The blessing of this statue was the opportunity for Eugene to spend the day reflecting with the members of the Youth Congregation on the role of Mary in their lives. In the evening other members of the laity joined the Missionaries and the youth in their celebration. After all that, Eugene was tired and stayed in the church to restfully pray while the others went out to participate in a procession.
The ceremony has just finished, very dear and good brother and the silence in the house is broken only by the sound of a distant bell signaling the departure of the big procession.
Happy with the sincere tributes that we have just rendered to our good Mother, at the feet of the beautiful statue that we have installed in her honor her in our church, I am letting the others take care of honoring her with the external pomp of a parade which would add nothing further to my perhaps over-demanding piety.
Filled with a sense of peace after the powerful spiritual experience, the most natural thing for Eugene was to want to share this with Henri Tempier, who was 200 kilometers away in Laus.
I must use this time to be with you, dear friend, as we communicate what is within us. May I be able to share with you all that I experienced in the way of consolation on this beautiful day devoted to Mary our Queen!
Letter to Henri Tempier, 15 August 1822, EO VI n 86
“The fact that I can plant a seed and it becomes a flower, share a bit of knowledge and it becomes another’s, smile at someone and receive a smile in return, are to me continual spiritual exercises.” Leo Buscaglia
This morning I feel a little of what Eugene wrote of to Henri Tempier. Yesterday I had the joy of spending the day with more of the Associates here in Tabor and after such an incredibly short visit I leave here today a different person from the one who landed in the Czech Republic not quite 5 days ago. My heart has grown somehow and now holds so many more within it. It feels incredibly full right now and perhaps that is why I weep for in opening my heart I have been given much. We have spent the days talking about Eugene and the Oblates and each other, how we as Associates are able to walk with the Oblates and what that means to us. These people travel long distances just to be together and are a light for others to see.
I leave here forever changed. I have so much to share and yet I feel that you already know what I would say. I will sit with all of it here in my prayer today and thank God for the gift of love that has been given to me in all of these people. They become now a part of me.
Eugene with his heart as big as the world – no I am not there but I see and can understand it. I leave here forever changed because of it. I ask God to hold me close today as I leave here and these people that I feel I have known all of my life. I am beginning to understand.