COOPERATING WITH AND LEARNING FROM THE LAITY IN MINISTRY

I find it very significant for the Mazenodian Family that it was the youth who led us to take two important steps. Right at the beginning of our existence it was the youth ministry of Eugene that led him to buy the old Carmelite convent in Aix so as to have a place sufficiently large to accommodate the youth meetings. They were using the place for their meetings several months before the Missionaries moved in. Then, it was the call of youth ministry that brought the Oblates to establish themselves in Marseille for the first time.

Clearly, the long-term interests of the Missionaries were the important considerations in these cases, but it is noteworthy that the youth became the catalysts for this to happen.

In today’s text Eugene stresses that our ministry in the orphanage was the spiritual accompaniment of the youth. The laity taught catechism, and the laity were the ones running the place:

When I spoke of the direction of the children, I meant to speak only of spiritual accompaniment and of giving those instructions that the Church reserves to her ministers.
Nothing is more edifying than to see good Christian laity teaching children the basics of Christian doctrine. Such good work cannot be too much encouraged and deserves the greatest praise.

Letter to the Directors of the Oeuvre de la Providence, at Marseilles,
|20 April 1821, EO XIII n. 38

Sometimes in ministry today we tend to get the lines blurred as to who is responsible for what in mission. It makes us ask the question: “Am I doing the specific activities that my charism are calling me to do, and am I allowing others do what their particular state in life calls them to do – in a better qualified way than I?”

 

“God does not call those who are equipped, He equips those whom He has called.”    Smith Wigglesworth

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2 Responses to COOPERATING WITH AND LEARNING FROM THE LAITY IN MINISTRY

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:

    Oh wow! You know how it is when something hits you. And isn’t it awesome how God chooses to speak to us through others – specially on things that we have privately fussed and worried about (but that are common to us all).

    “Sometimes in ministry today we tend to get the lines blurred as to who is responsible for what in mission. It makes us ask the question: “Am I doing the specific activities that my charism are calling me to do, and am I allowing others do what their particular state in life calls them to do – in a better qualified way than I?” This certainly speaks to me today of where I am and part of my struggle. Feeling called to let go of some activities and yet called repeatedly to others. I have been allowing the old “it’s all or nothing” kind of thinking to cause me a lot of unnecessary inner turmoil (don’t you just love how we do it to ourselves?). So for sure there are some things to let go of, but maybe not all of it. God is not so much ‘reeling me back in’ but rather gently leading me to where my deepest desires would have me be.

    “God does not call those who are equipped, He equips those whom He has called.” Smith Wigglesworth” How easy it is to sometimes ‘forget’ in all of this busy life. This has been one of my “excuses” in the past, and also one of my fears and wounds – that I am not educated enough or that I will not ‘know or be good enough’. And as many times as I let go of this, I seem also to let it drift back into my thinking and affect how I am. Perhaps today I might do well to focus on some of the gifts that God equips me with, and those that are shared in the love of others.

    Today I feel that this could have been written just for me. I am grateful to be able to see and be reminded that I am not alone, and that we all seem to struggle as well as to soar with joy with the same frailties and strengths. As part of us being all together, connected in the body of Christ, not just in words but in reality. Today is a reminder to trust. A reminder of gratitude for it seems that no matter what there is much to be grateful for.

  2. Anda says:

    I had heard the phrase as “God does not call the qualified, he qualifies the called”.
    When I started my job here, it was a phrase I remembered often. Now I try to find others who can “be” qualified….

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