After our break for Easter, I happily continue sharing the daily reflections on the writings of St Eugene. In the last weeks we have been exploring the invitation he extends to join him in living his ideal:
What more sublime purpose than that of their Institute!
Their founder is Jesus Christ, the very Son of God;
their first fathers are the Apostles.
They are called to be the Saviour’s co-workers, the co-redeemers of mankind
1818 Rule, Part One, Chapter One. The ends of the Institute,
§3. Nota Bene. Missions, 78 (1951) p. 15
The Rule of 1818 was Eugene’s response to the question, “How must one live in order to become this ideal?”
So far in our exploration of this Rule of Life of 1818, we have seen the first chapter, which defined the Missionaries and their principal goals. In first place, evangelizing the most abandoned with their many faces. Then to fill the spiritual void left by the destruction of the religious orders, and to help the clergy to be faithful stewards of God for the most abandoned. It was in the section on the reform of the clergy that Eugene wrote his well-known Nota Bene – the original version of the Preface.
The Rule continues by expanding these points by giving practical details. The second chapter is dedicated to the preaching of parish missions.
The third chapter is entitled, “other ministries.” We have seen the first two parts of this: the ministry of preaching and the ministry of confession. Tomorrow we will continue with the third ministry: the youth.
“Ideals are like the stars: we never reach them, but like the mariners of the sea, we chart our course by them.” Carl Schurz
It’s good to have you back. On first reading this I found no “warm and fuzzies” at all. I told myself that I was not involved with the Youth so that’s that! And yet – I decided maybe to go over it again. Maybe tomorrow. But the quote – thats another story. Again St. Eugene’s quote come’s to me: “We must lead the people to act like human beings, first of all, and then like Christians, and, finally, we must help them to become saints.”
We/I seem to be in a time of seeking the ideal, trying to live in such a way as to become a saint. It is in our trying to live out who we wish to become, live out that working towards our ideals, charting the course – that we do become what we strive to be.
It’s not magic at all, I believe at some point that grace is involved and God gifts us what we are aiming for, that which we yearn for and dream of. I think that it starts with God and those yearnings and dreams and ideals come from Him. To follow and live them takes practice and perseverence, however they do happen and do become lived realities, perhaps not as we expected them to be, or as we thought they would appear; for the reality of that love is much more than any of us could imagine or plan for. So yes those ideals – they do become the charts of our lives, however I believe that they do also become not just a dreamed of possibility but a lived reality.