. I feel like it is takng direct aim at my life and my response is something like “okay – enough already – take it, whatever it is just take it”. It’s not that I am giving up on something but more like I am tired of fighting and holding on to something.

    The “BE” in order to “DO” is hitting hard. I really want that but I keep reverting to trying the “doing in order to be” which of course doesn’t work, but I seem to keep trying it out.

    “Conversion: A new heart, a new spirit, a new mission” and the quote from Jones seems to have touched my soul somehow in a new way and left me feeling open and vulnerable and unsure of where to step next. My only recourse as I go through my day is to run to Him who gives me solace. My gratitude to Eugene today is not quite so exhuberant or hearty – more like a daughter grudgingly saying it to her father.

  2. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:

    As often happens I was tempted to begin the day and this reflection by looking at “others” and how they might be blocking doors to salvation. Of course I would not do that here – on paper, but in my mind, hidden away from all but one – that temptation is always so ready to come to life. It would be so easy to go with that and so deadening. I can only pray that someday God will heal me so that it is not always before me. I had to re-read this though a couple of times and sit with it. So I speak to what touched me each time.

    “By the quality of their lives and their generous oblation, the Missionaries can make a difference – they can be agents of renewal, conversion and new hope. They do this through their ministry of preaching parish missions and in their various permanent missions from their community – but most of all by the quality of their generous oblation. It is a question of “BE” in order to “DO”……… ” As always I know that this is written first and foremost to and for Oblates, but like many others it speaks so much to me. Do I somehow through the quality of my life and my own oblation make a difference? Do I somehow allow the myself to be some kind of a window to God within me, renewing, converting and filling with me with hope? The quality of my life – that most certainly is not in any doing of my part – it comes from the other. When I leave ‘myself’ behind and serve I find myself being filled with life, with joy, with something quite beyond myself that I cannot produce, create or cause. It is only then that I can speak, share and really do much of anything. And as I reflect I realise it is only then that I speak and share without doubt but with a kind of authority and knowing that is not my own.

    So today I start out again, with the doubts and the little temptations and ask God to help me get past them. I stand before him and wait – to simply be. I do that in the ordinary of my day, my work, my socializing, my everyday interaction with others. Perhaps then shall my doing become transformed.

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